Shoulder to Shoulder by With-you

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Welcome to Shoulder to Shoulder Shoulder to Shoulder is a podcast about the power of peer support and lived experience, and what happens when people who've been through tough times use that experience to help others. But what is peer support? It's simple: people who've faced their own challenges offer understanding, connection, and hope to others going through similar challenges.  That's the meaning of peer support, and it's at the heart of everything we do. In a world that can make us feel alone when we're struggling, this podcast is a reminder that connection changes everything. I'm Cate Munro, and each episode I talk with people who've faced real challenges - mental health struggles, addiction, trauma, grief, life-changing moments - and who now stand shoulder to shoulder with others on their own journeys.  My guests include peer support workers, people running peer support groups, and individuals whose lived experience has become their greatest strength. They share their stories honestly: what happened, what helped, and how peer support made a difference. Whether you're a peer support worker, thinking about becoming one, part of a peer support group, or simply believe in the power of human connection and shared experience, there's something here for you. Before you listen: This podcast explores personal stories of growth, mental health and resilience. Some episodes include descriptions of trauma and distress. Please trust your instincts and look after yourself  - it's always okay to pause or come back another time. Thank you for being here. Find out more about With-you Consultancy at www.with-you.co.uk

  1. Jul 10

    Shoulder to Shoulder Revisited: The First Conversations with Mark Naylor

    Send us Fan Mail For the next few weeks we're going right back to where Shoulder to Shoulder began over two years ago, revisiting the first six episodes of the podcast and the conversations that helped shape the series. These early episodes introduced us to people speaking honestly about lived experience, mental health, recovery, and what peer support really looks like in everyday life. Listening back now, they still feel just as relevant. The heart of the series has always been the same: people who have been through difficult experiences, sitting alongside others to remind them they are not alone. In this second episode of Shoulder to Shoulder by With You, we revisit Mark's powerful story of surviving childhood abuse, living with the impact of trauma, and finding hope through recovery. Mark speaks openly about the lasting effects abuse had on his mental health and the challenges he faced as he grew up. At the heart of the conversation is the role peer support played in his recovery, sometimes through formal support, but often through the understanding, compassion and encouragement of the people around him. Now working in policing, Mark reflects on how his own lived experience helps him support others facing difficult times, showing how recovery can become a source of strength and connection. As we look back on the first six episodes, Mark's story is a powerful reminder of why peer support matters and how lived experience can offer hope, understanding and the reassurance that no one has to face life's challenges alone. Hosted by Cate Munro, Shoulder to Shoulder explores these conversations with peer supporters from all walks of life. Please note: This episode contains discussions of historical child abuse, which some listeners may find distressing. Listener discretion is advised. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

  2. Jun 26

    Shoulder to Shoulder Revisited: The First Conversations with Anita Mbazi

    Send us Fan Mail For the next few weeks we’re going right back to where Shoulder to Shoulder began over two years ago, revisiting the first six episodes of the podcast and the conversations that helped shape the series.  These early episodes introduced us to people with powerful lived experience, honest reflections on mental health, and a deep belief in the value of peer support.  Listening back now, they still feel just as relevant.  These early episodes introduced us to people speaking honestly about lived experience, mental health, recovery, and what peer support actually looks like in real life.  They still matter, because the heart of it was always the same, people who had been through something difficult, sitting alongside others who needed to know they weren’t on their own. In this first episode of Shoulder to Shoulder by With You, we revisit where the podcast began with Anita’s powerful story of identity, culture, motherhood and peer support.  She shares her journey from childhood in Africa to building a life in Manchester, reflecting on the challenges of adapting to a new country and the importance of connection during difficult times.  At the heart of the conversation is the impact of peer support and how it helped her feel seen and understood, and why support from those with lived experience can be so meaningful.  Anita also talks about co-founding Holding Her Space, an organisation supporting mothers and families through pregnancy and early parenting.  As we look back on the first six episodes, this conversation captures what the series set out to do: highlight the people behind peer support and the difference it makes in mental health and everyday life.  Hosted by Cate Munro, Shoulder to Shoulder explores these stories with peer supporters from all walks of life. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

  3. May 1

    EP 43: Ciara Glynn on Peer Support in Ireland, Trauma Recovery, and Compassionate Crisis Care

