Mastering Change | The trauma, mental health & wellbeing podcast

So much of what happens in healthcare is shaped by trauma – yet most clinicians are never taught what trauma is or how to recognise it in themselves or their patients. 
This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Susanna Petche, a GP with 25 years’ experience, who shares how her own misdiagnosed depression eventually revealed an underlying trauma response. That realisation changed her life – and her medical practice. 
Susanna reflects on the reality that trauma is everywhere in the healthcare system: in people’s symptoms, in their behaviour and in the overwhelm that brings them to a GP or hospital. However, doctors receive no formal education about trauma, no supervision and little support in navigating the emotional impact of their work. 
She shows how much difference simple, trauma-aware tools can make – from acknowledging how frightening a hospital environment can be, to helping patients regulate their nervous systems in moments of stress. Small shifts like this, she argues, can meaningfully improve care long before large-scale system change becomes possible. 
We discuss  
Why trauma underpins so many physical and mental health presentations 
How the lack of trauma training leaves clinicians without essential tools 
Why simple, everyday interventions can improve patient safety and connection 
What genuine practitioner wellbeing requires - beyond slogans about resilience 
How AI could support care if implemented with sensitivity 
Why even one hour of trauma education could transform healthcare 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and potential 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
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What makes someone feel so bonded to a group that they’d sacrifice almost anything for it – and how does that same force help us heal? 
In this episode of Mastering Change, cognitive anthropologist Dr. Martha Newson unpacks ‘identity fusion’ – an extreme form of social bonding where self and group identities merge, creating family-like ties and powerful loyalty.  
Drawing on years of research with football fans, prisoners and festival communities, Martha explores how ritual, shared challenge and moments of perceived transformation strengthen these bonds. She explains why people can feel trapped in damaging groups – families, institutions, even cult-like communities – because losing that belonging can feel physiologically unsafe, not just emotionally painful.  
Martha also advocates for collective healing spaces – from 12-step groups to choirs and walking clubs – explaining that they are essential companions to individual therapy. 
We explore: 
What identity fusion is – and how it shows up in everyday life 
How shared rituals, sport and festivals create deep feelings of “we-ness” 
Why leaving harmful groups can feel more dangerous than staying 
How trauma, when held in community, can shift from stagnation to transformation 
The role of collective spaces (12-step rooms, choirs, sports, retreats) in trauma healing 
How internalised community, ancestors, nature and a sense of “higher self” can sustain people who spend time alone 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and potential 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.

Therapists, clinicians and helpers often tell themselves they’re “fine” – even as the work wears down their nervous system. 
In this conversation, palliative care doctor Dr. Rosie Weir offers a compassionate guide to trauma stewardship: the practice of staying present to other people’s pain without losing yourself in it. 
Drawing from her years on the frontline of end-of-life care, Rosie explains how practitioners can unconsciously carry the emotional burden of others long after a session ends. 
‘If you're a painter and you're painting all day, you come home covered in paint. And that's what it's like doing this kind of work – you come home covered in other people’s emotional material.’ 
Rosie shares the practices that help her stay grounded and slow down, while challenging the belief that self-care must always be ‘active’ or fast paced to be effective. 
We discuss 
The emotional residue practitioners carry and how to recognise it 
Why slowing down is often more regulating than speeding up 
Building a relationship with yourself as a foundation for resilience 
How hobbies and joy act as protective factors 
Why healing work must include the wellbeing of those who deliver it 
A reflective, grounding episode for anyone doing work that asks you to hold other people’s pain. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and potential 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.

For people who have spent years in survival mode, joy can feel uncomfortable.  
Here, Melita Stancil explains why (as well as how we can experience joy more readily). She is the creator of Anthelum, a framework designed to help people move out of survival mode by looking at families, schools, workplaces and communities as interconnected parts of healing. 
A central theme in her work is joy. She shares how hypervigilance and stress can make exposure to joy difficult, and why practicing joy becomes essential for long-term wellbeing. She explains that many people, especially those with trauma histories, spend more time scanning for what’s wrong – not because they’re pessimistic, but because their brain is still trying to keep them safe. 
She also describes why healing must include families and systems, not just individuals. Joy, she argues, grows through connection – and the environments around us play a crucial role in whether recovery is sustained. 
We explore 
The Anthelum framework and how systems shape healing 
How hypervigilance restricts access to joy 
Why joy is a skill we must practice and protect 
The role of connection in helping people thrive 
Why healing happens in systems, not silos 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and potential 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.

Have you ever noticed how some stress seems to not just dictate your mood, but your whole sense of presence? That’s because, according to craniosacral therapist Lulu Ferrand, we’re operating on a spectrum of vibrational frequency. 
On this week’s episode, Lulu speaks to us about how what we engage with, moment to moment, can raise or lower our sense of freedom, safety and connection. 
She explains how she understands craniosacral therapy (CST) as working not only with the nervous system but also with the body’s subtle energetic field – helping people access states where old emotional and physical patterns can release. She emphasises that CST isn’t about ignoring or dismissing the difficult, lower-frequency experiences people may be living with; rather, it helps clients recognise that the more time they spend in lighter, more regulated states, the more they can be gently ‘pulled up and out’. 
She also shares how even the smallest moments of beauty or presence – like ‘noticing that a particular flower is looking beautiful’ – can create meaningful shifts in the system. 
We discuss 
How engaging with ‘higher’ or ‘lighter’ experiences can support emotional and energetic regulation 
Why highly sensitive people and empaths may feel drained or overwhelmed by others 
How CST supports the body’s natural capacity to let go of held patterns 
How sensitivity can show up early in life – and why attuned support makes a difference 
Practical ways to ground and protect your own energy 
How small, everyday moments can shift how we feel in profound ways 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive episodes related to trauma, mental health and potential 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.