Soul Loom with Michelle Wollaston

Michelle Wollaston
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Soul Loom Real conversations for women navigating the moments that change everything. Soul Loom explores what happens when the life you built stops fitting, when identity shifts, burnout lands, or something you can't quite name tells you it's time to move differently. Each episode weaves together lived experience, deep insight, and honest reflection to help you understand where you are and what it's asking of you. For women in midlife and beyond who are done performing fine. Hosted by Life Directionist Michelle Wollaston.

  1. 7 July

    Burnout, Breast Cancer and Becoming: One Woman's Reckoning with Roni Millard

    Roni Millard https://thewellbeing-edge.com/ spent thirty years climbing corporate, achieving at the highest levels, running on fumes. Osteoporosis at thirty nine, miscarriages, constant exhaustion, anaemia — her body was sending signals for years. She ignored every single one because the trajectory felt non negotiable. It took breast cancer to force her to stop and ask what she was actually building this for. This is a conversation about the signals that arrive long before the crisis, about what it costs to stay unconscious, about the moment you finally have to listen. If you're a high performing woman, a leader, someone who thinks resting is a waste of time, you'll hear yourself in this story. If you're ignoring what your body's been trying to tell you, this is the directional correction you've been avoiding. Roni is a wellness consultant, certified NLP coach and soon to be published author. She works with women and organisations to build cultures where ambition and wellbeing actually belong together. This episode includes a practical exercise you can start today to tune back into what your body's been communicating all along. Your becoming doesn't require your breaking. Contact Roni to take advantage of these offers email Roni roni@thewellbeing-edge.com For the first 10 women who contact her: complimentary 20 minute wellbeing strategy session. For organisations or founders with a business: 30 minute call to look at the organisational perspective.

  2. 26 June

    Books, Boobs and Bouncing Forward

    Pat Allchorne is a breast cancer survivor twice over. Twenty-six years after her first diagnosis, cancer returned — twice, within months — and she chose mastectomies both times. For twenty years she ran The Book Loft in Warrington, a second-hand bookshop where 40,000 books created what locals called an Aladdin's cave of delights. In July 2024, a fall broke her ribs and punctured her lung. In the months that followed, cancer was discovered in both breasts. Now retired, Pat writes book reviews and articles for DWC Magazine, sings with her church choir, and continues to read with the same joy she always has. In this episode, she talks about what it meant to build community inside a bookshop, why her scars might have saved her life, and what bouncing forward actually means — moving toward who you're becoming, not back to who you were. F or anyone facing cancer, grief, health challenges, or the hard work of resilience: this is your conversation. Find Pat's writing and book reviews at DWC Magazine.https://dwcmagazine.com

  3. 23 May

    Cardboard Caskets to Viking Funerals: Why Your Family Needs This Conversation - Lisa Herbert

    From cardboard caskets to Viking funerals, this episode will make you laugh, think, and finally have the conversation you have been putting off. Lisa Herbert has spent thirteen years making death planning less awkward. As the author of The Bottom Drawer Book: The After Death Action Plan, now in its fifth edition, Lisa is on a mission to give Australians the confidence and knowledge to plan their own farewell and make things easier for the people they leave behind. In this episode we talk about what sparked a teenager reading a groundbreaking psychiatrist's work to eventually write a funeral planning guide, why your will is probably the worst place to leave your final wishes, what a cardboard casket covered in the Sydney Roosters logo has to do with all of this, and why recording your mum making Anzac biscuits might be the most important thing you do this week. Funny, warm, and genuinely useful. This is the episode to gift to someone you love. Find Lisa at thebottomdrawerbook.com.au and follow her on Facebook at The Bottom Drawer Book. Cemetery tours at cemeterytourstoowoomba.com.au

  4. 8 May

    So Why Does it Feel This Hard?

    You saw the words "you're exactly where you thought you wanted to be, but now you're second guessing yourself" and something in you landed. Not in your head. Somewhere lower than that. This three-minute audio is for the woman who built something real, who has always been capable, and who is quietly wondering why everything feels heavier than it should right now. Not broken. Not behind. Not too late. But something has shifted and you can feel it. What you're experiencing is not a personal failing. It's data. And when you understand what it's actually telling you, nothing is hard in the same way anymore. The clarity assessment linked in the show notes will tell you more about why it feels the way it does than anything else you'll do today. michellewollaston.com

  5. 5 May

    Death Doulas: The End of Life Support Nobody Told You Existed - Melissa Warren

    We plan our births. We plan our weddings. We plan everything — except the one thing that is guaranteed to happen to every single one of us. In this episode I sit down with Melissa Warren, a Reiki Master, Seichem Master, animal communicator and End of Life Doula based on the Central Coast of NSW, to talk about the role most people have never heard of but almost everyone will eventually need. We talk about what a death doula actually does, when you call one, and why having one in your corner can change everything — not just for the person dying, but for the family trying to hold it all together around them. We also talk about the conversations nobody is having but everyone should be — advanced care directives, voluntary assisted dying, what happens to your body after you die, and why there is absolutely no rush. This is not a morbid conversation. It is one of the most practical, compassionate and quietly revolutionary ones I have had on Soul Loom. If you have ever sat at a bedside, managed a death, or quietly wondered what you would do when the time comes — this episode is for you. Find Melissa Melissa's Facebook Melissa's Instagram

  6. 30 Mar

    Trusting Intuition in Trauma Work: Police Detective to Somatic Mentor with Stacey Webb (CW: suicide, trauma)