    Send us Fan Mail In this honest and thoughtful episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Cate speaks with Ciara, a peer support leader, trainer and activist from Ireland, whose own experience of trauma, distress and trying to find the right support has shaped the way she now works with others.  Ciara manages Solace Café in Dublin, an out-of-hours crisis prevention service built around lived experience, connection and compassion. In this conversation, she reflects on growing up in difficult circumstances, struggling with fear, shame and substance use, and spending years in systems that often left her feeling unheard rather than helped.  What changed things was finding spaces where she could speak openly, be heard as a human being, and begin to make sense of what had happened to her. Her story is candid, grounded, deeply human, and speaks powerfully to what peer support can offer when people are properly listened to. In this episode, we explore: ✔️ How peer support helps people feel understood, not managed ✔️ Why trust, mutuality and human connection matter in recovery ✔️ The difference between lived experience and purely clinical support ✔️ The challenges peer workers can face inside formal mental health systems ✔️ Why honest, compassionate spaces can change the course of someone’s life Show Notes Connect with Ciara: http://linkedin.com/in/ciaraglynn1 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

  4. Apr 24

    EP 42: “Recovery Isn’t Linear”: Charlie Fae on Young Sobriety, Peer Support, and Creating Sober Spaces That Feel Different

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Cate speaks with Charlie, a peer support worker in an NHS community mental health team, a trainee therapist, and the founder of a growing sober community in Shrewsbury, whose own recovery has shaped the way she now shows up for other people.  Charlie speaks openly about a childhood marked by trauma, anxiety, and feeling responsible for everyone else. She talks about first struggling with her mental health as a child, turning to alcohol in her early teens, and the way drinking gave her a false sense of confidence, control and escape.  She also reflects on being the first person in her family to go to university, getting sober at 22, and the long, "messy" and unglamorous reality of recovery.  She speaks about therapy, diagnosis, setbacks, self-discovery, and slowly building a life that actually feels like hers.  Now five years sober, Charlie uses that lived experience in her work every day. In this conversation, we explore: ✔️ How peer support can help people feel seen, understood and less alone ✔️ The link between trauma, addiction, mental health and recovery ✔️ Why lived experience matters in community mental health services ✔️ The difference between clinical support and genuine human connection ✔️ How peer workers can stand alongside people, advocate for them, and help rebalance power Show Notes Connect with Charlie: Insta / Messy Healing https://www.instagram.com/charlie_martina_fae?igsh=MWRza3NyaWk1aDdw Shrewsbury Soda Club CIC Insta https://www.instagram.com/shrewsburysodaclub?igsh=eGx3cnRuZHIxMWt1 My LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-martina?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

  5. Apr 17

    EP 41: Capital CEO Duncan Marshall on Recovery, Peer Support, and the Threat to Lived Experience-Led Mental Health Services

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Cate meets Duncan, who works at Capital in West Sussex, a long-standing, lived-experience-led organisation that has spent nearly 30 years championing peer support, shaping services, and ensuring people’s voices are heard.  Duncan brings his own lived experience to the work, having come through psychotic depression and support that, in his words, felt patronising and disconnected from what he actually needed. That experience helped shape a career spent trying to do things differently.  In this conversation, he reflects on the value of independent peer support, why lived experience-led organisations matter, and what happens when the services people rely on are suddenly pushed to the brink. With Capital facing devastating funding cuts, this episode becomes not just a conversation about peer support, but about what is lost when systems stop listening to the very people they claim to serve.  In this episode, we explore: ✔️ How lived experience shaped Duncan’s path into mental health work ✔️ Why independent peer support offers something different from statutory services ✔️ The role Capital has played in West Sussex for nearly three decades ✔️ What happens when lived experience-led organisations are pushed aside by commissioning decisions ✔️ Why peer support is so often valued by people in crisis, yet still treated as expendable ✔️ The real human cost of funding cuts on staff, services and recovery  Find out more about Capital: https://www.capitalimpactsolutions.co.uk/ https://www.capitalcharity.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/duncanjmarshall969/ Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

  6. Apr 3

    EP 40: Naomi Salisbury on Self-Harm, Peer Support, and Why Lived Experience Must Be Taken Seriously

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Cate speaks with Naomi Salisbury, whose relationship with peer support has spanned decades, both as someone living with mental health challenges and as a leader working to build better support for others.  From advocacy and helpline work to leading a lived experience-led charity, Naomi has spent years at the heart of peer support spaces, especially around self-harm, where understanding, trust and safety matter deeply.  In this conversation, she reflects on what good peer support really looks like, why self-harm is so often misunderstood, and what happens when lived experience is treated as an optional extra rather than something essential.  She also shares her concerns about underfunding, tokenism and the pressure to force peer support into systems that do not always respect what makes it powerful in the first place. In this episode, we explore: ✔️ Naomi’s journey through peer support as both participant and professional ✔️ Why peer support can be especially powerful for people who self-harm ✔️ How safe, honest peer spaces can hold difficult conversations well ✔️ The risks of reducing peer support to a cheap add-on within formal services ✔️ What proper investment in lived experience-led work should look like ✔️ Naomi’s hopes for the future of peer support in the UK and beyond Show Notes https://naomisalisbury.org  https://squarepegsuk.substack.com/about  Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

