Nourishing the Mother

What happens when a breast cancer diagnosis changes not just your body, but the way you see your entire life? In this deeply personal conversation, Julie sits down with Ilea, a mother of two who underwent a double mastectomy following a DCIS diagnosis, to explore the parts of breast cancer recovery we don't talk about enough. From the grief of ending breastfeeding and losing her breasts, to navigating a new relationship with her body, sexuality and intimacy, Ilea shares how her experience bec...

What if self-worth isn’t something you need to build, but something you need to stop bargaining away? In this episode, Bridget and Julie explore the invisible conditions many of us place around our worth: “I matter when I’m productive, when my children are doing well, when people approve of me, when I’m needed, when I’m attractive, when I’m getting it right...” They unpack how these “worthiness contracts” are often formed early in life, then quietly follow us into motherhood, relationships...

What happens when the parenting advice you were given simply doesn’t work for the child in front of you? As Julie’s daughter turns 13, she and Bridget look back on thirteen years of learning, unlearning, advocating, getting it wrong and slowly coming to understand what this particular autistic child needed. Through lived experience, they unpack the things that changed everything: recognising masking, understanding the difference between what a child can do and what they can actually sustain, ...

Tune in for part 2 where we explore the parts of parenting where we’re still firmly living in the 90s. In this two-part episode, we’re talking about the things we’ve deliberately held onto from the childhood we grew up in: boredom, chores without payment, hearing “no” without a 45-minute negotiation, talking to actual adults, losing without receiving a trophy, and being expected to figure some things out for yourself. This isn’t about glorifying the “we survived, so they’ll survive” style...

We might be conscious parents, but there are some parts of parenting where we’re still firmly living in the 90s. In this two-part episode, we’re talking about the things we’ve deliberately held onto from the childhood we grew up in: boredom, chores without payment, hearing “no” without a 45-minute negotiation, talking to actual adults, losing without receiving a trophy, and being expected to figure some things out for yourself. This isn’t about glorifying the “we survived, so they’ll surv...

So many women have built a life that looks successful on the outside, yet quietly feel exhausted, disconnected and like they're carrying everyone else while leaving themselves behind. In this deeply honest conversation, Julie sits down with Fleur Marks, author of The Overachiever's Reset, to explore the hidden cost of overfunctioning after Fleur's journey through sarcoidosis and two experiences of breast cancer completely transformed how she defines success. Together they unpack perfectionism...

Feeling trapped by your life isn't always about changing your circumstances. Sometimes it's about changing the way you meet them. In this final episode of our three-part series, Bridget and Julie explore what happens after you've identified the stories keeping you stuck. They unpack how to reclaim the parts of yourself that feel lost beneath the weight of responsibility, why pleasure and self-care often trigger resistance instead of ease, and how to create more romance, aliveness and fulfilme...

Last episode, we started unpacking what’s actually underneath the feeling of being trapped by your life. This time, we take the next step: working out whether the thing making you miserable is an unavoidable fact of your life...or a “should” you’ve become so attached to that you can no longer see another way. Because while you might not be able to change the school run, your workload, your children, your partner or the responsibilities sitting on your shoulders, but you may have far more choi...

What happens when you love your children, your partner and the life you’ve created...and still sometimes feel completely trapped by it? In Part 1 of this three-part answer pathway, we respond to a listener who is buckling under the weight of motherhood, work, relationships and the relentless responsibility of being needed. Rather than giving you another list of things to do to “find yourself again”, we start somewhere deeper: understanding what is actually creating your suffering. We explor...

In this deeply personal solo episode, Julie responds to listener questions about her hysterectomy experience four years after surgery. From the realities of recovery and unexpected complications to the impact on sex, orgasm, identity, and womanhood, she shares the parts few people talk about openly. This is a candid conversation about what she gained, what she lost, what surprised her most, and why she would still make the same decision again. Fair warning: there is plenty of TM...

