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The Self Led Woman Podcast: emotional eating and nervous system healing for self-leadership
The Self Led Woman Podcast: emotional eating and nervous system healing for self-leadership
The Self-Led Woman is a podcast about emotional eating, the experiences that shape our relationship with food, and the path back to self-leadership. These conversations explore emotional eating beneath behaviour, through trauma, the nervous system, nourishment, and lived experience, with deep respect for the intelligence of the body and what it learned to do to keep you going. This is a space for understanding, relief, and reconnecting with your inner world. Hosted by Megan Darnell, Internal Family Systems therapy practitioner and psychedelic-assisted therapy facilitator.
Episodes
Episode 49: Connection Is the Cure | Coping Behaviours, the Body and What We're Actually Starving For With Melissa Beaton
What are we actually starving for underneath our coping behaviours? And what does it look like to stop performing and start actually living?In this episode I sit down with Melissa Beaton, clinical and forensic psychologist, breathwork practitioner and founder of Zenzo House. Melissa is known for going to the places other therapists won't, the shadows, the parts we avoid and cover up, and her
Episode 48: How I Actually Work With Emotional Eating | Inside My 12 Week Self Led System
Most people understand emotional eating as a concept. Far fewer understand what it actually looks like to work with it at the level it needs to be worked with.In this episode I pull back the curtain on my 12 week one on one container and walk you through exactly how the work is structured, why it is built the way it is, and what each part of the cycle actually looks like in real life.I cover the t
Episode 47: The Binge and Restrict Cycle | Why It Shows Up With Food, Money, Wine and Situationships
When was the last time you had a blowout? Not necessarily with food. Maybe it was a bottle of wine when you told yourself you'd have one glass. A weekend that got away from you and a Monday morning credit card statement. A midnight online order. Going back to the situationship you said you were done with.The behaviour changes. The cycle stays exactly the same.In this episode I'm talking
Episode 46: What the Obsession With Your Body Is Actually Trying to Tell You
The obsession with your body, the fixation on fixing it, changing it, improving it, the constant mental noise around food and what you should or shouldn't be eating, that is not the problem you think it is. It's the clue.In this episode I'm talking about something that might land a little uncomfortably. But I think it might be one of the most important things I've said on this
Episode 45: Unburdened Eating | Healing Your Relationship With Food and Your Body Through IFS With Dr. Jeanne Catanzaro
What if the preoccupation with food and your body had nothing to do with food or your body at all?It is genuinely one of the greatest honours of this podcast to welcome today's guest. Dr. Jeanne Catanzaro is a clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience working with eating disorders, disordered eating, and trauma. She is the author of Unburdened Eating, vice president and co-o
Episode 44: What Emotional Eating Is Actually Telling You About the Rest of Your Life
What if your pattern around food wasn't the problem to solve, but the window into something much deeper?In this episode I take you through each of the layers that sit underneath emotional eating, not to give you more things to fix, but to help you get genuinely curious about what the pattern might be trying to show you about the rest of your life.We get into why overriding a craving is rarely
Episode 43: Why Emotional Eating Won't Budge No Matter What You Try | Trauma, the Nervous System and the Wellness Merry-Go-Round
If you have tried everything and you keep finding yourself back at the beginning, starting again, I want you to understand something. This is not an accident. That is by design.In this episode I'm talking about something that doesn't get said nearly enough. Not about what you're eating or your nervous system, although we get there too. What I want to talk about is why you keep going
Episode 42: Why Internal Family Systems Therapy Works for Healing Emotional Eating
This isn't a surface level overview of IFS. This is the actual clinical and human reality of why this model reaches what other approaches miss.In this episode I'm breaking down why I believe Internal Family Systems therapy is one of the most effective frameworks available for healing a disordered relationship with food. Not because it's the latest trend in the wellness space, but be
Episode 41: Food Is Not the Problem. It's the Message - Somatic Eating, Trauma and Nervous System Healing with Stephanie Mara Fox
What if your food behaviors were never the problem — but the most intelligent thing your body could do in a moment that felt unsafe?In this episode Megan sits down with Stephanie Mara Fox, somatic nutritional counsellor, creator of Somatic Eating, and PhD candidate in somatic psychology. Stephanie has spent nearly two decades supporting women in healing from emotional eating, binge eating, chronic
Episode 40: Comparison, Belonging and Coming Home to Yourself | Part 2
If you haven't listened to episode 39 yet, start there. This one picks up where that one left off.Last week I talked about comparison as a nervous system response and belonging as a biological need. This week I want to talk about what's actually on the other side of all of that. What it looks like when you stop trying to become someone else and start coming home to yourself.And I'm
Episode 39: Comparison, Belonging and Coming Home to Yourself | Part 1
Comparison isn't about vanity. It never was.It's about belonging. It's about safety. It's about what your nervous system learned was acceptable, what got praised, what got rejected, and what got mirrored back to you when you were too young to question any of it.In part one of this two part episode, I'm talking about why the drive to fit in, to measure yourself against othe
Episode 38: Why Ignoring Your Cravings Makes Emotional Eating Worse, Not Better
You wanted the chocolate. You chose the rice cake instead. And an hour later you were still thinking about the chocolate and probably ate more than you would have if you'd just had it in the first place.This episode is about why that keeps happening. Not because you lack discipline, but because of how your brain's seeking system actually works, and what it means when a woman learns, earl
Episode 37: Tired of Being Good | Fawning, the Nervous System and Reclaiming Your Body With Kallie Klug
What if the thing keeping you stuck in your relationship with food, your body, and other people isn't a lack of willpower, but a nervous system response that's been running since childhood?In this episode I sit down with Kallie Klug, certified somatic practitioner, yoga teacher, and author of Tired of Being Good, a nervous system map for reclaiming your body after a lifetime of fawning.
