Mastering Change | The trauma, mental health & wellbeing podcast

Everything is connected. Diversity is essential for survival. And living systems have feedback mechanisms that tell us when something is out of balance.
What might happen if we applied these principles of ecology to mental health?
This week on Mastering Change, psychiatrist and psychotherapist Joanna Cheek introduces us to the idea of an “ecology of health” – a way of looking beyond the individual to understand our wellbeing in the context of our relationships, communities, social structures and wider environment.
One idea particularly stayed with us: distress can be feedback.
In trauma-informed care, we have learned to move beyond asking “What’s wrong with you?” towards “What happened to you?” Joanna invites us to widen the lens further. What is happening around us? What systems are we part of? And could some of the feelings we are trying to eliminate actually be signalling that something is out of balance?
It opens up a fascinating conversation about where individual healing meets collective wellbeing – and whether caring for ourselves can ever be entirely separated from caring for the world around us.
We explore:
What the principles of ecology can teach us about mental health
Why distress can sometimes be understood as feedback rather than dysfunction
How “What happened to you?” can widen to include the systems around us
Why focusing solely on the individual can leave important causes of distress unseen
The relationship between our individual and collective wellbeing
Why diversity and connection matter for healthy living systems
What changes when we see self-care and collective care as interconnected
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/masteringchangepodcast
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Much of what we understand about trauma recovery is rooted in psychology, neuroscience and the nervous system. 
But once enough safety and capacity have been established, what helps people make sense of what they have experienced? 
This week on Mastering Change, Araminta is joined by trauma educator Vanja Popovic and archetypal psychologist Lawrence Hillman for a wide-ranging conversation about archetypes, astrology, spirituality and the human search for meaning after trauma. 
They explore how symbols, stories and archetypal patterns can offer different ways of understanding our experiences and why meaning-making may become particularly important as people move towards post-traumatic growth. 
Rather than viewing astrology as prediction or personality typing, Lawrence describes archetypal psychology as a language for understanding the deeper patterns that shape our inner lives. Vanja explains how these ideas can become valuable during post-traumatic growth, helping people make sense of their experiences once enough safety and capacity has been established.  
The conversation also examines where ancient wisdom might sit alongside modern psychology and neuroscience, why science and spirituality may not be as far apart as they first appear and what our rapidly evolving relationship with AI can reveal about our very human search for connection and meaning. 
We explore: 
What archetypes are and why they appear across cultures 
Why meaning can become important after trauma 
Where ancient wisdom, psychology and spirituality intersect 
How archetypal thinking may contribute to post-traumatic growth 
What our relationship with AI reveals about human needs and relationships 
Watch this episode on Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/masteringchangepodcast
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Visit mastersevents.com/oxford-2026 for more details.

Have we forgotten some of the ways humans have always sought to heal? 
In this episode of Mastering Change, Emma Stapleton and Dr Keisha Siriboe are joined by Leslie Salmon Jones and Jeff W. Jones, co-founders of Afro Flow Yoga, for a conversation about healing through movement, music and community. 
Drawing on nearly two decades of creating embodied healing experiences, Lesley and Jeff explore why trauma recovery can involve more than talking. Together, they discuss the role of rhythm, ancestry, breath and movement in helping people reconnect with themselves, their communities and their bodies. 
The conversation explores agency, belonging and the idea that healing may sometimes be less about learning something new than reconnecting with practices that have existed across cultures for generations. 
We explore: 
Why movement can reach places words cannot 
The relationship between trauma, music and rhythm 
What ancestral practices can teach us about healing 
The role of community in recovery 
How safety and agency can create conditions for healing 
Reconnecting with the body's innate wisdom 
Moving from suppression to expression 
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.

Can trauma and psychological stress actually influence how quickly our bodies age?
In this episode of Mastering Change, Emma Stapleton and Araminta are joined by Professor of Biochemistry Gordan Lauc to explore the emerging science of glycans – molecules that can provide insight into inflammation, immune function and biological ageing.
Gordan explains why psychological stress may play an important role in accelerated glycan ageing, particularly in younger people and how trauma and chronic stress may become reflected in our biology.
But these biological markers are not necessarily  fixed. Gordan shares striking examples of people's measured glycan age changing following major shifts in their lives and explores whether biomarkers could one day help us understand not only when something is wrong, but whether the interventions we're trying are working.
We explore:
How psychological stress can influence biological ageing
What glycans reveal about inflammation and immune health
Why trauma affects different people differently
How fight-or-flight changes immune, reproductive and digestive function
Whether biological markers could help measure therapeutic progress
Why physiological changes can begin long before disease appears
What this emerging science could mean for more personalised approaches to health
Moment of Care: This episode includes discussion of childhood trauma, serious violence, mental health and other potentially distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take care of yourself and seek support if you need it.
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.

A major UK trial has just put a radically different approach to mental healthcare to the test.
Open Dialogue puts relationships, collaboration and the individual's own voice at the centre of care. Now, findings from ODDESSI, the first randomised controlled trial of the approach, have been published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
In this episode of Mastering Change, Emma Stapleton and Araminta Jonsson are joined by consultant psychiatrist and Professor of Relational Psychiatry Russell Razzaque to explore what they found and what it could mean for the future of mental healthcare.
ODDESSI followed 494 people presenting to NHS mental health services in crisis over two years. The findings were striking: people receiving Open Dialogue were less likely to be admitted to psychiatric hospital or referred back to crisis services and reported improvements in recovery, quality of life and satisfaction with care. Russell also shares one particularly striking figure: 54% fewer days spent in hospital.
But the conversation goes beyond the numbers. Russell explores what changes when clinicians are no longer the  sole experts in the room, families and support networks become part of care and therapeutic relationships are treated as fundamental rather than an afterthought.
We explore:
What Open Dialogue actually looks like in a mental health crisis
What the ODDESSI trial found and what the results could mean for mental healthcare
Why relationships may be one of the most powerful tools in mental healthcare
What changes when people become active participants in their own care
Why continuity and trust matter when someone experiences another crisis 
The surprising relationship between Open Dialogue and mindfulness
What it could take to implement this approach across the NHS
Moment of Care: This episode includes discussion of childhood trauma, serious violence, mental health and other potentially distressing experiences. If you feel triggered at any point, please take care of yourself and seek support if you need it.
Russell Razzaque at Transform Trauma Oxford 2026
Russell will take this exploration of relationships further at Transform Trauma Oxford this September in Open Dialogue & Mindful Listening: How Healing Happens in Relationship. 
In this experiential session, he will explore how the quality of our attention can help people feel safer, understood and more connected and why learning to listen rather than immediately solve or fix can strengthen the healing potential of relationships.
Through mindfulness, practical teaching and experiential exercises, participants will have the opportunity to practise these skills themselves and explore how they can be brought into therapeutic conversations.
Russell will be speaking alongside leading experts Gabor Maté, Bessel van der Kolk, Kristin Neff, Dan Siegel, Jack Kornfield, Ruby Wax, Rangan Chatterjee and many others.
In-person ticket: £995
Virtual ticket: £395
Get 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.