Disrupting Wellbeing with Petra Velzeboer

Do you own your story, or does it own you?

The moment you take ownership of it is the moment you take power over it. 

My incredible guest in this episode, Chana Buisson, experienced trauma in her childhood. Physical and mental abuse led to depression and suicidal thoughts later in life.

Chana shares with so much honesty what she went through, and beauty the lessons she has since learned. She discusses how she overcame her tra...

Does the world around you impact your mental health?

The bad news we see daily, the world in trouble. I would argue that we have a responsibility to protect ourselves from it. And live in a way that doesn’t overload our mental health.

By all means be active on the issues important to you but recognise that you have the control over the information you consume.

In this episode I discuss how to navigate the troubles we see in t...

True high performance in the workplace is not common.

But it is possible. So, what does it take to get there and stay there?

In this episode I am joined by Chinazom and Ije, a couple who are business and leadership coaches. They discuss the challenges and rewards of working together as a couple and as business partners.

They also explore the concept of mental fitness and its importance for performance and wellbeing. We cover ...

Too often we make decisions without thinking if they will have a positive impact on our lives.

We need to be able to align our decisions with our truth. That means not just choosing what we think is a good decision but what we think is a great decision.

But how do we know what a great decision is?

In this episode, I discuss the concept of good versus great and how it relates to finding our purpose and living in alignment with...

Work life balance is a lie, it doesn’t exist.

We are all going from one aspect of our lives to the other, trying to keep everything afloat, but what of we reframed it as work life harmony?

This outlook on leadership and wellbeing is championed by my guest in this episode, Andre Young. He is the founder of You Evolving Now, author and leadership trainer helping create better work culture, and improved interactions between leader...

Do you have voices that influence your decisions?

Whether they are inside your head or out there in the real world, they exist for all of us.

The hard bit is finding the right people to hear you out and give you the insights you need to make your next move.

In this episode I discuss the importance of creating a circle of support in what can be a world of isolation. And that support may need to evolve over time. I explore the ...

Is your gut health impacting your mental health?

The connection between how our gut is feeling and how our brain feels is becoming more and more understood.

That’s why in this episode I invited Dana Chapman, a health and wellness expert, to talk us about how to look after ourselves by looking after our gut. She is trained in Nutrition Science, incorporating elements of how genetics, stressors, environment, food, movement and sl...

Are you overwhelmed by all the self-help advice out there?

Feeling like every expert is telling us something slightly different to get us to the destination of being healed. But it doesn’t work like that.

In this episode, I discuss how to get the most out of self-help. And I challenge the idea of healing as a destination and emphasize the importance of the self in self-help. We need reflection, radical honesty, and checking our...

How long does it take to heal from trauma?

The reality is that it can take far longer than it should according to my guest in this episode Dr. Ardeshir Mehran. He believes we should be emphasizing the importance of accelerated healing and the need to address shame and grief in the healing process.

Ardeshir Mehran is a leadership excellence coach, who enables leaders to achieve their personal and operating goals, at faster and highe...

How can I set boundaries and stick to them?

This is one of the most common questions I get asked. We all try and set boundaries but so often we beat ourselves up for not sticking to them. But all it takes is a little tweak to make it work, and that’s what we’re going to cover in this episode.

I delve into my own struggles with boundaries and addiction, and the shame I have felt when I didn’t meet them. I also share tactics you ...

When there is a suicide attempts trauma happens on all sides.

From the person attempting it now needing mental health support, to the loved ones needing to re-build trust in them. Everyone must deal with the ripple effects.

In this episode I am joined by Clarke and Carrie Carlisle. Clarke attempted suicide which led them both down a path of having to work on their mental health for very different reasons. They share their exper...

Welcome to season 2!

This episode is different! Tips, tools and advice from my story and hundreds of hours working with clients. 

All too easily we can numb ourselves when we feel those tough feelings, we need to recognise the importance of feeling both the highs and the lows of life.

In this episode I share my own experiences leaving life in a cult, overcoming addiction and suicidal thoughts, to being able to shift from a victim ...

We’ve all seen the medical shows on TV, tears in the closet, all the drama.

But what is it really like to train as a Doctor?

In this episode I am joined by 3 Doctors in training to shed light on the realities they face and to bust some myths. They share the challenges they have faced throughout their training and the coping strategies they have developed to deal with stress and their mental health struggles.

They talk about burnout...

Many organisations see wellbeing issues as a problem with the individual not the system. 

Emily Warren believes it’s time that this is flipped on its head and we look at the environments, the cultures, and the structures we place around employees instead.

Emily is responsible for a portfolio of EX projects and initiatives within the Avanade business, aimed at continually elevating the employee experience. She works in partnership w...

The beauty of diversity is that we think differently, and those differences should be respected and celebrated while we work together.

This simple and elegant view of DEI in the workplace is that of my guest in this episode Dr. Asif Sadiq MBE. Asif is the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for Warner Bros. Discovery, he was previously the Global Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Social Impact at adidas and has a long an...

People’s houses are on fire because of burnout and corporate wellbeing is unable to address it. They focus on the wrong things, and until the root cause is dealt with the symptomatic manifestations of burnout will persist.

This is the belief of my guest, Subira Jones, The Corporate Hippie, an award-winning high performance, lifestyle, and burnout coach. Subira has lived through a year-long burnout cycle after completing her degree ...

Storytelling is a powerful way for humans to share what they are going through. It can also be a way for the stigmas of mental health to be lifted. My guest in this episode, Clare Munn, has been putting story telling at the centre of her efforts to disrupt how the world talks about mental health.

Clare Munn is an entrepreneur, media executive & activist focused on disrupting irrelevant and redundant models by using story tellin...

Imagine not being able to say a word as a child. Imagine every time you stammered you were beaten. Imagine that this treatment cured you.

This was the experience of my guest, Jon Smith. It was life changing and allowed him to pursue a career at the elite level of sport as a super-agent culminating in an OBE. 

Jon discusses his own experience with mental health and the attitude towards mental health in sports. He also discusses the ...

Do you suffer from the Sunday night blues?

Everyone has experienced that feeling of dread before you start work on a Monday. But what if that could be an indicator to so much more, not just to you as an individual but the organisation you work for. Then you would have the power to know where your energy and time should be spent rather than fearing the start of the week.

In this episode I am joined by Kirstin Furber, who is People D...