"I'm pregnant with my second child. I still miss who I was before my first.": The truth about motherhood

Welcome back to Dial Emma, and to our new miniseries, The Truth. This week, we're exploring the uncomfortable, illicit truths about relationships, that we often feel like we aren't supposed to say out loud.Our listener is 34 and getting married in eight weeks, to a wonderful man who everyone in her life loves. So why is she waking up at 4am, convinced that she can't go through with it?This is a dilemma that gets to the heart of relationship doubts, why we experience them, and how we can tell the difference between fear of commitment and intuition trying to get our attention.Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Book my 2027 women's retreat at Bliss House in Crete: https://bliss-house-experience.replit.appSocial media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

Welcome back to Dial Emma! I have a new miniseries for you, lovely listeners, that I'm calling The Truth - exploring the uncomfortable, illicit truths that we often feel like we aren't supposed to say out loud.In this first episode, we hear from a listener who is pregnant with her second child, but still mourning the version of herself before she became a mother for the first time.Can we love the life we have right now, and long for an old one, at exactly the same time? Are we allowed to feel more than one thing at once: appreciation for the life we chose, and grief for what was displaced in the process?Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Book my 2027 women's retreat at Bliss House in Crete: https://bliss-house-experience.replit.appSocial media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

Welcome back to Dial Emma and to the fourth and last episode of our mini-series on reframes. Thank you so much for joining me, and please do let me know what you thought of the series!This week, our listener is in her fifties, wondering who she is now that her grown-up children no longer need her in the same way they once did.In this episode, I dive deeper into what happens when the conditions that we place on our self-worth shift and change, the process of returning to the self after decades of existing for others, and how we can learn to see ourselves again in the midst of an emergence.Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Book my 2027 women's retreat at Bliss House in Crete: https://bliss-house-experience.replit.appSocial media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

Welcome back to Dial Emma and to the third episode of this mini-series on reframes.This week, we hear from a listener who wonders if she is having a breakdown...while I wonder whether it's the first honest version of her life.In her own words, our 47-year-old listener feels as though she has 'blown up her life,' after ending her marriage of twenty years, moving into a rented house and trying to navigate midlife, dating apps and new identity as a single mother. Is freedom and autonomy just a false fantasy? Or is that collapse we feel after a big life shift simply evidence that we've stopped trying to maintain a life that doesn't fit?Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Social media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

Hello, lovely listeners! Welcome back to Dial Emma and to our mini-series on reframes.This week, our listener is a mum of two in her thirties, who feels as though she is disappearing amidst the demands of modern life, career and motherhood. She has a good husband and two children who she loves, but in private, she fantasises about escaping to a hotel room where she can be alone, not needed by anyone. Why, she asks, can't I cope, when everyone else seems to?Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.The OK Corral in Transactional Analysis: https://changingminds.org/explanations/behaviors/ok_not-ok.htm---Social media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

Hello, lovely listeners! Welcome back to Dial Emma and to my brand new mini-series on reframes.This week, we hear from a 27-year-old listener who feels as though she missed the life handbook that everyone else got. Her peers are getting married, having children, buying houses: meanwhile, she lives in a house share, with a mouldy bathroom and one shelf in the fridge to call her own.Does everything need to feel certain in our twenties? Do we need to have a five-year-plan? Or can we find ways to intentionally inhabit a life that feels joyful right now, without a clear destination?Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Social media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

Hello, again! Welcome back to Dial Emma and to a new mini-series: all about reframes.Before I bring in the voices of my lovely listeners to explore this theme, I wanted to start somewhere personal - because reframes have shaped almost everything in my life, professionally, therapeutically, and in the very particular chaos of the last few years. And if I'm going to ask you to go there, it felt only right that I go first.This isn't a polished story with a tidy conclusion. It's a real account of how perspective has shifted for me - sometimes gently, sometimes with a force I didn't see coming.I talk about how I ended up in therapy, retraining as a therapist, navigating the COVID pandemic and, of course, my personal reframes: divorce, single parenting, losing my mother to Alzheimer's, perimenopause and a diagnosis of autism.Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Social media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

In honour of International Women’s Day, Dial Emma presents The Unsaid – a four-part mini-series exploring the emotional realities many women are living with, but rarely have language for. Each episode features two listener dilemmas and twenty minutes of thoughtful, compassionate reflection on the inner work women are doing beneath the surface of competence, independence and survival.This is the fourth and final episode of The Unsaid mini-series, and this week we're talking about grief - but perhaps not in the way you might think.We hear from two listeners who are both struggling to navigate their unique experiences of grief. One is experiencing the loss of the person she thought she would become and the life she thought she would live, while the other survived something traumatic and is now grieving for the parts of herself that she lost in the process.How do we move forward in the wake of survival, knowing that it came at a cost? Can we ever make meaning from the chaos of the grief experience?---Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Social media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

In honour of International Women’s Day, Dial Emma presents The Unsaid – a four-part mini-series exploring the emotional realities many women are living with, but rarely have language for. Each episode features two listener dilemmas and twenty minutes of thoughtful, compassionate reflection on the inner work women are doing beneath the surface of competence, independence and survival.In this episode, I explore a powerful paradox: being strong and independent while still feeling lonely or unseen.While many of us pride ourselves on being capable and self-sufficient, that sense of independence can sometimes develop as a form of protection, often from early experiences that shape the way we relate to support, vulnerability, and connection.Our two listener dilemmas uncover the psychological patterns behind defensive independence and the fear of being a burden, and how both can quietly lead to isolation.---Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Social media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]

In honour of International Women’s Day, Dial Emma presents The Unsaid – a four-part mini-series exploring the emotional realities many women are living with, but rarely have language for. Each episode features two listener dilemmas and twenty minutes of thoughtful, compassionate reflection on the inner work women are doing beneath the surface of competence, independence and survival.In this week's episode, I explore the unseen emotional burdens women often carry for others. Many of us become “emotional regulators,” constantly soothing, managing, and fixing for family, friends and even colleagues, but it's often at the cost of our own wellbeing.I dive into why this pattern forms, how resentment and guilt signal crossed boundaries, and the crucial distinction between being present and being responsible for others’ feelings. I also share some practical strategies for caring without carrying, including setting boundaries, tolerating discomfort, and how to let relationships wobble without collapsing.---Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.---Social media:Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrellDial Emma @dialemmapodcastEmail: [email protected]