About A Normal Family: modern family life, trauma & healing
Wondering why your family feels “not so normal”, or why the same patterns keep repeating in your relationships? This podcast on family healing and modern relationships helps you understand yourself, your family and how it shaped you, so you can build better relationships and happier lives. Through intimate interviews and personal storytelling, Anna Wallace explores modern family life – parenting and living childfree, divorce and blended families, loss, estrangement and reconciliation, and what it means to “break the cycle” of family trauma without breaking yourself.
My birth trauma changed my life ' - what it takes to become a mum
Rosh was fit, healthy, and ran health policy for an insurance body. On the face of it, you might have expected her to find the transition to motherhood easy.Instead, both of her pregnancies show something that stays hidden more often than it should: the physical cost many women pay to become mothers.This is the final part of my series on matrescence, the transition to motherhood. I started this series apologising to my mum friends for not understanding what becoming one actually costs. Rosh is why I wanted to end here.For her first daughter, she was induced when she didn't need to be, had an emergency C-section and then an infection - all of which also triggered early menopause. Her gynaecologist of ten years told her she wasn't pregnant. She was. Her second pregnancy came with a diagnosis of 'cervical incompetence' (horrible term!), that put her on bed rest for close to five months, not knowing whether her second daughter would make it. After her traumas she spoke to friends - some of 20 years - and found out that many people had also had awful experiences they'd never shared. We talk about what she wishes she'd known, how to advocate for yourself inside the health system, and why so much of this stays in the shadows.A note before you press play: this episode discusses pregnancy loss risk and birth trauma. If that's not what you need today, look after yourself and come back to it another time.Key moments06:28 The induction she didn't need, and the emergency C-section that followed12:34 Getting pregnant again, and the diagnosis that meant months of bed rest17:03 The mental toll, and the friends who'd never shared their own birth stories23:24 How to actually advocate for yourself, and what she'd tell every expectant motherResources Rosh wanted to share:Incompetent Cervix support group (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/share/g/17cNFsj83f/?mibextid=wwXIfrMayo Clinic — what to know about labour induction: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/labor-and-delivery/in-depth/inducing-labor/art-20047557The Poppy Study — preconception through pregnancy and postpartum research, open to anyone trying for their first baby: https://www.instagram.com/the.poppy.studyRosh is a functional hormone health coach and founder of Vital Woman Wellness. Follow her work: https://www.instagram.com/vitalwoman_wellnessWant to learn how to advocate for yourself in the moments that matter most? Find out about coaching with me, here: https://www.annawallace.org/work-with-annaA Normal Family is a fortnightly podcast about the patterns we inherit from our families, and how understanding them helps us live happier lives with better relationships.#matrescence #birthtrauma #pregnancyadvocacy #earlymenopause #womenshealth
1 Aug 2026
Who's script is it anyway? What I learned from Carla Hoppe
A few months ago I nearly made a decision that wasn't mine to make. It felt like common sense because for someone else, in a different decade, it was.
This solo episode is what happened when Carla Hoppe's two-column money exercise gave me enough distance to see my parents' financial scripts clearly, and to ask whether they still applied to me. Including what I actually decided.
This is a direct follow-up to my conversation with Carla Hoppe. Listen to that one here: https://shorturl.at/p4bww
Key moments:
00:00 The property decision that nearly wasn't mine02:28 Their money script became my money script04:37 The relief of making my own decision05:11 Why money scripts are invisible from the inside06:05 How the two-column exercise changes your decisions
17 Jul 2026
Grief, self-forgiveness and the gift of being unburdened | Dr Elia Gourgouris
Grief doesn't resolve. It just changes shape.
Dr Elia Gourgouris lost his mother when he was 22. Her last words to him were simple: don't worry about me, I just want you to be happy. He spent the next four decades finding out what that actually meant, first as a therapist who nearly worked himself into the ground, then as the man now known as the happiness doctor.
We met at the World Happiness Summit in Cascais and talked through two tools he uses most with his own clients: a self-forgiveness exercise that starts with a literal list, and HOT conversations, a way of setting boundaries with the people who drain you without becoming someone you don't recognise.
His self-forgiveness exercise, in his words:
Write down everything you haven't forgiven yourself for. Five things or fifty, it doesn't matter.
Rate each one from one to ten. Most things you think are a ten are closer to a seven.
Start with the easiest one and work through the list.
When you're done, burn the paper.
"It's so worth it. Do it as a gift to yourself. You will be unburdened."
Key moments02:52 His mother Petrula: diagnosis, loss and her last words07:52 Becoming "the happiness doctor"11:27 What keeps us unhappy12:36 The self-forgiveness exercise16:19 HOT conversations: setting healthy boundaries23:21 The secret to a happy marriage26:02 Don't procrastinate your happiness
This episode is part of my matrescence series, on the mothers who raised us and what they leave behind. Catch the rest of the series here: https://tinyurl.com/2c6e4rhr (https://tinyurl.com/2c6e4rhr)
More from Dr Elia Gourgouris: www.dreliagourgouris.com
If this brought something up for you, I'd love to hear it in the comments - if you feel comfortable sharing.
#selfforgiveness #hotconversations #familypatterns #matrescence
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