If you've ever found yourself snapping at your partner, yelling at your children, or wondering why your anger feels bigger, faster and harder to contain than it used to, this conversation is for you. In this episode, we unpack the silence-explode cycle so many women find themselves trapped in, particularly during the motherhood and perimenopause years. We explore why anger isn't the problem, what it's trying to tell you, how depletion, over-functioning, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes ...

What happens when one partner feels like they are carrying the invisible weight of parenting, household management, life admin, remembering, planning, and emotional labour… while the other insists they’re helping? In this episode, Julie and Bridget unpack one of the most common resentment loops they see in relationships: the gap between effort and ownership. They explore why “helping” can still leave a primary parent feeling deeply alone, how over-functioning and under-functioning quietly r...

Perimenopause can feel like your body, mind and identity are shifting beneath your feet - but what if this season is not simply hormonal chaos to survive, but a profound invitation into your next evolution? In this powerful conversation, naturopath and counsellor Charmaine Newmark joins us to explore perimenopause as the transition from mother to matriarch - a deeply biological, emotional and spiritual rite of passage that so many women are navigating without enough support. Together, we un...

Attraction doesn’t switch off when you’re in a committed relationship — but what it means, and what you do with it, is where everything changes. This episode reframes attraction from something dangerous or disloyal into something deeply human, and explores how to hold that energy with integrity, self-awareness, and choice, rather than repression or collapse. In this episode we discuss: - why attraction to others doesn’t disappear in monogamy… and what it actually signals - how we’ve b...

There’s a quiet, almost surreal moment when you realise… it didn’t pass through you. The reaction that used to be automatic doesn’t land the same. The pattern that shaped your family line stops with you. This episode explores what it actually feels like to break generational patterns - not as a loud, triumphant moment, but as a series of subtle, powerful choices that change the trajectory of everything that comes after you. In this episode we discuss: - the moment you notice you didn...

There’s a particular kind of fall that happens after we’ve tried to be the perfect parent - not just good, but better than what we had growing up; more conscious, more patient, more healed. And when we inevitably hit our edge, it doesn’t just feel like a bad moment… it feels like a collapse of identity. This episode unpacks how that spiral is not a sign you’re failing, but a direct consequence of the pedestal you’ve placed on who you think you need to be…and how softening the fantasy is what ...

In this episode, we’re joined by family therapist and author Lisa Taylor (The Perfect Parent Trap) for a deeply honest conversation about what’s really happening underneath our parenting. Lisa brings over 25 years of clinical experience into this discussion as we unpack the difference between reacting to our children versus truly responding to them — and how often we’re unknowingly parenting from our own unresolved “heartprints” rather than the child in front of us. We explore the pull toward...

This one goes right to the heart of what so many long-term couples quietly sit in but rarely say out loud; the moments where you question everything, where disinterest creeps in, and where part of you starts scanning for the exit. Julie and Bridget unpack the truth that these seasons don’t mean your relationship is broken, but they do ask something deeper of you. They explore the concept of the “exit girl” - the part of you that wants out - not as something to suppress, but some...

Friendships are one of the first places our children meet the raw edges of relationship: loyalty, exclusion, conflict, repair and belonging. And if you’re a parent watching from the sidelines, it can stir up everything. In this conversation, Julie and Bridget unpack the emotional complexity of children’s friendships, particularly through the tween and teenage years, where identity, social power and belonging start to take shape. They explore the difference between protecting our childr...

Adult friendships can look very different once life fills up with partners, children, careers and shifting values. In this conversation we explore what it really means to navigate friendship as grown women: the grief when friendships change, the beauty of seasonal relationships, and the quiet truth that the friendships that last are the ones built on reciprocity, honesty and shared values. We unpack the pressure women often feel to maintain friendships exactly as they once were, and why allow...

