Mastering Change | The trauma, mental health & wellbeing podcast

When trauma takes you out of your body, rebuilding safety and connection can take years. 
In this episode of Mastering Change, Karen Whelan shares her lived experience of sexual abuse and the long, gradual journey of healing that followed. She speaks openly about self-hate, disconnection and the profound loss of safety in her own body – and how therapy, spirituality and embodied practice helped her slowly rebuild trust in herself. 
Karen reflects on a powerful moment of forgiveness that left her feeling “no longer a hostage to my own trauma story.” She is clear that forgiveness was not a shortcut or solution, but part of a much wider process of reclaiming her life. 
Now a psychotherapist and spiritual practitioner, Karen guides others through a 21-day awe-based self-love practice. She describes awe as “the bridge between the human knowing and the divine encountering” – and explains how cultivating awe and gratitude can help people reconnect with their bodies and sense of the sacred. 
We explore: 
Rebuilding safety after sexual trauma 
The relationship between spirituality and embodied healing 
Self-love as an ongoing practice 
The role of awe in shifting self-perception 
How reconnecting to the body supports recovery 
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
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Many of us weren’t optimally seen, held or supported as children – and the adaptations we made to survive can quietly shape how we relate, connect and protect ourselves as adults. 
This week on Mastering Change, Maya Vaughan, Director of the Trauma Training Institute (TTI), explains the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM) – a non-pathologising, relational approach to healing developmental trauma. 
Rather than focusing on diagnosis or “what’s wrong,” Maya describes NARM as “profoundly relational and non pathologizing” and “very kind of present process.” 
In a NARM session, the starting point is deceptively simple: 
“What is it you most want for yourself?” 
From there, the work follows what she calls a red thread – exploring what gets in the way of that longing by tracking what’s happening in the present moment. 
“As they see what they do to themselves, so much agency comes online.” 
If you work with developmental/relational trauma – or recognise its patterns in yourself – this conversation offers a grounded, practical lens on restoring safety, connection and self-regulation. 
We explore 
What makes NARM different from traditional trauma models 
Why starting with “what do you most want?” changes everything 
How fear of attachment loss drives survival adaptations 
Why NARM doesn’t label or pathologise 
How agency returns through present-moment awareness 
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.  
Dr. Laurence Heller, founder of NARM, releases his new book Healing Shame and Guilt on 12 May. Learn more: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/804584/healing-shame-and-guilt-by-laurence-heller-phd-and-stephan-k-niederweiser/
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.

Many of the behaviours we label as “dysfunctional” may actually be attempts to survive.
In this episode of Mastering Change, we’re joined by Mike Niconchuk, whose work is shaped by personal and intergenerational trauma linked to his family’s experience during the Guatemalan civil war, as well as years of humanitarian work in active conflict zones.
Mike did not enter this field through clinical training. Instead, his questions emerged through lived experience and direct exposure to overwhelming pain, where he became deeply interested in how trauma shapes the body, the brain, and our relationships with others.
At the heart of this conversation is a simple but challenging idea:
“The primary goal of the brain is to help us stay alive.”
From this perspective, the brain is not organised around happiness or wellbeing. Behaviours that can appear confusing, harmful or self-defeating often begin to make sense when understood as short-term strategies for safety. Mike explores how trauma interacts with ordinary cognitive and neural processes, including empathy, and how the legacies of war can continue to live on socially and politically long after violence ends.
This episode offers a reframing of trauma that extends beyond the individual, particularly in contexts where there is no clear “after” and no guaranteed space for reflection or healing.
We explore:
Trauma as an embodied, social and political experience
Survival rather than wellbeing as the brain’s organising principle
How trauma can shape empathy and social behaviour
Shame as a powerful and often overlooked factor in PTSD and trauma
What trauma looks like when there is no “post”
Why reflection and healing are not universal privileges
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.
See Mike Niconchuk 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.

For people living with trauma or chronic stress, the brain can feel like it’s working against them.
In this episode of Mastering Change, Dr Kate Truitt introduces brain partnership – a trauma-informed approach that reframes the brain as a protector rather than a problem. She explains how fast threat pathways in the amygdala and hippocampus form to keep us safe, and why those same pathways can later drive hypervigilance, dissociation or shutdown.
Kate explores how chronic stress reduces access to the thinking brain, reinforces survival responses, and fuels shame when symptoms don’t resolve. Rather than forcing change, she describes how compassionate inquiry and body-based regulation help bring systems back into the present – creating the conditions for neuroplastic change.
This episode offers a practical and deeply human lens on trauma, anxiety and nervous system dysregulation, especially for those who feel stuck despite insight or effort. 
We discuss
Brain partnership as an alternative to “fixing” the brain
How threat pathways develop and persist
Why judgment increases dysregulation
The role of the body in calming fear responses
Supporting safety as a foundation for change
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.
See Kate Truitt at Transform Trauma Oxford 2026 – Get your Super 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.

For many people, healing can feel stuck. Symptoms persist, patterns repeat and change itself can begin to feel unsafe. 
In this episode of Mastering Change, Raoul Goldberg, founder of the PATH Method, explores why what we often describe as “chronic” may not be purely medical – but psychosocial and spiritual in nature. He shares how his work helps people reconnect with a sense of wholeness by strengthening the parts of themselves that are capable of change. 
Raoul walks through the core elements of the PATH Method: forming a clear wish, connecting with a felt sense of one’s “best self,” embodying that state and learning to step outside habitual perspectives. Practised over time, this process helps people build enough internal strength to face trauma rather than remain trapped by it. 
Rather than creating something new, Raoul describes PATH as helping people reconnect with something that already exists within them – a capacity for agency, empowerment and growth. 
We explore 
Why long-term symptoms may reflect blocked psychosocial change 
How the PATH Method helps people feel safe enough to change 
The role of embodiment and perspective in breaking old patterns 
Why trauma work requires strength, not just insight 
How reconnecting with wholeness supports healing 
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. 
See Raoul Goldberg at Transform Trauma Oxford 2026 – Get your Super 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.