In this opening episode of This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast, Dr Emma Offord sits down with author, illustrator and PDA/autism advocate Eliza Fricker,  the creator of Missing the Mark and Sunday Times bestseller Can’t Not Won’t, to talk about what happens when life “goes nuclear” and the mask finally slips.

Eliza shares the story of her daughter’s breakdown from school, the loneliness of being disbelieved as a mother, and how drawing rooftops from a high-up flat became her way to keep going when everything else fell apart.

Emma and Eliza name what so many families live through but rarely have language for: school trauma and neurodivergent-specific trauma, and the thousands of small, accumulating hurts that never show up in a single incident report.

Together they explore:

• How Eliza’s blog Missing the Mark began as catharsis and became a lifeline for parents and professionals
• Masking, fawning and the shame of being “too much” or “too rude” when you finally speak up
• The sensory assault of institutions, strip lights, lanyards and plastic chairs, and why “school is safe” is a dangerous myth for many
• Middle age, motherhood and what it means to “grow full size” as a late-identified neurodivergent woman
• Building genuinely safe spaces where parents can say the real, messy things out loud

If you’ve ever come out of a school meeting smiling on the outside and shattered on the inside, felt like you must be the problem, or worried you’re “making a fuss”, this conversation is for you. You are not alone, and your unquiet voice matters more than you think.

Follow Eliza on her Instagram account here, and her website here.

In this intimate, reflective episode of This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast, Dr Emma Offord and the DL team are joined by Helen Marie, a UK-based registered integrative therapist, author of Choose You, and host of the podcast I Don’t Think We Talk Enough About.

Together, Emma and Helen, along with Jolene and Jo, explore what it really means to grow full size: not as a performance of confidence, but as a nervous-system-led journey of becoming. Helen shares her path from a first career in public health into psychotherapy, and the lived experiences that changed everything, including what happens when you’re pulled into the “helper” role and your own story disappears into survival mode.

This conversation goes deep into the “good girl” conditioning, people pleasing, and the myth of self sufficiency. Emma reflects on the hidden pressure to appear “together” as professionals, and why authenticity is not arriving at a perfect destination, but learning to meet yourself with truth, in real time.

You’ll also hear rich insights on somatic work, safety, and voice: why it’s not enough for an environment to be safe if your internal environment still believes vulnerability is dangerous, and how embodiment becomes the bridge between knowing your story and actually feeling it.

A grounded, soul-level dialogue about permission, growth, and the quiet courage it takes to be seen.

Follow Helen Marie and her work on her Instagram account here.

Parenting a neurodivergent child in a system that was never designed for their brain is hard. Parenting that child while you are still healing your own school trauma is something else entirely.

In this episode of This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast, Dr Emma Offord is joined by parenting coach and host of the Parent Unplugged podcast, Charis Halsall. A mum of three and an outspoken advocate for children and adults with dyslexia, Charis was diagnosed at seven and spent her school years collecting what she later learned to call “micro-traumas”: the red pen, the laptop that was meant to “fix” everything, the report cards that said “try harder” when she was already at her limit.

Charis shares how those experiences shaped her sense of self, the long shadow they cast over her confidence, and the moment she realised the problem was never her brain. It was the system. We explore what happens when a diagnosis is treated as the end of the story rather than the beginning of systemic change, and how many dyslexic children are still being asked to fit an environment that actively dysregulates their nervous system.

Now a neuro-affirming parent to a dyslexic son, Charis talks honestly about advocating in school, asking for small but powerful adjustments, and choosing self-esteem over “catching up”. From changing bright blue maths squares to softer grey, to switching to voice-to-text and watching his ideas finally spill onto the page, she offers real-life examples of what support can look like in practice.

We also talk about Charis’ own path to reclaiming her voice: reading over 300 parenting books as a very slow reader, turning her curiosity into the Parent Unplugged podcast, and treating those conversations as the “degree” she was once told she would never manage.

If you have ever been told to try harder, if you are parenting a child the system does not understand, or if you are still untangling your own school story, this conversation is a reminder that there is nothing wrong with your brain. It is the environment that needs to change, and there is always another way.

Follow Charis and her work on her Instagram account here.

In this emotionally rich and beautifully honest episode, Charlotte Hunt, the powerhouse behind Twin Tides & Autism Vibes, joins Dr Emma Offord to explore the hidden stories behind advocacy, identity, motherhood, and living a neurodivergent life that was never built for your wiring.

Charlotte shares her journey from being a school refuser at 14, to navigating complex family dynamics, to discovering her neurodivergent traits through her children, to becoming a voice of truth and connection for thousands online. She speaks openly about the highs and lows of SEN parenting, the toll of health anxiety, the impact of perimenopause, and the moments where her light “goes out”,  the signs her needs have been unseen for too long.