In this honest, grounded conversation, we unpack what it really takes to sustain a long-term relationship through parenting, midlife shifts, sexual differences, resentment, novelty, and the quiet drift that can happen when life gets busy. We share personal stories from our own marriages - the escapes, the misunderstandings, the accountability, the grace - and explore how intentional action, communication, sexual intimacy, and self-awareness can transform a partnership from obligation back int...

In this episode of Nourishing the Mother, Julie and Bridget dive into the invisible labour of advocating for your child inside school and medical systems; especially when your child is neurodivergent, anxious, or simply doesn’t fit the mould. They unpack how our own history with authority shapes how we show up, why systems can both help and harm, and how constant advocacy quietly erodes mothers’ energy, self-worth, and capacity. This is a raw, practical conversation about choosing your...

A simple ask for help on the sidelines becomes a powerful mirror into long-term relationship dynamics. In this episode, Julie and Bridget unpack a very real rupture between Julie and Nick, revealing how moments of overwhelm can activate old attachment wounds, masculine defensiveness, and feminine collapse. Together they explore how childhood patterns quietly replay in adult partnerships, why competence can become a barrier to intimacy, and what it actually takes to keep choosing each other wh...

Back to school isn’t just a diary change…it’s a full nervous system reboot. In this episode, Julie and Bridget get radically practical about what actually creates calm in the return-to-school season. Not mindset hacks. Not “just be more organised.” But the real, lived strategies that reduce friction, soften mornings, and help both parents and kids land back into rhythm; especially when neurodivergence, sensory needs, or emotional overwhelm are in the mix. This is about removing the predictab...

In this episode, Bridget shares her experience of her grandfather’s passing, and the reflections that surfaced in the aftermath. Together, Julie and Bridget explore how our understanding of the people we love is always shaped by proximity, role, and family narrative. We unpack the idea that we never truly know a whole person; only the version revealed to us through relationship, family dynamics, and shared stories. This conversation gently examines legacy, memory, and the quiet humility requ...

You don’t need a quiet house. You don’t need a fresh journal, a candle, or the “right headspace.” In this episode, Bridget and Julie walk you through 10 gentle New Year reflection questions in real time - the kind you can answer as you listen. Sitting in the car. On the couch. With a notes app open and a half-drunk cup of tea beside you. We pause. We give you space. And then…imperfectly and honestly…we answer them ourselves, on the fly. This is not about crafting beautiful intentions or sa...

The post-Christmas crash can leave many women feeling not just tired, but disconnected — from their bodies, their partners, and their erotic selves. In this deeply relieving episode, Julie and Bridget explore how the adrenaline of December masks exhaustion until it drops, and why that comedown so often shows up as sexual shutdown. They gently dismantle the myth that intimacy requires energy women simply don’t have at this time of year, and explore what it looks like to reconnect without press...

In the final week before Christmas, when the lists are finished and the adrenaline drops, many women don’t feel relief…they feel flat, teary, irritable or quietly undone. This episode is an emotional temperature check for overstretched mothers asking, “I should be happy… so why do I feel empty?” Julie and Bridget name the invisible load women are carrying and explore why Christmas becomes the moment everything catches up. This isn’t about fixing yourself, it’s about naming what’s real instead...

The festive season looks magical on paper: twinkly lights, long lunches, sparkling moments with kids… but for so many families, it’s actually a sensory avalanche waiting to happen. In this episode, we unpack what’s really going on beneath the meltdowns, the indecision, the clinginess, the crankiness, and the “I can’t do this” moments (from kids and parents). We map nervous systems, explore individual sensory needs, and name the pressure cooker that December becomes — especially when you’re ju...

Resentment is quiet… until it isn’t.And when it leaks through your tone, your silence, or the way you half-turn when he walks in the door, it can change the entire ecosystem of your relationship - even when you don’t mean it to. In this episode, we dive into the real energetic difference between speaking from bitterness and speaking from love. We explore why so many long-term couples get caught in confirmation loops, scorekeeping, and micro-withdrawals… and how the smallest shift in tone, so...

