Challenge Your Guilt is a podcast for mothers ready to stop internalising guilt and shame and start flourishing in motherhood, work and life. It’s a warm, honest space - part conversation, part insight - to help dismantle the unrealistic standards we’ve all inherited.
Maternal Rage, Mum Guilt & the Power of Repair - with Dr Caroline Boyd
What happens when the pressure to be a calm, patient, endlessly capable mother collides with the reality of modern motherhood? In this episode of Challenge Your Guilt, I’m joined by clinical psychologist, author and maternal anger specialist Dr Caroline Boyd to explore one of the most taboo and shame-filled parts of motherhood: maternal rage. We talk about why anger so often feels incompatible with being a “good mother”, why guilt and shame rush in after we snap, and why maternal anger needs ...
16 Jul 2026
Working Parent Guilt, Good Enough Parenting and the Flexibility We Need - with Rachel Vecht
In this episode of Challenge Your Guilt, I’m joined by Rachel Vecht, founder of Educating Matters, to talk about working parent guilt, perfectionism and why “good enough” parenting may be far healthier than trying to get everything right. Rachel has spent 25 years supporting parents, carers and organisations at the intersection of parenting, education, wellbeing and work. She is also a mother of four and speaks honestly about the gap between knowing the parenting theory and living the reality...
25 Jun 2026
Motherhood, Shame and the Fight to Be Seen - with Caro Giles
In this episode of Challenge Your Guilt, I’m joined by writer Caro Giles, author of Twelve Moons and Unschooled, for a deeply honest conversation about motherhood, care, shame, identity and what happens when families no longer fit neatly within the systems designed to support them. Caro is a single mother of four daughters, two of whom are autistic and unable to access mainstream education. In this conversation, she shares what it means to be not only a mother, but also the default advocate, ...
14 May 2026
The Trance of Not Enoughness: Toxic Productivity, Selflessness and Maternal Guilt - with Tamu Thomas
In this powerful episode of Challenge Your Guilt, I’m joined by the brilliant Tamu Thomas - somatic coach, speaker, founder of the Live Three Sixty brand and author of Women Who Work Too Much. Together, we explore one of the biggest lies modern women have been sold: that being a “good” woman, and especially a “good” mother, means being endlessly busy, endlessly giving and endlessly available. Tamu names how womanhood and motherhood have become conflated with martyrdom, and how the cultural ce...
23 Apr 2026
Why Maternal Guilt Isn’t Personal: The Science Behind What Mothers Are Carrying - with Melissa Hogenboom
In this episode, I’m joined by award-winning science journalist and author Melissa Hogenboom to explore maternal guilt through a powerful lens: biology, psychology, and culture. Melissa’s work has deeply influenced my own thinking, and in this conversation, we unpack one of the most important truths about modern motherhood: Much of what we experience as “personal failure” is, in fact, systemic design. We explore why women are still carrying too much, how deeply embedded gender norms shape our...
2 Apr 2026
Rewriting The Invisible Rulebook of Motherhood - with Becky Selbie
What if the problem isn’t you… but the rules you’ve been living by? In this powerful and deeply validating conversation, I’m joined by psychotherapeutic counsellor and coach Becky Selbie (also known as Motherway), to unpack one of the most important - and overlooked - drivers of maternal guilt: the invisible rulebook. Because when you become a mother, you don’t start from scratch. You inherit a complex set of internalised rules about what it means to be “good.” Rules about: How much you...
18 Mar 2026
The Shame Spiral in Motherhood: How to Break It - with Emily Hughes
In this episode, I’m joined by conscious parenting coach and somatic practitioner Emily Hughes from Finding Flow Parenting. When we first spoke, she said something that stopped me in my tracks: “I see far less guilt in parents… and far more shame.” Not “I did something wrong” - but “Something is wrong with me.” And that distinction matters more than we realise. Because shame doesn’t just sit at the surface. It lives in the body. It shapes how we respond to our children. And it can quietl...
12 Feb 2026
From Playground to Boardroom: How Early Gender Conditioning Shapes Guilt, Careers and Care - with Clare Willetts
In this episode of Challenge Your Guilt, I’m joined by Clare Willetts - gender equality consultant, founder of Not Only Pink and Blue, and former advertising and brand leader. Through Not Only Pink and Blue, Clare works with businesses, schools and organisations to challenge gender stereotypes and create more equitable cultures - from the playground to the boardroom. Clare’s work sits at the powerful intersection of childhood socialisation, maternal guilt, workplace inequality, the limits soc...