Emma and Charlotte delve into:

• What happens when your early coping strategies run out
• Masking, unmasking & becoming “full-size” in midlife
• The vulnerability of online advocacy
• The fatigue of holding everything together
• Neurodivergent needs inside a neurodivergent household
• Why connection is the antidote to shame
• The power of finding your people, your scaffolding

Charlotte’s voice is raw, real, and deeply validating. She reminds us that growth lives in the uncomfortable, that our stories are never wrong, and that the magic happens when we stop trying to be perfect and start being honest.

A healing, relatable and profoundly human conversation for every parent, advocate, and neurodivergent soul figuring themselves out in real time.

Follow Charlotte on her Instagram account here.

In this deeply grounding episode of This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast, Dr Emma Offord is joined by Will Martin, Nutritional Therapist, former teacher, and late-identified Dyslexic, Autistic ADHDer who helps children, adults and parents regulate their emotions and attention through holistic, evidence-based neurobiology.

Together, Emma and Will explore the unspoken internal world so many neurodivergent people carry: the internal chatter, the “work harder” conditioning, the cycles of anxiety and burnout, the longing for deep connection, and the quiet belief that you’re “not enough.”

Will shares:

• Growing up sensitive, misunderstood and unable to name his struggles
• Internalising everything because no one ever asked what was happening inside
• Late diagnosis of dyslexia, autism and ADHD — and the grief, clarity and identity shift that unfolded
• How chronic anxiety, indecision and burnout were downstream effects of masking
• Why neurodivergent mental health is often physiological and relational, not pathological
• The role nutrition, minerals, the gut-brain axis, hormones and lifestyle play in emotional regulation
• Why safety, not compliance, is the foundation of learning
• How understanding his neurobiology allowed him to parent, work and live more compassionately

Emma and Will unpack the misconceptions around nutrition in ND spaces, and explain why supporting the body is not about fixing, curing or erasing neurodivergence. Instead, it’s about returning safety to the system, reducing overwhelm, and helping individuals access the continuity of who they have always been.

Will also closes the episode by reading his original poem, From Struggle to Strength, a powerful reflection on identity, sensitivity and self-honouring.

This episode is essential listening for anyone navigating burnout, late identification, parenting neurodivergent children, or trying to understand their neurobiology with more compassion and less fear.

Follow Will on his Instagram account here and his website here.

What does it take to build a movement of over a million people when you started secondary school unable to speak a single word?

In this episode, Dr Emma Offord speaks with Eve Harrison, founder of Let's Make A Difference, a grassroots campaign raising awareness about communication challenges and the power of small acts of understanding. Eve is autistic, learned BSL during the pandemic when speech was not available to her, and has since used that journey to educate, include, and advocate for others.

This conversation moves through selective mutism, the invisibility of quietly struggling neurodivergent young people, diagnosis, the SEND white paper, and the raw truth about what schools do not yet understand. Eve is 18 years old and already changing the conversation.

Different, not less. That is the message. And it has always been true.

Connect with Eve on Instagram: @lets.make.a_difference1

This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast is hosted by Dr Emma Offord, clinical psychologist and founder of Divergent Lives. For every neurodivergent mind that was masked, misread, or missed.

What does it actually mean to take care of yourself, when every version of self-care you've tried has felt like another thing to fail at?

In this episode, Dr Emma Offord speaks with Suzy Reading, Chartered Psychologist and author of How to Be Selfish, about what it takes to heal our relationship with self. 

Not with a checklist or a spa day, but with the slow, courageous work of coming home to your own needs. 

Suzy unpacks the gender conditioning that teaches women their worth depends on how much they give, why selflessness is a coping mechanism rather than a virtue, and why the resentment and anger so many women feel when they begin to say no is not the problem, it is the signal. 

She also guides the group through two simple somatic practices that are more powerful than they look.

This is a conversation about permission; permission to receive, to rest, to be one person, and for that to be enough.

Connect with Suzy on Instagram: @suzyreading suzyreading.co.uk

This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast is hosted by Dr Emma Offord, clinical psychologist and founder of Divergent Lives. For every neurodivergent mind that was masked, misread, or missed.

Ryan Swain was told from childhood that his energy was too much, his focus was wrong, and his way of being didn't fit. Teachers called him a liability. Nobody asked why.