Julie and Bridget dive into why mothers so often feel their children’s birthdays in their bodies - not just as a date on the calendar, but as an emotional echo of who they were when that child arrived. They unpack the surprising way the body holds onto birth memories, how milestone birthdays can reopen old wounds or tender places, and why perimenopause, identity shifts, and grief can hit hard in the background of these celebrations. Together, they explore the collision of timelines: ou...

This week, we’re opening the door on one of the most invisible seasons of womanhood — being in ‘the sandwich generation’. The stretch between raising children and caring for ageing parents can feel like living two lives at once: one full of growth and beginnings, the other shaped by endings and decline. In this conversation, we unpack the exhaustion, the guilt, the grief, and the quiet unraveling that happens when you’re holding everyone else together — and explore how to navigate this...

If guilt were cardio, every mum would be an Olympian. But what if guilt isn’t proof you’re failing — it’s proof you care? In this episode, we unpack the emotional weight mothers carry and how “mum guilt” has become a badge of honour we never asked for. From the cultural conditioning that tells us a good mother should give everything, to the quiet courage it takes to choose ourselves without crumbling under judgement, we explore how to move from guilt as punishment to guilt as guidance. You’ll...

In this episode, we discuss what to do when your child slams the brakes on; from “I’m not going to school” to daily battles over getting dressed or leaving the house. We explore how to stay grounded when their storms threaten to pull you in, how to use play and connection to move through resistance, and why your regulation is the most powerful parenting tool you have. We unpack what happens in your body when you feel backed into a corner, how to find your anchor, and the small moments of humo...

In this episode, Julie sits down with Fertility Coach Liz Walton to redefine what fertility really means. Liz, founder of the Australian Fertility Summit, brings her own lived experience - ten years of “failed” IVF rounds, deep personal healing, and eventually conceiving her daughter naturally at 46 - to shine light on what so many women long for but rarely hear: that fertility isn’t just medical. It’s emotional, relational, spiritual, and deeply personal. Together, we explore how to hold wom...

What really turns mothers on isn’t roses or lingerie….it’s partnership. It’s not having to carry everything alone, not having to think about one more thing, not feeling swallowed up by kids and needs with no solo time left. In this episode we explore why sharing the load is the ultimate aphrodisiac, how appreciation and acknowledgement fuel intimacy, and why true partnership is so much sexier than performative help. When you feel like it’s not all on you, when you’re a team doing it together,...

Bridget is a full-time working mother navigating the reality of decreased time and increased pressure — which demands a new level of discernment about what can and can’t be held. In this episode, we explore how to protect your energy, bring more equity into your relationship, and create room for your dreams without over-functioning to keep the peace. We talk about holding your partner accountable, building flexible rhythms that support the whole family, and why truth-telling, shared responsib...

So many of us step into business with huge hearts and deep skills, then crash into the reality of motherhood — where hustle culture doesn’t work and “balance” is a myth. In this episode we explore what it really takes to grow your business as an intentional mother: creating rhythms that fit your season of life, using small windows of time to move the needle, building in alignment with your values (not someone else’s), and letting business become something that not only sustains you, but actua...

This episode is raw, tear-filled, and honest as Julie shares what it was actually like to say goodbye to Heath as he left for the United States — the pride, the ache, and the messy middle. We walk through the good, the bad, the ugly, the learning, and the letting go. It’s matrescence at the other end of parenting, when identity is cleaved and you gather the pieces to remake yourself, and when love and intimacy are invited to mature. In this episode we discuss: - Letting go of a son to the w...

Sometimes, being in relationship feels heavier than doing it all on your own. In this episode, Julie shares a raw revelation: while solo parenting her girls, managing sport schedules, interstate travel, and two national award wins — she realised that, in some ways, it actually felt easier than being in partnership. We unpack why long-term relationships can feel harder than parenting solo, what this means for intimacy, and the practical ways couples can shift from tension and resentment into...