Episode 36: Your Cravings Might Be Older Than You Think - Epigenetics, Ancestral Trauma and Emotional Eating
What if the urge to reach for food when you're not physically hungry isn't just about today? What if it's older than that — much older?In this episode Megan explores one of the most fascinating and undertalked pieces of the emotional eating conversation. The intelligence your body is carrying that has nothing to do with willpower and everything to do with thousands of years of human
Episode 35: Why Emotional Eating Isn't a Willpower Problem - An Open Letter to Women Who Are Ready to Hear the Truth
This episode is for every woman who has been trying harder than anyone around her knows — and still can't make it stick. Who has reset more times than she can count, spent years on the merry-go-round of starting over, and quietly wondered what is actually wrong with her.Nothing is wrong with you.In this episode Megan shares her own 30-year story — what kept her on the merry-go-round, what she
Episode 34: What Ozempic Is Actually Doing to Your Brain | GLP-1s, Food Noise and Nervous System Healing
There's a conversation happening right now about weight loss medications. And almost everyone is either for them or against them.But that's not the conversation I'm interested in.What I'm curious about is what's actually happening in the brain and the nervous system when people take these medications. Because when you start looking at the research, what you find isn't
Episode 33: Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm | Somatic Healing, Body Image and Eating Disorder Recovery With Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti
What if the body you've been at war with has actually been trying to protect you this whole time?In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Ann Saffi Biasetti, transpersonal psychologist, somatic psychotherapist, and author of Your Body Never Meant You Any Harm, releasing July 21st 2026. Ann has been working in the space of eating disorders and trauma recovery for over 35 years, and this convers
Episode 32: Emotional Eating, Bingeing & the Search for Something Food Could Never Fix
In this episode, I share a deeply personal story about emotional eating, bingeing, loneliness, shame, and the nervous system patterns underneath it all.I take you back to my late 20s, living alone in Melbourne during a cold winter while working in a high stress banking environment that left me emotionally exhausted and completely dysregulated by the end of the day.What looked like “food issues” on
Episode 31: The Desire to Be Smaller Didn't Start With You
There's a question I come back to again and again in sessions with clients.Is this actually your belief, or is it something you inherited?So much of what women carry around food, their bodies, visibility, and taking up space was never consciously chosen. It was absorbed. Passed down through generations of women adapting to environments where being smaller, quieter, more agreeable, and less vi
Episode 30: Emotional Eating & the Hidden Cost of “I’ll Deal With It One Day”
How long have you known that your relationship with food or your body is something you want to change?Not how long you’ve been trying.How long you’ve known.In this episode, I’m talking about the hidden cost of tolerating emotional eating, body obsession, self criticism, and the constant mental noise around food.Because for many women, the issue isn’t a lack of awareness.It’s that the pattern has b
Episode 29: Emotional Eating, Control & Parts Work with Ivana Legnerova | IFS Therapy for Healing Your Relationship with Food
In this episode, I’m joined by Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist Ivana Legnerova for a deeply compassionate conversation about emotional eating, control, and healing your relationship with food.Ivana specialises in working with eating disorders, including emotional eating, under-eating, perfectionism, and self-sabotage. Together, we explore how these patterns are not failures, but protective
Episode 28: Why Knowing Your Emotional Eating Patterns Still Doesn’t Change Them
A woman said something to me recently that I hear all the time.“I already know where this comes from. I know it’s my childhood. I know it’s because of trauma.”And then she paused and said something incredibly honest.“But I’m still doing it.”She still finds herself standing in the kitchen late at night, opening the cupboard and eating something even though part of her is thinking:Why am I doing thi
Episode 27: All the Things I Tried to Stop Emotional Eating (And Why None of Them Worked)
For years I believed my emotional eating was a discipline problem.So I tried everything to fix it.I tried hypnotherapy. Acupuncture. Kinesiology. Past life regression. Affirmations on my walls. Personal trainers. High protein diets. Low carb diets. Intuitive eating. Juice cleanses. The lemon detox diet. Running a marathon. Blood sugar supplements from a naturopath. Even taping my mouth shut at nig
Episode 26: The Hidden Link Between Emotional Eating, People Pleasing and Boundaries
When people talk about emotional eating, the conversation usually focuses on food.Cravings. Discipline. Willpower.But when I work with women around emotional eating, the pattern rarely begins with food at all.It often begins in a moment where something didn’t sit right. A comment that hurt. A boundary that was crossed. A moment where you felt dismissed, unseen, or taken for granted.And instead of
Episode 25: Emotional Eating Isn’t About Food | Dr Anita Johnston on Body Image, Cravings & What Your Body Is Really Saying