    CONTENT NOTE: This episode includes brief, non-graphic references to suicide, trauma, and sexual assault in the context of policing and healing work.How does a police detective investigating serious crimes become an intuitive somatic mentor? In this conversation, Stacey Webb shares her journey from law enforcement—working in sexual assault and coronial investigations—to helping people reconnect with their nervous system, inner wisdom, and capacity for healing. Stacey explores what it means to be a "warrior of grace," holding space for others in their most vulnerable moments while learning to hold space for herself. She discusses how intuition guided her work as a detective, why somatic practices allow healing without retelling trauma, and how our nervous system responds to protect us—often in ways we don't consciously understand. We talk about the difference between fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses, why trusting intuition feels harder when the guidance is uncomfortable, and how embodied grace means accepting all parts of ourselves—not just the ones we're happy to show. IN THIS EPISODE: What "embodied grace" means in real termsHow intuition works in high-stakes policing situationsWhy your nervous system chooses freeze, fight, or flight before your brain registers dangerSomatic healing without having to tell your trauma storyBuilding self-trust when you don't know the next stepPractising intuition like a muscleABOUT STACEY WEBB:Stacey Webb is an intuitive somatic mentor and author devoted to helping people reconnect with their inner wisdom and natural capacity for healing. Her work supports the nervous system through somatic awareness, intuitive guidance, and compassionate presence. With many years of experience in law enforcement as a detective in sexual assault and coronial investigations, Stacey brings a unique understanding of trauma and human vulnerability to her mentoring practice. STACEY'S BOOKS: Embodied Grace: Trusting Yourself, Healing Deeply and Expanding Fully (with card deck) – Available for pre-order April 2025The Intuitive DetectiveFoundations of TappingCONNECT WITH STACEY:Website: https://www.staceywebb.com.au/Pre-order Embodied Grace: https://www.staceywebb.com.au/embodied-grace-preorder

  7. 9 Mar

    Lead From Within: Reclaiming Your Rythm as a Leader - Jess Garay

    What happens when leadership stops being about pushing harder and starts coming from within? In this episode of Soul Loom, Michelle speaks with leadership mentor and speaker Jess Garay, whose work sits at the intersection of authorship, sovereignty, and capacity — supporting visionary women to return to their own rhythm and lead from within. With nearly two decades as a Registered Nurse working in cancer care and long-term care, Jess spent years in environments where life and death sat side by side. Those experiences shaped the way she now understands leadership, responsibility, and the importance of staying connected to your own inner compass. Today Jess blends Human Design, nervous system awareness, and practical leadership mentoring to help women reclaim authorship over their voice, vision, and capacity so they can lead with clarity and trust in their own timing. In this conversation we explore: • How Jess’s nursing career shaped her understanding of leadership and responsibility • What it means to lead from within instead of pushing through • The role of Human Design in decision making and leadership alignment • Why understanding your energetic rhythm changes the way you work and lead • How trusting your inner knowing can shift both your business and your life If you’ve ever felt like the way you’re expected to lead doesn’t quite fit who you are, this conversation offers a different perspective — one rooted in rhythm, resonance, and self-trust. Website https://jessgaray.com Free Business Clarity Blueprint https://jessgaray.com Human Design Map https://jessgaray.com Resonance Rising Podcast (Search Resonance Rising on your favourite podcast platform) Follow the podcast so new conversations land in your feed. If this episode resonated, share it with someone who might need to hear it. Until next time, keep weaving your own threads of becoming. Connect with Jess GarayListen to Soul Loom

  8. 28 Feb

    Survival Mode Isn’t Strength — A Nervous System Conversation with Dr. Julie Merriman

    There are seasons in life where nothing looks wrong from the outside. You’re still capable. Still functioning. Still holding everything together. But internally, something has shifted. In this episode of Soul Loom, I’m joined by Dr. Julie Merriman — PhD, licensed professional counsellor, author, and speaker — whose work focuses on high-achieving professional women over 50 experiencing burnout, nervous system depletion, emotional numbness, and loss of desire. We explore: • What happens when your nervous system operates in survival mode for decades• Why burnout isn’t mindset failure — but physiology• The link between menopause, oestrogen loss, and tolerance shifts• Emotional numbness, resentment, and “floating head competence”• Somatic practices to reconnect with your body• Why pleasure and desire go offline in chronic stress• The power of the pause — a micro-rebellion for women who always say yes Dr. Merriman is the author of In the Pursuit of Soul Joy: A 12-Week Guide to Overcoming Burnout and Compassion Fatigue and the forthcoming Are We Gonna Have Sex or What?, a nervous-system-informed guide to desire and intimacy after 50. This is a conversation about capacity, identity, menopause, embodiment, and what it means to come back online — not as who you were, but as who you are now. If you’ve been functioning on the outside but quietly disconnected on the inside, this episode will resonate. Dr. Julie Merriman Podcasts Compassion Fatigue Cure Sexy After 5067 Days to Change a Habit - Phillippa Lally

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Soul Loom Real conversations for women navigating the moments that change everything. Soul Loom explores what happens when the life you built stops fitting, when identity shifts, burnout lands, or something you can't quite name tells you it's time to move differently. Each episode weaves together lived experience, deep insight, and honest reflection to help you understand where you are and what it's asking of you. For women in midlife and beyond who are done performing fine. Hosted by Life Directionist Michelle Wollaston.

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