Your relationship is a living mirror — not just of your partner, but of the parts of yourself you’ve hidden, avoided, or outgrown. In this episode, we explore the conscious relational tools that don’t just keep your love alive, but help you grow as an individual within it. Because love isn’t something that just happens — it’s something we do, on purpose. We’ll unpack how high-functioning burnout, stress, and survival mode quietly kill intimacy, why polarity and independence are essential for...

Everything you have right now was once a dream — the relationship, the home, the family, the love. But when life becomes a checklist and connection becomes transactional, we forget what we once longed for. In this episode, we take you inside the three relationship habits we see drop off the most in long-term love — and why they’re the very glue that keeps desire, appreciation, and intimacy alive. This is your reminder that disconnection doesn’t mean you’re broken — it means the relationship ...

In this episode, we explore celebration as a radical act of receiving; not just balloons and bubbly, but a mirror for how safe you feel to be seen, acknowledged, and loved. We unpack why so many of us deflect recognition or wait for others to validate what we struggle to honour in ourselves, and how that can leave us quietly starving for emotional nourishment. We talk about how to host gatherings that feel like love (not performance), how to work with social anxiety (yours or your guests’),...

In this episode, we unpack the complex, emotionally loaded space where your child’s bids for connection meet your very real, very human need for separation. Whether it's bedtime, the end of a long day, or another moment when you feel like they’re clawing at your leg and you just have to get away, we go deep into the internal and external pressures that make this one of the most painful tensions in motherhood. We explore how unmet needs, maternal conditioning, nervous system dysregulation, a...

Life moves fast…and if you’re not careful, it’ll pass by in a blur. In this deeply heartfelt episode, we share how presence is what makes a moment last, and how the simple act of breathing it in can transform the ordinary into the unforgettable. Drawing on a powerful message from a Honey Club member, this episode is a call back to what truly matters; not the roles we play, but the memories we feel. This one is for the part of you that craves slowness, sacredness, and the kind of life you’ll ...

What happens when your heart is at home, but your body’s at work — or when your head’s in the spreadsheet but your child’s in tears at daycare drop-off? In this episode, we explore the inner tension so many mothers feel between being present, connected parents and being purposeful, ambitious humans doing meaningful work in the world. It’s not just about time management — it’s about the deep, identity-level stretch of holding two powerful callings that often ask for completely different parts...

So many couples find themselves tangled in the same painful dance: pressure, predictability, and the slow death of desire. In this episode, we’re unpacking why your sex life isn’t just about sex - it’s the meeting place of both your worlds. Why men often feel sex as devotion (and rejection like a dagger), why women need connection to even want sex, and how survival mode and arousal simply can’t coexist. We’ll explore how to stop counting acts and start cultivating an erotic climate where yo...

What if your capacity wasn’t a measure of your worth? In this episode, we dive deep into motherhood as the ultimate redefinition of capacity — where contraction and expansion dance together, and holding more often comes with the relief of letting go. We explore the emotional labor mothers invisibly carry, the myth of the perfect mother who endlessly gives, and what happens when over-functioning becomes your normal. Because capacity isn’t static; it stretches and recoils, it asks you to meet ...

This is the story behind the Instagram post. The truth of what it took of Julie; emotionally, energetically, and relationally - to walk beside her son Heath as he chased a dream that felt impossibly far away at times. From the heartbreaks to the breakthroughs, from holding the vision when he couldn’t, to surrendering control when she desperately wanted to fix things. This episode is a raw, tender, and deeply honest look at mothering through uncertainty, staying attuned while letting go, and ...

If your sensuality feels distant, your desire feels flat, or you look in the mirror and barely recognise yourself… this episode is your homecoming. In this powerful conversation, Julie walks you through the 7 most common (and surprising) blocks to feminine sensual energy — and how to begin melting them with softness, embodiment, and truth. This isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about returning to you. Whether you’ve been stuck in overgiving, feeling shame around your desire, or struggl...