In this first episode, I’m introducing Beyond Survival – The Therapy Podcast and sharing more about who this space is for and what you can expect from future episodes.

I’ll tell you a little bit about myself, my work as a psychotherapist, and the common patterns I’ve seen in people who grew up in emotionally immature, narcissistic parents & dysfunctional families — many of whom don’t realise how deeply their childhood still affects their adult relationships, nervous systems, and sense of self.

This podcast is a space for compassion, learning, and real conversations. We’ll explore family dysfunction, trauma recovery, relationships, nervous system healing, and how to move from just surviving to truly living. You’ll hear from guests, experts, and people who’ve walked the path themselves — and sometimes, just me, sharing insights from my work and lived experience.

If you’ve ever felt like something was “off” in your life but couldn’t quite explain why — this is for you.

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

In this powerful episode I’m joined by Ann Larkin, CEO from Women's Aid Dundalk, to explore the insidious nature of coercive control in romantic relationships. 

We discuss how coercive control can look in everyday life, the emotional and psychological tactics abusers use to maintain power, and why it’s so often misunderstood or overlooked. Whether you're looking to understand your own experience more deeply or support someone you care about, this episode offers clarity, compassion, and crucial insights.

While abuse can exist in any dynamic—friendships, families, workplaces—this conversation focuses on male-perpetrated abuse against women, based on the real-life experiences of those seeking support from Women’s Aid.

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

Control is everywhere, often disguised as protection, tradition or morality! 

This is part 2 with Adele Martelle, where we're unpacking the subtle and not-so-subtle way control operates with society and religion. From rigid belief systems to social expectations that suppress individuality, we explore how control can disconnect us from our inner knowing, limit personal freedom and keep entire communities in cycles of fear, shame, and silence. If you've ever felt the need to "stay in line", this ones for you.

Adele is a somatic oriented psychotherapist, certified trauma professional, public speaker, and spiritual integrationist. She is the owner of SOMA therapy and Wellness. A psychotherapy group practice that focuses on the neurobiological healing of trauma and relationships through experiential therapy. She is the creator and director of SOMA's community wellness program that makes experiential healing accessible to everyone through equity based workshops.

https://www.somatherapyandwellness.com/

https://adelemartelle.com/

@somatherpayandwellness

@adelemartellit

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

How do we lose touch with who we really are?

This week I am delighted to be joined by Adele Martelle, who specialises in treating complex CPTSD and Religious Trauma. In part one, we dive into how early attachment dynamics can lead us to disconnect from our needs, our instincts and our inner knowing. We'll explore how survival often meant adapting, people-pleasing, or self-abandoning, and what it actually take to rebuild trust within ourselves.

This is a conversation about coming home to your body, your boundaries, and ways to rebuild trust, that was often eroded or annihilated in childhood.  

Adele is a somatic oriented psychotherapist, certified trauma professional, public speaker, and spiritual integrationist. She is the owner of SOMA therapy and Wellness. A psychotherapy group practice that focuses on the neurobiological healing of trauma and relationships through experiential therapy. She is the creator and director of SOMA's community wellness program that makes experiential healing accessible to everyone through equity based workshops.

 https://www.somatherapyandwellness.com

https://adelemartelle.com/

@somatherapyandwellness

@adelemartellit

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

In this solo episode, I'm exploring the invisible wounds that form in childhood when you're raised in dysfunctional or narcissistic family systems — ranging from hyper-dependence to hyper-independence — and how these patterns follow us into adulthood. 

I’ll also talk about the roots of these behaviours, including parentification and unhealthy parental dynamics, and offer ways to begin challenging these conditioned responses without becoming overwhelmed. 

Tune in to recognise if you’re still in survival mode, or to reflect on how far you’ve already come.

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

If you grew up in a narcissistic or emotionally chaotic household, chances are you were taught to feel for others, but not for yourself. 

In this episode, we’re unpacking what empathy actually is, why it often gets distorted in dysfunctional families, and how to reclaim it as something healthy, mutual, and safe.

We explore the three different types of empathy, how it becomes weaponised or used against you in toxic dynamics, and why so many survivors struggle with people-pleasing, guilt, and emotional burnout. This isn’t about turning off your empathy, it’s about practising discernment in who you give your empathy to, and learning to turn it back toward yourself.

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

Exploring the Fear beneath Perfectionism and High Achievement

In this deep dive, Podcast Host & Mindset Coach Claire Fealy joins me to unpack the fear that hides beneath high achievement and perfectionism, and how we can begin to heal what's really driving it. 

We identify the inner critc and discuss the hidden beliefs driving our anxiety, how fear often masks deeper emotional wounds, and what it really takes to move past survival mode and step into a more intentional life, especially for those of us who grew up in dysfunctional or emotionally unsafe environments. 

Find Claire on Instagram

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

The Cult of Family explores the reality of growing up in a narcissistic system that demands silence, obedience, and self-erasure.

