The Proper Mental Podcast

Welcome to episode 225 with Phil Borges, a documentary photographer and filmmaker, recognised for his documentation of indigenous peoples and tribal cultures, with a particular focus on Tibet, human rights, and women's empowerment issues.  His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide.

While Phil was documenting the various human rights abuses faced by tribal and indigenous cultures around the world, he began to meet the...

Welcome to episode 224 with Karla Chubb, who is a singer, guitarist and songwriter in Sprints.

Sprints formed in Dublin in 2019 and quickly became known for their explosive, cathartic, and incredibly powerful live performances.  After a series of EP’s, they released their debut album in 2024 to great critical acclaim.  The follow up ‘All That is Over’ is out this month.

In this episode I’m joined by Karla to chat about the origins ...

Welcome to episode 223 with Dr MaryCatherine McDonald, who is a research professor and life coach who specialises in the psychology and philosophy of trauma.

Her work focuses on thinking critically about how we understand, define, and heal from traumatic experiences.

Her newest book, The Joy Reset is a ground breaking, accessible guide to identifying the key ways trauma prevents joy and hope, with strategies for healing.

In this ep...

Welcome to episode 222 with Anthony Kavanagh, a singer and author who exploded onto the pop music scene in the late 90’s when his song ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ was a huge hit all over the world.  At just 18 years old he was touring with the Spice Girls and Boyzone, on the front cover of Smash Hits and countless magazines and regularly appearing on Top of the Pops.

Throughout this time Anthony was keeping his sexuality a secret, s...

Welcome to episode 221 with Kaila Yu, a journalist, travel writer and the author of Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty.

A former model, Kaila became closely associated with the import scene that took off in the late 90’s (think Fast & Furious 1) and also featured in many of the high-profile magazines of that time.

In this episode Kaila joins me to chat about growing up as an Asian woman in America a...

Welcome to episode 220 with Miranda Arieh, who is a mental health educator and founder of the pioneering HEROES Programme, a holistic, transformation-focused and trauma-informed approach to mental health recovery.

Miranda was sectioned under the mental health act at the age of 14 and became a ‘revolving door service user’ in the NHS mental health system, bouncing in and out of foster care, homelessness and crisis.

This cycle contin...

Welcome to episode 219 with Andrew Scull, who is a sociologist whose research has centred on the social history of medicine and particularly psychiatry for more than 50 years.

He is a recipient of the Roy Porter Medal for lifetime contributions to the history of medicine and the author of more than a dozen books including Madness in Civilization: A Cultural History of Insanity and Desperate Remedies: Psychiatry's Turbu...

Welcome to episode 218 with Lauren McQuistin, who is a musician, opera singer and author of No Lost Causes Club, a memoir that explores what navigating sobriety looks like in our modern world.

She is also the creator behind one of my all-time favourite mental health related meme accounts @brutalrecovery.

While in her early twenties, Lauren was told that her life expectancy could be as low as twenty-five if she did not stop drinking...

Welcome to episode 217 with Sam Parker, who is British GQ’s Site Director and someone who has worked in culture and lifestyle journalism for over 15 years.

He is also the author of Good Anger: How Rethinking Rage Can Change Our Lives and for this episode he joins me to chat about the good bits and the bad bits of getting angry.

We chat about his experiences with anxiety that led him to explore his relationship with anger and how th...

Welcome to episode 216 with Adam Farrer, who is a writer, lecturer, mentor and editor.

Adam’s recent book Broken Biscuits and Other Male Failures is all about his struggles to live up to masculine expectations and in this episode, we chat about what it means to be a man and what it’s like to fall short of those ideals.

We chat about Adam’s route to becoming a writer, dealing with rejection along the way and following a creative pat...

Welcome to episode 215 with Dr Lisa McKenzie, who is a working class academic and anarchistic author.

She is a researcher and educator whose work relates to class inequality, social justice and British working class culture and a founding member of The Working Class Collective CIC.

Lisa grew up in Nottingham, in a mining community.  After she left school, she went to work in a local factory with her Mum and her aunties and never co...

Welcome to episode 214 with Cormac Russell, who is an author and social explorer.

He is the Founding Director of Nurture Development and a member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute.

Cormac has spent more than 20 years working all over the world training communities and professional organisations in Asset-Based Community Development and other strengths-based approaches.

In this episode I chat to Cormac about h...

Welcome to episode 213 with Darren McGarvey, who is an author, musician, social commentator and journalist.

Darren grew up in Pollok on the south side of Glasgow, and has lived through extreme poverty, addiction and homelessness.  He wrote about his life and experiences in his first book ‘Poverty Safari’ which received critical acclaim for its insights into poverty and inequality.

His upcoming book ’Trauma Industrial Complex’ is du...

Welcome to episode 212 with Tana Sirois, who is an actor, theatre maker and coach who is currently touring a one woman show called UnTethered, an autobiographical comedy that follows a queer, demi sexual woman with obsessive compulsive disorder as she attempts to transcend her fears so that she may finally experience what it’s like to feel safe and loved.

Tana is originally from the States but it was while studying acting at univer...

Welcome to episode 211 with Owen Williams, who is the singer and guitarist in The Tubs.

He is also a vocalist and guitarist in Ex-Void and the drummer in Sniffany and The Nits and other things in other bands as well, all under the banner of the London based, music collective Gob Nation.

In this episode I chat to Owen about his experiences with OCD and the mental breakdown that he was going through while writing songs for The Tubs w...

Welcome to episode 210 with Rosie Viva, who is a model, presenter, author and an ambassador for Bipolar UK.

Rosie has experienced various mental health challenges from a young age and was originally misdiagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Despite this she built a successful career as a model which took her all over the globe, working with some of the world’s biggest brands but in the background her mental health was often moving thr...

Welcome to episode 209 with Dr Dean Burnett, who is a neuroscientist, lecturer and author.

Dean is currently an honorary research fellow at Cardiff Psychology School and has also worked as a psychiatry tutor and lecturer at the Cardiff University Centre for Medical Education.

He is the author of several acclaimed books about brains, neuroscience, emotions and mental health.

And this episode is a little bit different.

I wanted to do...

Welcome to episode 208 with Hyphen, who is a rapper, songwriter and political punk.

After finishing university, Hyphen found himself working in finance.  He also found himself bored, depressed and drinking to cope.

This came to a tipping point when a close friend of his died by suicide and his own mental health was pushed towards breaking point.  Hyphen started to experience his own thoughts of suicide and it was while working thro...

Welcome to episode 207 with Hana Walker-Brown, a multi-award winning and critically acclaimed storyteller and sound artist who works across film, radio and podcasting and narrative non-fiction.

In 2023 Hana was signed off work with severe burnout.  It took a year for her to understand this experience, to unpack it, to make peace with it and to get back to herself and in this episode, I chat to Hana about that process.

This isn’t a ...