Wild, Wise & Curious...

For our 50th episode, we’re diving into The Midlife Pivot - the moment so many women hit during perimenopause when symptoms, identity and daily life start shifting in ways that just can’t be ignored. Our guest, Zo, shares how her journey began during lockdown with dry mouth, 3am wake‑ups and hot flushes, and how not being able to take HRT pushed her to explore other forms of support. She talks about using her background in nutrition and going back to basics with nutrient‑dense foods, the power of nervous system regulation, and how EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) became a lifeline.
We also explore the importance of community, why workplaces need to understand menopause better and how Zo now supports women through groups, 1:1 work and corporate consulting - see below to find out more. A grounded, practical and deeply human conversation - and the perfect way to mark 50 episodes of honest, real‑life storytelling.
Show Notes:
To follow Zo on socials:
Insta - @nourishher_menopause
FB - NourishHer-Menopause
Or subscribe to receive Zo's Nourish Her free guide, Feel Better Through Menopause: https://bit.ly/42EqQU2
 
 

In this episode, we sit down with Jennie for an honest, funny and deeply human conversation about perimenopause, menopause and the midlife decisions no one prepares you for.
Jennie shares how her journey began with mood swings, hot flashes and brain fog in her 40s - and how those symptoms slowly unravelled parts of her life she thought were set in stone. From medical treatments that didn’t help, to the hormonal shifts that affected her hearing and vision, to the moment she realised she no longer wanted to stay in her marriage, Jennie talks openly about what she calls her ‘maybe years’.
Together, we explore the conditioning women inherit around marriage, career and ‘sticking it out’, and how midlife can become a powerful turning point for choosing authenticity over expectation. Now a divorce coach, Jennie helps other women navigate these crossroads with clarity and compassion.
This is a conversation about hormones, identity, relationships - and the freedom that comes when you finally choose yourself.
 
See below for more on Jennie:
Jennie Sutton, is an award‑winning divorce coach known for her practical, no‑nonsense guidance for women navigating the complexities of separation and divorce. After ending her own 30‑year marriage seven years ago, she founded Untying The Knot to ensure no woman faces this life‑changing decision alone or unprepared. Based in Cheltenham, Jennie is a Master Practitioner in Divorce and Domestic Abuse Coaching, a financial mindset coach, and a professional McKenzie Friend, offering expert courtroom support and strategic advice. With over 20 years of coaching experience, she brings real‑life insight and straightforward strategies that help women feel more in control, reduce anxiety, and confidently build their new future. A mother of four and grandmother of four, Jennie’s approach is compassionate but never sugar‑coated, enabling women to make clear decisions, avoid common pitfalls, and navigate the legal, financial, and emotional minefields of divorce. She is also a co‑author of Emotional Alchemy with Sara Davison, mentors coaches within Sara’s elite team, and is internationally recognised for her contribution to divorce and domestic abuse coaching. Jennie speaks powerfully on topics including recognising when a relationship is over, asking for a divorce without regret, financial navigation during separation, managing anxiety and self‑doubt, telling children the truth, and building a confident new life post‑divorce.
FIND JENNIE ONLINE: 
Website: https://untyingtheknot.me/ 
Instagram: coach_untyingtheknot
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1945075899334032

In this week’s episode, we explore how the menstrual cycle shapes, guides and ultimately carries us toward the threshold of our elder years.
Our guest, Rushna, shares her 25‑year journey with menstruality - beginning with a chance discovery in an astrological journal and unfolding into a lifelong practice of tracking her monthly bleed, honouring her inner seasons and learning to live in rhythm with her body.
We talk about the shift from monthly bleeding into the midlife transition and how perimenopause is far more than a hormonal storm - it’s a profound rite of passage. A crossing. A calling into elderhood.
We explore the power of women supporting each other, the importance of community over isolation and the growing movement of women reclaiming their lived experience as wisdom.
Rushna also shares her current work: drumming workshops, circle facilitation and the Rose Academy - a 13‑week transformational programme for women, with retreats in Devon and online offerings on the way.
This conversation is for anyone curious about the deeper meaning of the menstrual cycle, the midlife shift and the path that leads us towards our elder years.
To find out more about Rushna's offerings, check out her socials and website below:
https://www.luminowellness.co.uk/
@lumino_wellness

