Our guest today is Tracey Jane Redwood, who is a grief counsellor. Tracey Jane starts by talking about growing up with parents who were always interested in people, particularly her father. You can hear her passion when she talks about him, and when she herself talks about interacting with people – she is clearly a people person.

After leaving school, Tracey Jane went to college where she studied for a City and Guilds in community care, working with people of all ages. She continued and became a fully qualified nurse, specialising in mental health. Tracey Jane is fascinated by psychology, our moods and how our brains work. She gave up nursing, to focus on bringing up her children, setting up her own cleaning business to give her the flexibility to work around the lives of her family.

When her children had grown up, she trained to be a life coach. Around the same time, within two months of each other, both her father-in-law and her godmother died. It was then she realised how little we understand the end of life and decided she would focus on supporting people with their grief.

Tracey Jane talks about how grief affects both our bodies and brains. She describes how she set up her business, particularly how she developed her business skills. Coming from a nursing background, she had no training in business basics, but networked and met somebody who became her business coach, while she became their grief coach.

Tracey Jane explains how everyone grieves differently, and how her 6-step process supports them. Tracey Jane shares some wonderful approaches on how to help someone who has lost someone close to them around Christmas, with a range of options on how you reconnect with the person you’ve lost.

Tracey Jane talks compassionately about the issue of anticipatory grief, and how you can support a person with dementia when somebody very close to them dies. We also discuss how people generally avoid talking about somebody who is dead, but Tracey Jane’s advice is that anything you say is better than saying nothing at all.

Take a listen to Tracey Jane to get a better understanding of how we can positively support ourselves, our friends and or business colleagues who have lost someone very dear to them.

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Tracey Jane Redman:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Tracey Janejaneredwood/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Grief-Whisperer/61564917436789/#

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_grief_whisperer/

Email: Griefwhisperer.uk@gmail.com

Today we have two guests on our podcast – Kelly Brougham and Amy Swan, the co-founders of Active Families North East.

Kelly and Amy share similar values around community resilience, and the importance of supporting each other along with access for everyone to physical activity, so it’s easy to see why they founded a Community Interest Company together.

Their first careers were different, but it is their shared passion of fitness that brought them together. Like many girls, neither were encouraged to enjoy sport at school, and it was only after leaving school that fitness entered their lives.

Both understand that people are interested in people and started their business when both had young children. Understanding and listening to what people needed they decided their instantly know Kelly and Amy knew what they were talking about, and so the business started.

They’ve now been working in their business Active Families for nine years and have developed lots of different sessions that connect people in their local communities. They’ve developed new ideas including an innovative project that they call the Wellbeing Machine – where they take activity to people in their own communities.

Kelly and Amy also share their new project, developing a device, which was showcased on The Big Idea show hosted by Sara Davies.

They talk about how they have built their reputation through developing their own business skills, ensuring their staff are the right people for the job, and seeking support from business mentors.

Overtime, they have also come to recognise that they cannot do everything themselves, so have started to network with other organizations, leading to successful working partnerships including the Salvation Army.

Take a listen and understand their learnings so you can develop a successful organisation that makes a real difference to the people in your local community.

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Active Families

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/activefamiliesne

Website https://activefamiliesne.co.uk/

Today our podcast guest is Stefan Thomas and we speak about how he lives with Ulcerative colitis and why he is on a mission to break down the barriers about speaking about the “embarrassing stuff”

Having been diagnosed at the age of 27, Stefan shares what it’s like to live with a condition that can, during a flare-up, require him to go to the toilet between 20 and 50 times a day, and also deal with occasional bowel incontinence.

He tells us how he was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and why it’s important to see a medical professional if you see blood in your poo.

Without any embarrassment - having overcome that emotion over the years – he shares what it is like to live with a condition that can, during a flare-up, require you to go to the toilet between 20 and 50 times a day, and also on occasion causing bowel incontinence.

He explains how by being open with the medical profession, they have been able to support him in both personal and professional life. This includes specific interventions when he is hosting events and attending professional speaking engagements.

Stefan shares some practical approaches for how he manages his Ulcerative Colitis. He highlights the importance a ‘toilet for everyone’ makes to his life, advocating all new build public spaces should have these and explains why.

If you are concerned you might have Colitis or Crohn’s or are currently living with it then this podcast is well worth listening to. Equally, if you are worried about seeking support from the medical profession about something embarrassing, then you may gain some confidence to take that next step.

You can contact us at the following:

Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/

Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/

Stefan Thomas: https://www.facebook.com/stefanthomasdotbiz/#

https://www.stefanthomas.biz/