In this episode, Dr Emma Offord talks with Ryan, founder of the You, Me & ADHD awareness campaign, about growing up undiagnosed in a system that had no language for who he was. Ryan shares the story of finding skateboarding at eleven and how it gave him something school never could: a space where his neurobiology made sense. He also introduces his tornado analogy for ADHD, one of the most grounded and accessible frameworks for understanding why environment is everything.

This is a conversation about survival, self-acceptance, and what becomes possible when you finally find your thing.

Connect with Ryan on Instagram: @officialryanswain ryainswain.co.uk

This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast is hosted by Dr Emma Offord, clinical psychologist and founder of Divergent Lives. For every neurodivergent mind that was masked, misread, or missed.

What happens inside a child's body when they hold it all together at school, only to fall apart the moment they walk through the front door? And what does that cost the parents who are there to catch them, every single day?

In this episode, Dr Emma Offord is joined by health psychologist, CBT therapist, and EMDR practitioner Jo Rodriguez for an honest, warm, and deeply grounding conversation about what it actually means to parent neurodivergent children inside a system that was never built for them.

Jo brings more than 20 years of clinical expertise and something equally important: her lived experience as a mum to three neurodivergent boys. She speaks with clarity and compassion about the gap between what professionals are trained to know and what parenting actually feels like on the ground. About the exhaustion of being the family's main regulator. About the invisible grief of watching your child mask all day, then come home and need somewhere safe to fall apart.

Together, Emma and Jo explore what is really happening in a child's nervous system when they suppress their needs to fit into environments that were not designed for them. They talk about the long-term cost of unmetabolised stress, the moment a nervous system reaches its limit, and why the post-school meltdown is not a behaviour problem. It is a body trying to return to safety.

They also speak honestly about what this does to parents. The burnout that builds quietly. The pressure to know the answers. The loneliness of advocating for your child when the system keeps telling you that you are overreacting. And the small, cumulative ways that parents can begin to resource themselves, even when the big solutions are out of reach.

This is a conversation for every parent who has sat in a parents' evening hearing "no bother at all" while knowing something else entirely.

Connect with Jo: Instagram: @straightforwardpsychology

Lisa Galley built her career in autism the long way round: studying part time, raising three children, sitting her finals at nine months pregnant, and working in high-pressure NHS autism outreach before burnout took it all away. What followed was years of frightening physical symptoms, a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome, and a profound loss of identity. What she built on the other side was something she never planned: a community, a business, and now a book.

In this episode, Dr Emma Offord and Lisa explore what parental burnout really looks like when it is severe, somatic, and relentlessly minimised by the medical system. They talk about regulation-first parenting, why beige food and unlimited screens are not lazy choices but genuine nervous system tools, and why the instincts parents already have are so often buried under shame and social pressure. Lisa also shares the story of her daughter, identified as autistic only in adulthood, and what that taught her about quiet masking and the cost of being told you are the good one.

This is also a conversation about bravery. The courage to advocate differently when colleagues, critics, and old professional identities are watching. Lisa's debut book, Parenting Your Autistic Child: Permission to Do It Differently (Penguin Random House, August 2026), is exactly what the title promises: not a manual, but a permission slip.

If you have ever felt judged for parenting your way, dismissed when you knew something was wrong, or like burnout had taken everything you worked for, this episode is for you.

Connect with Lisa: Instagram: @schoolrunmumautism
Find the Autism Parenting Revolution membership at Lisa's website. Pre-order Parenting Your Autistic Child: Permission to Do It Differently (Penguin Random House, 27 August 2026).

Connect with Divergent Lives:
 Instagram: @divergentlives Website: divergentlife.co.uk 
Free 15-minute consultation: hello@divergentlife.co.uk

In this episode of This Voice Is Mine, Dr Emma Offord is joined by clinical psychologist, author, and maternal mental health specialist Dr Caroline Boyd for a deeply honest and necessary conversation about motherhood, anger, and the stories we are taught to silence.

Together, they explore the realities that so many parents live but rarely feel able to name: intrusive thoughts, maternal rage, emotional overload, and the crushing weight of expectation placed on mothers, particularly within a culture that still clings to myths of calm, self-sacrificing, endlessly patient ‘good’ motherhood.

Caroline brings her clinical expertise, research, and lived experience to unpack why anger is not a failure, but a meaningful signal. 

They discuss how suppressed anger can manifest as anxiety, shame, burnout, and even physical illness, and why learning to listen to anger, rather than fear it, can be a powerful act of repair and self-compassion.

This episode also names the wider systems at play: patriarchy, unsupported caregiving structures, isolation, and the lack of societal scaffolding for parents. Rather than pathologising mothers, Emma and Caroline invite us to see anger as both a protector and a messenger, one that deserves attention, not punishment.