29 Jan 2026
“When We Know Better, We Do Better": Releasing Guilt Around Mothers’ Health Choices - with Esther Amira-Opie
In this episode, I’m joined by Esther Amira-Opie, a natural therapist and women’s health practitioner, for a deeply honest and compassionate conversation about maternal guilt, health anxiety, burnout, and learning to listen to our bodies as mothers. Esther shares her own journey from corporate healthcare into holistic practice, including how postnatal depletion, stress, and a pre-diabetes diagnosis became a turning point in how she understood health, balance, and self-care. Together, we explo...
14 Jan 2026
The Double Bind of Confidence & Guilt in Modern Motherhood - with Lauren Currie OBE
In this episode of Challenge Your Guilt, I’m joined by Lauren Currie OBE - social entrepreneur, author, activist and founder of Upfront, a global movement supporting women and marginalised genders to build confidence, take up space and feel braver together. I’ve admired Lauren’s work for a long time, because so much of what she explores - confidence, visibility, shame, shrinking and self-censorship - sits right at the heart of the maternal guilt conversations I have with mothers every day. In...
17 Dec 2025
Laughing Through the Guilt: Motherhood, Mental Health & Finding Freedom in Humour - with Alyssa Kyria (aka @thefunnymummyuk)
What if laughter isn’t just a coping mechanism for motherhood - but a quiet act of resistance against guilt and shame? In this episode of Challenge Your Guilt I'm joined by comedian, actor and creator of the much-loved Instagram account @thefunnymummyuk, Alyssa Kyria. Known for her razor-sharp parodies and unfiltered honesty, Alyssa shares the story behind her work, her experiences of maternal guilt, and why humour has become one of her most powerful tools for survival, connection and self-co...
9 Dec 2025
Maternal Guilt, Identity Loss & Rewriting the Narrative Through Creativity - with Vicki Broadbent
In this rich & energising conversation, I'm joined by writer, multi-award-winning blogger & long-time flexible working campaigner Vicki Broadbent - known to many as @honestmum - whose digital career began after leaving her role as a screenwriter & TV director when motherhood collided with an inflexible industry. The author of Mumboss and Greek Myths, Folk Tales & Legends, Vicki has built one of the UK’s most recognisable digital platforms while raising her three children - &am...
25 Nov 2025
Raising Children in a Broken World - with Siobhan Strode
In this episode, I'm joined by Siobhan Strode - writer, campaigner, business owner, and mother of three - for a raw, wide-ranging conversation about the evolving nature of mum guilt and what it means to raise children in a world that can feel increasingly fractured. Together we explore: How guilt shifts across the seasons of motherhood - from toddler tantrums and TV time to teenage independence and phone boundaries.The transition from employment to self-employment, and how freedom and flexibi...
22 Oct 2025
The Perfect Mother Myth: How Society Shapes Our Guilt – with Dr Sophie Brock
Why do mothers feel guilty no matter what we do? In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Sophie Brock – sociologist, motherhood studies expert, and one of the biggest influences on my own work – to explore how maternal guilt isn’t a personal flaw but a product of the world we’re swimming in. Sophie introduces her powerful Fish Tank of Motherhood model, explains the roots of the Perfect Mother Myth, and shows how guilt, privilege, and social expectations intersect to shape our daily experience of mo...
27 Sept 2025
Breaking the 9–5 Trap: How Flexible Work Reduces Mum Guilt - with Amy Grilli
What if your career could fit within school hours instead of forcing you to choose between work and family? In this conversation, I’m joined by Amy Grilli, co-founder of The Five Hour Club, a platform that connects parents with meaningful professional roles that fit between the school run. Amy shares how her own identity crisis at the school gates led her to create a community and job board that’s now helping thousands of parents globally. We explore: Amy’s story of stepping away from her tea...
26 Aug 2025
Rest Loudly and Release the Guilt with Anna Mathur
Welcome to the very first episode of Challenge Your Guilt! I couldn’t imagine a better guest to start this journey with than Anna Mathur — psychotherapist, bestselling author, mother, and someone whose words on guilt have shaped my own work. In this episode we explore: Why mothers so often believe we’re the problem — and how to flip that script.How to ask, “Have I actually done anything wrong?” when guilt strikes.The power of practicing self-compassion instead of bullying ourselves wit...
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