Mastering Change | The trauma, mental health & wellbeing podcast

Psychedelic therapy is attracting more attention than ever before. 
But amidst the growing excitement, an important question often gets overlooked: what actually helps people turn these experiences into lasting change? 
This week on Mastering Change, we speak with psychotherapist and Inward Bound co-founder Rob Coffey, who has spent years supporting people through psychedelic retreats, trauma recovery and deep personal growth.  
While much of the conversation around psychedelics focuses on the medicine itself, Rob takes a different view. He argues that the most important factors are often what happens around the experience: preparation, safety, integration and the relationships that help translate insight into everyday life.  
One of the most thought-provoking themes in the episode is the role of community. Drawing on both indigenous traditions and years of retreat work, Rob explores why community matters. He suggests that connection with others can be just as important as the psychedelic experience itself.  
We explore: 
Why psychedelics are not a magic cure 
The importance of preparation and integration 
Group healing versus one-to-one approaches 
Ethics and safety in psychedelic spaces 
Reconnecting to nature, community and a deeper sense of belonging 
Why healing can happen through joy, not just suffering 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive topics 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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Can something as simple as laughter help us heal? 
When we think about therapy, humour is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Yet according to clinical social worker and addiction counsellor Glenn Maloney, it may be one of the most overlooked tools available to us. 
This week on Mastering Change, Glenn explains that humour is far more than comic relief. He explores its role in therapy, trauma recovery and addiction treatment and argues that far from distracting from difficult emotions, it can help reduce isolation, support nervous system regulation and offer new ways of relating to challenging experiences.  
At the heart of the conversation is a simple idea: humour is fundamentally about connection. When used thoughtfully, it can help people feel safer, more understood and more able to engage with challenging experiences. 
We also explores the complexities of humour. Sometimes it helps us engage with difficult emotions. Sometimes it becomes a way of avoiding them. The skill lies in recognising the difference. 
We discuss: 
Why humour is fundamentally about connection 
How laughter can support nervous system regulation 
The role of humour in addiction recovery and trauma work 
When jokes become a form of avoidance 
The risks of humour used poorly 
Why therapists may need more training in the basic skills of human connection 
This is a thoughtful conversation about laughter, connection and why healing is often more human than we imagine. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive topics 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
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

How do you move forward when something feels impossible to forgive? 
Forgiveness is often misunderstood.  
When many people hear the word, they think it means excusing what happened, condoning harmful behaviour, or letting someone off the hook. 
This week on Mastering Change, Clara Naum offers a different perspective. 
Drawing on her work across therapy, coaching and personal development, Clara describes forgiveness not as something we do for the person who hurt us, but as a tool that helps us move from survival into possibility.  
Rather than presenting forgiveness as an obligation or a requirement for healing, she invites listeners to consider it as one possible route towards releasing the hold that past experiences can continue to have on our lives.  
We discuss: 
Why forgiveness can be misunderstood 
The difference between forgiveness and condoning harm 
How unresolved hurt keeps us stuck 
Why the body remembers what the mind tries to forget 
Acceptance, self-forgiveness and personal freedom 
How forgiveness can help us regain choice 
This conversation offers a thoughtful exploration of healing, freedom and loosen the grip of the past. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive topics 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
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

The rise of GLP-1 medications has changed the conversation around weight, health and body image. 
But what happens when weight loss is mistaken for wellbeing? 
This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Charlotte Ord – a counselling psychologist specialising in body image and eating disorder recovery, with a background in fitness, strength and conditioning, NHS bariatric and weight management services.  
Charlotte reflects on the complexity of this moment. GLP-1 medications may have an important place for some people, but she warns that the current conversation around them risks pulling us backwards into diet culture, weight stigma and the pursuit of thinness.  
For people with poor body image, disordered eating or eating disorder histories, suppressing appetite may remove one visible behaviour without addressing the underlying wound. As Charlotte explains, health is not simply about eating less or changing the body’s appearance – it also includes body trust, nourishment, movement, metabolic fitness and psychological safety.  
We discuss: 
The impact of GLP-1 medications on body image and eating disorder recovery 
Why weight loss is not the same as health 
How diet culture is re-emerging in new forms 
The importance of body diversity and representation 
Why we need to see bodies valued for what they can do, not just how they look 
What a more meaningful definition of healthy weight could look like 
This conversation offers a thoughtful, compassionate look at one of the most urgent and complicated topics in mental health today. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive topics 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
Follow us on instagram: www.instagram.com/masterseventsltd
Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

What if culture is not just tradition or identity – but trauma repeated over time? 
This week on Mastering Change, we speak with Dr Yemi Joy Penn – a self-described “pracademic” – who is challenging how we understand trauma, culture and belonging.  
Her work sits at the intersection of lived experience, research and storytelling. Through her PhD, Yemi explores how cultural trauma is formed, how it is sustained, and how it can be transformed – using documentary filmmaking as both method and medium. 
At the centre of the conversation is a powerful reframe: what we call “culture” may often be a set of behaviours, beliefs and patterns that have emerged in response to unprocessed collective trauma. 
We discuss: 
How trauma becomes embedded in culture 
Why identity is more complex than labels or geography 
What it really means to belong 
How people make meaning after suffering 
Why storytelling and witnessing are central to healing 
The limitations of traditional academic models 
This is not just a conversation about trauma. It is a wider exploration of identity, systems and what it means to be human in a complex world. 
Moment of Care: This episode discusses sensitive topics 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. 
See Dr Yemi Penn’s session Transforming Cultural Trauma with a Decolonised Lens, at this year’s Transform Trauma Oxford – 4 days, 100+ speakers, up to 40 CE credits
Connect with Yemi via the below links 
www.yemipenn.com 
https://www.instagram.com/dr.yemipenn/?hl=en 
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.