  7. Feb 13

    EP 39: Emma Bamber on community peer support, asylum seekers, and building belonging through food

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Cate is joined by Emma Bamber, co-lead of Cafe Laziz, a peer-led community space supporting asylum seekers and refugees in St Helens. Café Laziz welcomes people who are socially isolated, traumatised, and living with long-term uncertainty, many of whom are survivors of war, displacement, and dangerous journeys. What they find there isn’t assessment or diagnosis, but warmth: a shared meal, routine, kindness, and people who understand.  The episode explores why peer-led mental health support works so powerfully in community settings, and how peer support happens naturally when people are given space to connect. Emma talks about food as a universal language, the importance of routine and purpose, and why kindness and consistency can stabilise lives shaped by trauma and uncertainty. We also confront the wider context: misinformation, hostility, protests, and the dehumanisation of asylum seekers. Emma speaks with clarity and compassion about the harm this causes — and the extraordinary solidarity that can emerge in response. At its heart, this is an episode about peer support mental health, not as a service, but as a shared human practice. You’ll hear about: Building peer support through community and foodSupporting asylum seekers living with trauma and isolationWhy shared experience matters more than professional labelsPeer support beyond services and systemsLanguage, belonging, and mental wellbeingChallenging myths about refugees and asylum seekersCommunity as protection against despairWhat hope looks like when people come togetherShow Notes: Cafe Laziz links: https://linktr.ee/cafelaziz Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

  8. Feb 6

    EP 38: “Your Life Is Not Over”: Michael John Norton on Psychosis, Recovery, and Peer Support

    Send a text At 19, Michael was living with psychosis - hearing voices, seeing things other people couldn’t, and trying to hold himself together while training as a nurse. In this episode, he takes us right into the moment it all collided: on a hospital ward, caring for someone who couldn’t move or speak, while the voices in his head were telling him to end his life. It was the night he lost nursing and, for a while, lost himself too. Michael speaks honestly about what came next: the secrecy, the stigma, the friendships that disappeared, and the deep depression that followed. He also talks about identity, including what it meant to come out as a gay man in Ireland, at a time when shame and silence were already crushing him. But this is also a recovery story - and peer support sits right at the heart of it. Michael explains what personal recovery really means when symptoms don’t just disappear. The daily work. The coping tools. The planning. The small choices that keep you one step ahead. And he shares how peer support works in practice -  not as “telling your story”, but finding the overlap between two lives and building trust from there. We also get into lived experience as knowledge  - why peer work can’t be supervised using a clinical model, and why the heart of peer support is equality, relationship, and real-world connection. Most of all, Michael leaves you with one clear message: Just because you live with psychosis, your life is not over. Listen if you’re interested in: psychosis, voice-hearing, stigma, identity, personal recovery, WRAP, and what peer support looks like when it’s done properly. Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

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About

Welcome to Shoulder to Shoulder Shoulder to Shoulder is a podcast about the power of peer support and lived experience, and what happens when people who've been through tough times use that experience to help others. But what is peer support? It's simple: people who've faced their own challenges offer understanding, connection, and hope to others going through similar challenges.  That's the meaning of peer support, and it's at the heart of everything we do. In a world that can make us feel alone when we're struggling, this podcast is a reminder that connection changes everything. I'm Cate Munro, and each episode I talk with people who've faced real challenges - mental health struggles, addiction, trauma, grief, life-changing moments - and who now stand shoulder to shoulder with others on their own journeys.  My guests include peer support workers, people running peer support groups, and individuals whose lived experience has become their greatest strength. They share their stories honestly: what happened, what helped, and how peer support made a difference. Whether you're a peer support worker, thinking about becoming one, part of a peer support group, or simply believe in the power of human connection and shared experience, there's something here for you. Before you listen: This podcast explores personal stories of growth, mental health and resilience. Some episodes include descriptions of trauma and distress. Please trust your instincts and look after yourself  - it's always okay to pause or come back another time. Thank you for being here. Find out more about With-you Consultancy at www.with-you.co.uk

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