In this episode, I sit down with Daniella, a scholar of cults, extreme groups and extremely bad leadership, who also brings her own lived experience of being raised in a cult. Together, we unpack the unsettling parallels between cults and narcissistic families; the control, the domination, the rigid rules, how perception is distorted, and how identity is supressed in the name of loyalty and “love.”

But this conversation goes deeper than the system, it asks; What happens after you leave?

We discuss the lasting psychological impact, how these environments stunt development and self-trust, and what it really takes to heal. We explore the blocks that so often emerge in recovery, shame, confusion, disconnection, and how to start rebuilding a self that was never allowed to fully form.

This conversation is for anyone who’s broken free, or is beginning to, and is asking: What now?

Click here to follow Daniella on TikTok

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BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

When you grow up in a dysfunctional family system, you are conditioned to silence your needs to keep the peace, avoid conflict, or gain approval. Over time, it can feel impossible to even recognise what you truly want or need. In this solo episode, I discuss how that conditioning takes root, how to start recognising the needs you’ve been taught to ignore, and how to meet them in ways that feel safe, nourishing, and free from guilt or shame.

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

In this solo episode, I explore the relentless whispers of the inner critic - that constant, internal voice that undermines, judges, and shames. I delve into where it comes from, how it develops (especially in childhood), and what function it might have served. Most importantly, I share practical ways to challenge, quiet, and reduce its power so you can start relating to yourself with more compassion and clarity.

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

This week I’m joined by Maggie Nick, a recovering burned-out overachiever, people-pleaser, perfectionist, pushover, and shape-shifting chameleon, what she calls a Recovering Good Kid. 

Now a trauma therapist, parenting expert, and cycle-breaking mother, Maggie knows firsthand what it’s like to grow up as “the one nobody ever needed to worry about.” For years, she thought her perfectionism and people-pleasing were simply part of her personality, until therapy at 25 revealed they were actually lifelong relational trauma responses.

In this episode, we dive into what relationships look like after trauma, the challenges and breakthroughs of parenting after trauma, and how to begin breaking free from old survival patterns to build something new.

Maggie Nick, LCSW, MSW

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Learn more about Maggie's Camp Loveable and her other offerings here.

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

In series 2 of Beyond Survival – The Therapy Podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Ruth Callaghan where we explore two powerful listener questions.

First, how can you be a better parent when you’ve grown up as a “fawn type” people-pleaser, and why do your underlying motivations matter so much? 

Then, we dive into the challenge of managing intrusive, compulsive thoughts - the constant urge to help, fix, or rescue others. We’ll unpack what’s really driving these patterns, and share insights on how to respond with more clarity, balance, and self-compassion.

If you want us to answer your question on the Podcast email;  beyond_survival@outlook.com

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https://www.callaghancounselling.ie/

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

Toxic guilt is that heavy, misplaced guilt that convinces us we’ve done something wrong, even when we haven’t. It’s one of the hardest legacies of childhood trauma, and it can follow us into adulthood, shaping how we see ourselves and our relationships.

In this episode of Beyond Survival, I read a letter from a listener who grew up in a large Irish family that looked perfect from the outside but was full of harmful behaviour and manipulation behind closed doors. Now, years later, the hardest thing to shake isn’t her mother's death, it’s the toxic guilt that still whispers she did something wrong.

Dr. Ruth Callaghan and I explore why guilt sticks so stubbornly for survivors of dysfunctional families, and what it takes to begin letting go of a weight that was never really ours to carry.

If you want us to answer your question on the Podcast email;  beyond_survival@outlook.com

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https://www.callaghancounselling.ie/

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

How do we learn to parent, or even reparent ourselves, if we never had a model of healthy parenting?

 In this week’s episode, we explore three powerful themes: our responsibility as parents, how to navigate our own triggers, and whether it’s really possible to “overlove” a child and risk raising a narcissist. 

We also share some of our own fears and struggles, and offer practical, tangible advice on how to navigate these challenges with more confidence and compassion.

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www.callaghancounselling.ie

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

This week’s listener has worked hard to build a life where she feels confident, loved, and free to be herself. But when she begins to hold her boundaries, her mother shows her true colours and the cracks in the family dynamic become impossible to ignore. 

Her enabling father seems to make attempts at connection, but the question remains: How do you confront parents about the pain they’ve caused, without losing yourself in the process?

If you would like us to answer your question email beyond_survival@outlook.com

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Dr. Ruth Callaghan's Website

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast

These weeks listener asks these 3 questions

• Is it unrealistic to expect her to change?
• How do I get her voice out of my head that I’m in the wrong? 
• Have others found a way to be in a relationship with a mother with narcissistic tendencies

Listen as Ruth & Katie unpack these questions and what they really mean for your healing, your boundaries, and your sense of self.

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www.callaghancounselling.ie

BEYOND SURVIVAL - The Therapy Podcast