The BigTalk Podcast

Amanda Davies

Amanda Davies is an award-winning business leader, a Registered Psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) for over 20+ years, and a Certified Somatic Practitioner & Educator. As a Fellow of the Association for Coaching (AC), Amanda has made significant contributions to the industry and pioneered the world's first Psychodynamic Coaching methodology - a depth-oriented approach that translates psychodynamic and Jungian principles into rigorous, ethical coaching practice. She is committed to supporting current and future leaders in the personal development industry, helping them deepen their craft and create a ripple effect of positive change. In 2015, Amanda transitioned from a successful corporate career to pursue her passion for empowering others. With over 25 years of diverse experience, she passionately believes that, regardless of your circumstances or the obstacles you face, you can achieve your full potential in this lifetime. Amanda has been featured in The Times, The Guardian, Yahoo Finance, The Telegraph, and Huffington Post. She was shortlisted as a finalist in the UK's National Business Awards (2017) and named as the UK's leading Business Mentor (2019). Her dedication to bringing depth, embodiment, and psychodynamic insight into the coaching field has established her as a transformative force in the evolution of modern coaching.

  1. Sep 8

    Episode 120 - Why Coaching Has a Depth Problem

    We’re living through a moment of extraordinary acceleration in technology, work, culture, identity and everyday life. But as the outer world becomes faster and more complex, something else is happening: people are turning inward. They’re asking deeper questions about who they are, what is truly theirs, their purpose, and who they are becoming. In this episode, we explore why coaching is entering an important new phase and the shifts coaches and practitioners need to make to ensure they're ready to meet what's coming. You'll learn: :: Why conventional coaching can reach a strange ceiling when clients already *know* what they need to do :: Why the person we’re coaching isn't always the person they believe themselves to be :: How unconscious adaptations, persona and disowned parts of the self shape our lives :: Why Jung's concept of individuation changes the purpose of coaching :: Why people are increasingly seeking answers to questions of identity, meaning and purpose :: Why developing a specialised depth skillset can transform both your coaching practice and professional value Ultimately, this episode asks a bigger question: What becomes possible when we stop coaching only the person in front of us, and start learning to see the whole person? ... Explore the Psychodynamic Coach Academy - Waitlist Open If you're ready to develop the psychological depth to work with clients at this level, explore the Psychodynamic Coach Academy, our internationally accredited professional training in psychodynamic coaching. The next cohort begins 9 November 2026. Get on the Waitlist to hear about our exclusives savings available for a limited time. https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

    Episode 120 - Why Coaching Has a Depth Problem
  2. Aug 25

    Episode 119 - When Your Authority Lives in the Shadow, It Comes Out Sideways

    When your authority sits in the shadow, it comes out sideways... You may know your stuff. You have experience. You have the results and the expertise. Yet why do so many women still feel strangely uncomfortable claiming authority? Why does it still feel a little taboo? In this episode, we explore what happens when authority, power, certainty, and influence haven't been fully integrated into your conscious identity. Specifically, we shine a light on how unclaimed authority sometimes slips out sideways through control, resentment, over-functioning, covert competition, difficulty selling, a fear of visibility, or constantly second-guessing yourself. We’ll look at why claiming authority can feel psychologically charged, particularly when you've learned that being powerful, ambitious or highly visible comes with a cost. The most exciting part? When you consciously inhabit your authority, your visibility, voice and leadership become more powerful, and your business has room to grow around the full weight of what you bring. ... If this conversation is stirring something for you, Shadow Medicine is where we’ll take the work deeper into the hidden dynamics shaping your visibility, voice, authority and self-expression. And next week, I’ll be dropping a free "Shadow of Visibility Masterclass", where we’ll explore what’s really happening beneath the surface when being seen in your business feels harder than it should. Keep an eye on my socials for the announcement 👀 --> https://www.instagram.com/amandadavies.co/

    Episode 119 - When Your Authority Lives in the Shadow, It Comes Out Sideways
  3. Aug 12

    Episode 118 - The Roles We Play, and the Shadows Beneath Them

    What if the woman you've become is only part of the psychological story? After more than two decades of working with women, I've become increasingly interested in how the roles we learn early in life can become deeply embedded in our adult identities. The capable one. The strong one. The responsible one. The good one. The independent one. Eventually, we can become so good at playing these roles that we stop recognising them as adaptations at all. We simply call them "personality". But there's a deeper question sincere Shadow Works asks of us: What had to be left out in order for you to become this woman? In this episode, I explore the relationship between identity, adaptation and Shadow, including why we can become psychologically invested in the very roles that exhaust us, why our strengths can sometimes become defences, and how the parts we've learned to suppress may contain qualities we now need to reclaim. I'll also bring this into the realities of adult life: relationships, leadership, business, visibility, creativity and the strange moments when the identity that once served us begins to feel increasingly constraining. Sincere Shadow work is about seeing what's been left out. ... and sometimes, that's where the most interesting parts of you begin to emerge. ... Shadow Medicine is my 6-week live experience for women who are ready to go beneath the surface of identity, visibility and self-expression and begin working with the parts of themselves they've learned to keep out of view. Learn more about Shadow Medicine → https://www.amandadavies.co/shadow-medicine Correction: We start September 14 (not 7th as mentioned in the episode).

    Episode 118 - The Roles We Play, and the Shadows Beneath Them
  4. Jul 29

    Episode 117 - The World Wants Your Voice. Your Family Taught You Silence.

