Mastering Change | The trauma, mental health & wellbeing podcast

In times of increasing isolation, how we listen matters. 

This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Paul Browde – psychiatrist, storyteller and couples guide – whose work explores how listening shapes what can be said, and how the stories people tell shape how they live. 

Paul reflects on the changes he has seen since the pandemic. More fear. More loneliness. A growing difficulty for many people to engage in ordinary human conversation. In this context, listening becomes more than a skill. It becomes the foundation for connection. 

He also challenges how couples often arrive in therapy. When a relationship is framed as a problem, both people become stuck inside that story. When it is approached as something to face together, new possibilities begin to open. 

In this episode: 
Why listening and telling are inseparable 
What has shifted in how people relate since Covid 
Listening as a full-body experience, not just words 
How secrecy can limit what becomes possible in therapy 
Why relationships may be better understood as something to face, not fix 
The role of the therapist in holding possibility alongside pain 
A thoughtful conversation on connection, therapy and the stories we live inside.

Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive topics related to trauma, mental health and distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take a moment to check in with yourself and seek support.

Show Notes:

–  Free Live Event (June 2nd) – Paul Browde's upcoming course with the Academy of Therapy Wisdom: On June 2nd 2026 free 90-minute introductory session: The Heart of Elderhood: How to Age Consciously and Help Others Do The Same:

– Esther Perel's Sessions Live: Paul will be participating in this event.  

Use code Browde100 for $100 off the in-person event registration or code Browde50 for $50 off a virtual ticket. 

– Four Directions of a Queer Man - Men’s Retreat: This retreat in California still has spots available: 

– Transform Trauma Oxford 2026: 
 Paul Browde will be speaking at Transform Trauma Oxford 2026 alongside Gabor Maté, Bessel van der Kolk, Dan Siegel, Ruth Lanius, Janina Fisher and many more.

– Website: www.paulbrowde.com 
– Instagram: @pbrowde 
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/masteringchangepodcast
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

Trauma therapy often begins with the past – but what if that’s the problem? 
This week on Mastering Change, psychologist Carla Shohet challenges the way trauma is commonly approached – arguing that many therapeutic models move too quickly into processing, without first building the capacity to hold what emerges. 
Carla’s work centres on nervous system regulation as the foundation for healing. Because without that foundation, trauma work can become overwhelming, ineffective – and in some cases, re-traumatising.  
Drawing on her own experience of nervous system shutdown, Carla developed the NTN model – Now, Then, Next – a cyclical framework that prioritises building capacity in the present before revisiting the past or moving towards change. 
We discuss: 
Why nervous system capacity must come first  
How trauma work can reinforce patterns if done too early  
The risks of relying on talk therapy alone  
What it means to move from surviving to thriving  
Why healing is not linear, but cyclical  
This conversation offers a reframe of trauma recovery – one that begins not with the story, but with the state of the nervous system. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take a moment to check in with yourself and seek support. 
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/masteringchangepodcast
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

Healing trauma is not only about understanding the story. 
This week on Mastering Change, we speak with BG Mancini, a neurodevelopmental specialist working across integrative medicine, primary care and brain-based healing. BG’s work sits at the meeting point of research and daily life – translating what we know about the nervous system, sensory input and the gut-brain axis into practical ways of supporting healing.  
Her central argument is simple but significant: therapeutic work lands differently when the body is less inflamed, less overstimulated and less defensive. In other words, healing is not only psychological. It is also biological.  
She explores how everyday sensory inputs – light, noise, screens, food and other environmental stressors – can quietly shape our nervous system state, often without our awareness. And she makes the case that creating more cues of safety in the body can make people more available for therapeutic change.  
We discuss: 
Why the nervous system is the gateway to healing 
How sensory input can become a hidden source of stress 
The relationship between the gut, the brain and the vagus nerve 
Why trauma healing must address both story and biology 
How therapists and integrative practitioners can work more closely together 
This conversation offers a grounded, whole person lens on trauma – and a reminder that helping someone heal may begin with making their body feel safer to live in. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take a moment to check in with yourself and seek support. 
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/masteringchangepodcast
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

We’re living through a loneliness epidemic – and it’s not for lack of connection. 
On this episode of Mastering Change, Francesca Tighinean explores why, despite being more digitally connected than ever, so many people feel increasingly isolated and unsure how to build real relationships. 
She points to a deeper shift. 
With constant exposure to social media, global events and information, many people – particularly younger generations – no longer feel safe enough to take the risks that connection requires. Instead, self-protection takes over. 
Increasingly, people are avoiding discomfort altogether – cutting others off rather than working through conflict. Francesca challenges this directly, discussing what it actually takes to build connection today – and why it’s often less comfortable than we’d like. 
She also touches on a quieter, underlying issue: purpose. 
We explore 
Why connection feels harder in the modern world  
The shift towards avoidance in relationships  
Why nuance matters more than ever  
What community really requires  
A quieter, underlying issue: purpose. 
This episode is a timely reflection on how we relate and what it might take to reconnect. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take a moment to check in with yourself and seek support. 
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/masteringchangepodcast
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

Flow state is a rapidly growing topic in media – trending across social platforms, as well as in professional, self-development and wellbeing spaces. 
This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Josh Dickson, psychotherapist and founder of Resurface, who is exploring how flow can be used to support therapeutic change. 
‘Flow is an optimal state of consciousness where you feel and perform at your best.’  
Josh explains that activities like surfing are not the intervention itself, but a way of creating the conditions for it. Because when those conditions are right, something shifts – attention sharpens, distractions fall away, and people become more open to the work that follows. 
We discuss: 
What flow actually is – beyond the trend  
The conditions required to access it  
Why modern life disrupts our ability to focus  
How flow can prepare the brain for therapeutic work  
The risks of chasing the state itself  
This conversation offers a different lens on flow – not as a productivity tool, but as a state that may help create the conditions for meaningful change. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take a moment to check in with yourself and seek support. 
See Josh Dickson at Transform Trauma Oxford 2026 – Get your Early Bird Tickets here. 
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/masteringchangepodcast
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.