In this episode of Wild, Wise & Curious, Sue shares her powerful journey through perimenopause and menopause - a journey that reshaped her health, her identity and ultimately… her life.
She opens up about the anxiety, cognitive challenges and emotional strain that made it impossible to continue in her corporate engineering role. What followed was a profound shift: Sue discovered sound healing and tuning fork therapy, opening a new path filled with meaning, creativity and deep personal growth.
The conversation explores what it really takes to follow your passion, the importance of community for menopausal women and the growing cultural shift toward embracing a holistic lifestyle. Sue also reflects on her recent contribution to The Empowerment Effect, a book celebrating women stepping into their power.
It’s an inspiring, honest and deeply human story about listening to your body, trusting your instincts and allowing yourself to evolve.
To check out the book Sue has contributed to, The Empowerment Effect, follow this link: https://bit.ly/4c5NmL5
For Sue’s socials, see below:
https://www.facebook.com/susancainsoundtherapy/
https://www.instagram.com/susan_cain_soundtherapy/ 

In this week’s episode of Wild Wise and Curious, we are joined by Laura, calling in from Spain, for a beautifully honest conversation about navigating perimenopause while parenting teenagers and managing the realities of single‑parent life.
Laura shares how she first recognised she was entering perimenopause when her period became increasingly irregular over eleven months, followed by brain fog and memory challenges that made daily life feel heavier. She talks openly about the coping strategies that help her stay grounded - meditation, mindfulness practices and writing exercises that support her emotional well-being.
The conversation also explores the complexities of parenting teens, setting boundaries and practicing patience, especially while working from home and carrying the mental load alone. Laura discusses her practical tools... like keeping to-do lists, staying present with family and the deeper emotional work of offering oneself compassion during difficult seasons.
It’s a tender, relatable and deeply human episode about holding many roles at once - and finding moments of steadiness in the middle of it all.
 
To find out more about what Laura is up to, check out her info & website below:
Laura Brodie is an Operations and Outreach Coordinator, Resilience Trainer, and facilitator specialising in emotional regulation and performance under pressure.
She designs and delivers practical, experience-based trainings that support teams and professionals working in high-responsibility or support roles, particularly in educational and rehabilitation settings. Her work helps individuals move from overwhelm and uncertainty to clarity, confidence, and purposeful action.
 
As the founder of Adventures in Albinism and creator of The Teacher’s Compass, Laura brings a unique perspective that combines education and positive psychology. Through these mindfulness-based initiatives, she supports individuals with albinism, as well as the parents and teachers who guide them, while also working more broadly with professionals navigating complex challenges, including those related to visual impairment.
With over 25 years of teaching experience and lived experience with low vision, Laura integrates theory and practice to create accessible, impactful learning experiences.
She believes resilience is not about pushing through, but about learning to pause, choose, and respond with intention.
Linked in-(3) Laura Brodie | LinkedIn
Website- https://adventuresinalbinism.com/home
 

Perimenopause often arrives quietly, disguised as something ordinary - a restless night, a stressful week, a sudden wave of heat you put down to a new deodorant. In this episode, Angie shares her personal journey into recognising those early signs for what they truly were: the beginning of a profound hormonal transition.
We talk about the moment of realisation, the overlap between perimenopause and her work in women’s health, and how supporting rites‑of‑passage ceremonies deepened her understanding of this life stage.
From drumming to sleep rituals to stepping away from alcohol, Angie opens up about the self‑care practices that help her stay grounded. And woven through it all is the reminder that listening to the body, making space for expression, and sharing stories with other women can transform this transition from something endured into something deeply held.
Find out more about Angie’s work below:
https://www.angielitvinoff.com
https://www.instagram.com/angie_the_medicine_woman
https://www.angielitvinoff.com/podcast

This week, Kerstin shares a story that began with a body in distress and a mind trying to make sense of it. She experienced heart palpitations, shortness of breath, adrenaline‑rush reactions to food and almost fainted at work. She also had an electrical sensation in her chest that eventually led to a small cardiac procedure. When she finally saw a cardiologist, he told her, ‘Women can get this in perimenopause’, and it was the first time anything she was experiencing made sense.
Alongside the physical symptoms came something she didn’t expect: emotional numbness. She didn’t feel anything - no joy, no sadness, no spark - and the flatness left her feeling... nothing.
With no guidance from her mum, who’d had a hysterectomy in her 30s and never went through natural menopause, Kerstin had no roadmap. Her symptoms fed into health anxiety and she became convinced something was seriously wrong with her.
In this episode, Kerstin talks about the anxiety, the numbness, the impact on her marriage and the frustration of being dismissed or left without answers. She also shares the relief she found through hormone therapy and lifestyle changes, and why she now believes women deserve far better information and support.
This is an episode for anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed, numb or anxious about symptoms they didn’t recognise - and for anyone who has had to find their own answers when no one else could give them.
*There are a couple of moments of lag and the odd bark from the dog, but none of it takes away from the importance of adding Kerstin’s voice to the growing chorus of women whose stories need to be heard so they can help others find their way.

