Season 11, Episode 3: Overcoming Trauma, Understanding Functional Freeze and Breaking Free (with guest Caroline Strawson)

31/10/2025 37 min Temporada 11 Episodio 3

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Episode Synopsis

Dahlia is joined by Caroline Strawson, expert in understanding, identifying and recovering from trauma.Dahlia and Caroline discuss what trauma is, how it is triggered and what it does to our nervous systems, our confidence and our mindset.Caroline draws on her own traumatic experience of marrying a narcissist and shares how she recognised her situation and managed to break free and begin again.Dahlia and Caroline discuss the stress of being stuck in what Caroline calls 'functional freeze' and how to build the confidence to move forward step by step.Caroline Strawson is an award-winning Hay House Author, nervous system educator andone of the world’s most influential voices in trauma informed healing and mental health. Asthe founder of The Mental Wellbeing Company, the UK’s fastest-growing franchise, andTIDAL – Trauma Informed Development And Learning, she is leading a nationalmovement to transform mental health in homes, schools, workplaces and communities.With lived experience of domestic abuse, homelessness, debt and complex trauma,Caroline rebuilt her life from rock bottom and has since dedicated her work to helping othersdo the same. She is living proof that rock bottom can become a platform and that adiagnosis, a label or a past chapter never has to define a person’s future.Today, Caroline is a global educator, trainer and speaker, teaching that there are no badparts of us,, only nervous system responses and unhealed pain reducing shame on aglobal scale.. She has personally trained thousands of practitioners, and is the creator andlead educator of the world’s only Trauma Informed Coaching & Leadership Level 7Qualification, delivered through her CMI Centre and accredited internationally. She is trained in multiple therapeutic and coaching modalities including Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, Positive Psychology and Nervous System-based trauma therapies.Caroline’s work reaches millions worldwide. She hosts a chart-topping podcast called NoVisible Bruises, with over 6 million downloads, her YouTube content has reached over 14million views, and she has built a loyal and engaged community of over half a millionfollowers across her social platforms. Her expertise has been featured on national televisionand in numerous publications, where she is frequently called upon as a trusted voice intrauma, relationships and nervous system education.Through TIDAL, Caroline and her team deliver trauma informed leadership and mentalhealth programmes into organisations, reducing burnout, absenteeism and emotionalfatigue and creating psychologically safe cultures where people feel seen, heard andunderstood.Caroline’s mission is driven by a simple but powerful belief that when people understandtheir nervous system, they reclaim their choices. She is passionate about bringing compassion, science and humanity back into the way we view mental health, behaviour and emotional struggle reminding audiences everywhere that there is always a reason for how we feel and how we act, and that healing is critical for every nervous system.

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