    We are living through one of the greatest shifts in human communication in history. Think back to the "good old days" where very few people were required to become public voices. There was a time when your work could speak for itself, and your expertise could largely remain within your community or workplace. Frankly, you could live a meaningful life without ever having to build an audience! Today, that’s no longer the case. Therapists have podcasts and audiences. Coaches have newsletters. Professionals have personal brands. Entrepreneurs are expected to become thought leaders. We are living in a new visibility economy, but there is a hidden tension we rarely talk about... The technological world has changed way faster than our psychology has. We are being asked to become more visible, more expressive and more public than ever before... yet many of us are still carrying old internal rules about what it means to be seen. Rules we learned in childhood: Don’t be too much. Don’t make a fuss. Don’t expose what happens here. Don’t outshine others. Don’t challenge the system. So here we are, expected to move at the pace of the modern world inside of a culture that demands full visibility... with nervous systems (and shadow systems) built for compliance and the smallness of our family conditioning. ... and your business is the place where these two worlds collide. This this episode, I investigate why so many accomplished women still struggle with visibility, and how stepping forward can activate old patterns around belonging and safety. We explore: - The six cultural shifts that have transformed visibility from an optional choice, into the defining psychological challenge of our time (and why our nervous systems are still catching up)! - How the old rules we inherited around belonging, safety and self-expression continue to shape the way we show up publicly. - Why brilliant women can spend years doing inner work and still struggle to be fully seen. - How the parts of ourselves we learned to suppress may actually hold our greatest creativity, authority, power, and impact. If you have ever wondered why being seen feels both exciting and exposing... Why you can be highly skilled yet struggle to fully step forward... This conversation is for you. See you inside!

    Episode 117 - The World Wants Your Voice. Your Family Taught You Silence.
  5. Jun 9

    Episode 116 - The Crisis Beneath the Mental Health Crisis

    We live in a time of unprecedented psychological understanding. We know about trauma, attachment, nervous systems, emotional regulation, and mental health more than any generation before us. ... and yet, something curious is happening. Despite all of this insight, many people are quietly struggling with a deep sense of disconnection from themselves, their relationships and from life itself. Of course, the world around us feels chaotic... Traditional meaning-structures are crumbling... Anxiety is rising... Loneliness is on the increase. But beneath the surface of outwardly-functioning lives, there's a question on the lips of many that's becoming harder to ignore: "Is this really it?" In this episode, we explore a different way of understanding what is happening beneath the surface of modern life. Because while we have become incredibly fluent in understanding what is "wrong" with us and the world at large, we have lost fluency in a more ancient question: :: "What is trying to emerge through us?" This conversation explores the idea that many of the experiences we label as burnout, confusion, emotional intensity, or dissatisfaction may in fact be signals. Signals that a life is beginning to outgrow the identity that has been carrying it. We also explore why so many people are unconsciously searching for meaning through new pathways such as spirituality, astrology, depth psychology, shadow work, and altered states of consciousness, and what this reveals about the deeper hunger of our time. At the heart of this episode is a simple but confronting possibility: What is often experienced as emotional or psychological disturbance may also reflect an underlying process of soul-emergence. When viewed through that lens, the focus subtly shifts from "healing what's wrong" to questions of "who am I becoming"? ... Final Places Remain: Become a Psychodynamic Coach - Class starts 22nd June. - $1500 in savings through our Early Bird promotion Discover more here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

    Episode 116 - The Crisis Beneath the Mental Health Crisis
  6. May 26

    Episode 115 - Why So Many Coaches Secretly Don't Want To Be "Coaches"

    There’s a strange tension happening inside the coaching industry right now. On one hand, more people than ever are entering the space because they genuinely want to help others transform. But on the other hand… many practitioners secretly feel disconnected from the very identity they’ve stepped into. Because somewhere along the way, coaching became associated with performance. Scripts. Personal branding. High-energy motivation. Surface-level empowerment. Formulaic transformation. And for many people - especially those drawn to psychology, spirituality, shadow work, Jungian thought, emotional depth and human complexity - something about that feels profoundly incomplete. In this episode, we explore: * Why so many coaches feel disillusioned with modern coaching culture * The hidden embarrassment some practitioners feel around the word “coach” * The difference between real transformation and motivational performance * Why depth-oriented practitioners crave psychological grounding * How the industry often bypasses the unconscious entirely * The growing hunger for work that feels intellectually serious, emotionally honest and soul-deep This conversation is for the people who know they were never meant to do surface-level work. The people who have always been fascinated by the psyche, by patterns, by shadow, by meaning, by what lives underneath behaviour. And perhaps most importantly: the people who have always wondered if there’s another way to practice transformational work altogether. ... EXPLORE DEPTH-COACHING: Early Bird Enrollment for the June cohort of the Psychodynamic Coach Academy is now open with $1500 in savings on offer for a limited time. Discover more here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

    Episode 115 - Why So Many Coaches Secretly Don't Want To Be "Coaches"

About

Amanda Davies is an award-winning business leader, a Registered Psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) for over 20+ years, and a Certified Somatic Practitioner & Educator. As a Fellow of the Association for Coaching (AC), Amanda has made significant contributions to the industry and pioneered the world's first Psychodynamic Coaching methodology - a depth-oriented approach that translates psychodynamic and Jungian principles into rigorous, ethical coaching practice. She is committed to supporting current and future leaders in the personal development industry, helping them deepen their craft and create a ripple effect of positive change. In 2015, Amanda transitioned from a successful corporate career to pursue her passion for empowering others. With over 25 years of diverse experience, she passionately believes that, regardless of your circumstances or the obstacles you face, you can achieve your full potential in this lifetime. Amanda has been featured in The Times, The Guardian, Yahoo Finance, The Telegraph, and Huffington Post. She was shortlisted as a finalist in the UK's National Business Awards (2017) and named as the UK's leading Business Mentor (2019). Her dedication to bringing depth, embodiment, and psychodynamic insight into the coaching field has established her as a transformative force in the evolution of modern coaching.