Dani’s midlife turning point didn’t arrive with the classic symptoms - it arrived through tension at home. What she jokingly calls 'teenage 1.0 versus teenage 2.0' became the moment she realised something deeper was shifting inside her. That moment opened the door to understanding perimenopause and sparked a deeper journey into holistic healing and self‑reconnection.
In this beautifully honest conversation, Dani shares how somatic healing, drumming circles and cold sea swimming helped her regulate, soften and return to herself. She talks about the supper clubs that began around her friend’s kitchen table and have since grown into a thriving community space - with dreams of a tea room rooted in nourishment and connection.
This is a story about starting small, listening to your body, and letting midlife become a powerful re‑rooting. A remembering. A reclaiming. A return to who you were always becoming.
 
To find out more about what Dani is up to, check out her website, mother-daughter podcast and socials below:
Website: www.warmthandwellness.co.uk
Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569320312494
Instagram page https://www.instagram.com/warmth.and.wellness?igsh=MXhhMzV2cDdodnZneQ==
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556012971637
Blog: https://blog.danishiftingtides.com/blog-661355
Dodwell dialogue (mother-daughter podcast - also available on Spotify)  https://www.youtube.com/@danidodwell4627
 https://www.instagram.com/dodwelldialoguepodcast/
Dani & her friend, Katie, who run the supper club together, have signed up with a small local, female-owned tea business, Mother_Cuppa, to serve Candice's (Mother Cuppa creator) tea blends at their supper clubs. They love her sustainable, environmentally-friendly and proper tasty tea. Here is their affiliate link to the lovely brew! https://mothercuppatea.refr.cc/BrewCrew/u/warmthandwellness?s=sp&t=cp

At 52, everything Rowena thought she knew about her body suddenly changed. Her period due date wasn’t her period due date anymore, her sleep vanished for three relentless months, her mental health crashed and even mindfulness - the thing she teaches - wasn’t touching the sides.
We talk about the shock of perimenopause simply arriving, the frustration of being told ‘this coil will stop your periods’ (it didn’t), and the way midlife can make women feel invisible - even though in many cultures, women at this stage of life are treasured.
And woven through it all is something deeply Rowena: she has never conformed to what society thought she should do. Not in her work, not in her choices, not in how she moves through the world. So when her body threw her a plot twist, she met it with honesty, humour, rebellion and a determination to find her own way through.
This conversation is warm, funny and proper relatable.
We explore:
the moment her body changed the rules
why menopause education needs to start in schools
how she stopped caring what people think
the hippie humour, honesty and wisdom that carried her through
and how she’s slowly finding her way back to something softer, steadier and way more grounded
Rowena is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, Mindfulness Practitioner and Midlife/Menopause Coach, blending holistic tools with lived experience to support others through their own midlife plot twists.
To find out more about Rowena’s work or to connect with her, visit her on her socials:
Instagram @LilacLotusWellbeing
Facebook @LilacLotusLifeCoaching

In this episode of Wild, Wise & Curious, we explore what it feels like to experience a permission shift in midlife - the moment you start choosing differently, listening inward and treating your body with the care it’s been asking for all along.
Our guest, Nix, talks about being in a deeply curious place: noticing how her body responds, how it communicates and how rest becomes something to value rather than something to earn. We explore acceptance, self‑worth and the quiet confidence that comes from tuning in rather than pushing through.
We also dive into the story of how a single drumming session at a retreat sparked something unexpected - leading from one drum to thirty‑nine and the creation of a local drumming circle that just keeps on growing.
It’s a conversation about rhythm, permission, curiosity and the small midlife shifts that change everything (and every time we write permission - we think percussion - ha ha ha).
🎧 Listen wherever you get your podcasts
📺 Or watch the conversation unfold as a video podcast over on YouTube
To reach out to Nix: 
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1FS1SBVdCK/?mibextid=wwXIfr
 
https://www.facebook.com/Enkindlelifecoaching
 
https://www.instagram.com/enkindlelifecoaching
 
https://www.enkindlelifecoaching.com/drumcircles
 
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-m8PZy7qVP6L46L7LHmFJScnZRd7F4UZ&si=i4hlPHkIZeuMdoLN