This is a conversation about reclaiming voice, dignity, and humanity in parenthood. Not about fixing mothers, but about finally listening to them.

Clinical psychologist Dr Caroline Boyd has over 10 years experience working in
the NHS and mental health settings, and she supports parents from pregnancy
to childbirth and beyond.

Caroline offers anger courses, workshops and 1:1 therapy in her independent psychology practice, Parent Therapy Hub.

Caroline is the author of Mindful New Mum, and her published research
explores mothers experiences of intrusive thoughts about their babies. Her
work has been featured in You magazine, Elle, Grazia, the Telegraph and
Womans Hour on BBC Radio 4, and she is an Ambassador for UK perinatal
mental health charity, PANDAS. Caroline shares psychology ideas on Instagram
and in the media to help parents feel less alone and more connected - to
themselves and their children.

You can reach Caroline at drcarolineboyd.com or via Instagram @_drboyd

Caroline offers a self-paced anger course for mothers
(USE THE CODE “PODCAST” TO CLAIM YOUR £100 DISCOUNT):

Download Caroline’s FREE GUIDE on how to handle anger in HOT moments:
For an overview of Caroline’s work, including her book, Mindful New Mum,
click here.

If you’re struggling with difficult thoughts and feelings or if this episode raises
any concerns for you, please talk to a trusted health professional such as your
GP.

You can also reach out to the services below:
UK: PANDAS offer a free, bookable call service
Samaritans – 116 123
US: Postpartum Support International - 1-800-944-4773 (4PPD)
For emergency help - call 999 or visit your local A&E department.

What happens when perimenopause and neurodivergent identification arrive at the same moment? When hormones shift, the mask starts to slip, and nobody in the medical system has any idea what is actually going on?

In this episode, Dr Emma Offord speaks with Sophie Cartledge, founder of Hormones on the Blink, a training platform working at the intersection of hormone health, menopause, and neurodivergence. Sophie is late-identified autistic and ADHD, discovered both through her own perimenopause journey, and has since dedicated her work to helping women, clinicians, and workplaces join the dots.

This conversation covers identity whiplash, the oestrogen-dopamine connection, rage as information, burnout versus unmasking, and what it actually takes to get through the darkest moments of midlife. It also covers what becomes possible on the other side.

If your nervous system is shifting and nobody is naming it properly, this one is for you.

Connect with Sophie: @hormonesontheblink 

This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast is hosted by Dr Emma Offord, clinical psychologist and founder of Divergent Lives. For every neurodivergent mind that was masked, misread, or missed.

Dr Clare Jacobson has spent over 20 years holding people's most intimate inner worlds. As a specialist clinical psychologist in teenage and young adult cancer care, she knows what it means to sit with invisible experience - the kind that doesn't show up on a blood test, but is completely real.

Over the past year, Clare has been on her own journey of neurodivergent identification. And in this conversation with Emma, she brings both lenses: the clinician who has learned to approach people's inner lives with curiosity rather than certainty, and the late-identified person who spent decades being told  -  by the world and eventually by herself -  that the parts of her that didn't fit were somehow wrong.

They talk about the hunter-farmer analogy, the card game metaphor, hypermobility and proprioception, receiving extra sensory data, and what Clare calls the original Internet  -  the idea that neurodivergent people might be evolved to tap into collective consciousness in ways that neurotypical people simply can't access. It's a conversation about bodies, belonging, and learning to trust what you've always known.

If you've ever felt like the call was coming from inside the house, this episode is for you. It probably isn't.

This Voice Is Mine: The Unquiet Podcast is hosted by Dr Emma Offord, clinical psychologist and founder of Divergent Lives. For every neurodivergent mind that was masked, misread, or missed.

Lou was diagnosed ADHD in her 30s. By that point, she had already been through secondary school struggling and unidentified, failed college three times, experienced serious mental health crises, and spent years being told to try harder. When she finally sat with a therapist, everything she brought to that room turned out to be ADHD. Not failure, but simply a neurotype the world had never named for her.

In this episode, Dr Emma Offord and Lou, founder of ADHD Interrupted, have the kind of conversation that doesn't happen enough: one where the full cost of late diagnosis is named with honesty and without flinching. The shame. The anger at the systems that missed her. The grief for the years lived without language or support. And the slow, extraordinary work of building a life rooted in self-understanding rather than self-blame.

Lou's hope, that one day your neurotype is known as simply as your blood type, is a thread that runs through this whole conversation. That kind of world starts with conversations like this one.

If you have ever felt like you were trying your hardest and still falling short, like something was always slightly off but no one could tell you why, this episode is for you.