In this episode, I’m joined by depth psychologist and eating disorder specialist Dr Anita Johnston, author of Eating in the Light of the Moon, for a powerful conversation that will completely shift the way you understand emotional eating and your relationship with food.We explore why struggles with food and body image are rarely about food itself, and what these patterns are actually trying to com
Episode 24: Why Weight Loss Is Not the Goal of Healing Emotional Eating
In this episode, I talk about something that might surprise people who are new to my work.Even though I work with women who struggle with emotional eating, food, and their bodies, weight loss is never the goal of this work.And there are important reasons for that.We already live in a culture that constantly tells women their bodies need to be smaller, better, or fixed in some way. Diet culture, we
Episode 23: My Bipolar Diagnosis and the Gut Brain Connection: How Nutrition Changed My Mood Stability
In this episode, I share something deeply personal about my own journey with mental health.At 35, I was diagnosed with bipolar type 2. At the time, it felt like a life sentence. I was told I would likely need medication for the rest of my life and that mood instability would always be something I had to manage.For years before that diagnosis, I had experienced cycles of depression alongside period
Episode 22: What If Your Hunger Isn’t About Food? Understanding Developmental Hunger
In this episode, I introduce a concept that can completely change the way you understand your appetite.It’s called developmental hunger.Many women believe their hunger means something is wrong with them. They tell themselves they have no discipline, that they’re always hungry, or that they can never feel satisfied around food.But what if the hunger isn’t actually about food at all?In this episode,
Episode 21: ADHD, Food Noise & Healing Your Relationship With Food with Kiah Paetz
In this episode, I’m joined by Accredited Practising Dietitian and Credentialled Eating Disorder Clinician Kiah Paetz for a deeply compassionate conversation about healing your relationship with food.Kiah specialises in supporting people experiencing eating disorders, disordered eating, food anxiety, and neurodivergence through a non diet, weight neutral approach. In this conversation, she shares
Episode 20: The Missing Piece in Emotional Eating Recovery
In this episode, I’m talking about what I believe is the missing piece in emotional eating recovery and it’s not more discipline, willpower, or another plan.It’s support.So many women are trying to heal emotional eating, binge eating, food noise, restriction, body checking, and constant bargaining with food all on their own. On the outside, they look like they have it together. But underneath, the
Episode 19: What Your Food Cravings Are Actually Trying to Tell You
In this episode, we’re talking about food cravings and what they actually mean.Most women have been taught to see cravings as a lack of discipline or willpower. But cravings aren’t random and they aren’t a personal failure. They’re information from your body and your nervous system.Sometimes cravings are physical. Your body might need more food, more carbohydrates, more magnesium, or simply more r
Episode 18: A Healed Woman Is Not Profitable
If you’ve tried plans, tracking, food rules, mindset work, resets, “I’ll start again Monday” — and you still end up back in the same loop… this episode is going to hit.Because emotional eating isn’t a behaviour problem.And the reason it keeps coming back isn’t because you lack discipline.It’s because it’s a survival strategy.In this episode, I unpack:Why most wellness and diet culture approaches k
Episode 17: You Already Know: Reconnecting to Your Body, Hormones & Cycles with Lottie Davies
In this episode, I’m joined by UK-certified naturopath and yoga teacher Lottie Davies for a grounded and deeply validating conversation about hormones, cravings, nervous system healing, and cyclical living.We explore what it actually means to reconnect to your body — not through control, restriction, or more rules — but through understanding your natural rhythms.Inside this conversation, we unpack
Episode 16: What Happens to Your Nervous System When You Stop Using Instagram (Body Image, Comparison and Emotional Eating)
Recently I took time off Instagram and it changed a lot more than I expected.It didn’t just make me less distracted. It changed the level of presence I have in my relationship. It shifted my creativity. It brought back gratitude in a way I wasn’t even trying to practice. And it also showed me something confronting about my inner critic, my appearance, and how distorted our perception becomes when
Episode 15: Your Relationship With Food Is a Mirror
In this episode, I’m talking about something that’s been sitting in my system for a while.That my relationship with food was never actually about food, it mirrored my relationship to my emotions.For years, I thought I had a discipline problem. I thought I needed more control, more willpower, more consistency. But the deeper I’ve gone into this work, the clearer it’s become. Food was never the issu
Episode 14: Your Body Isn’t the Enemy
At the time of recording, I had two cysts removed from my scalp, and the next morning I couldn’t stop thinking about how incredible the human body is.Because without instructions, without micromanagement, and without force, it immediately began repairing itself.And that’s exactly what your system is doing when you emotionally eat.In this episode, I’m unpacking why emotional eating is rarely about
Episode 13: Training for the Body You Need at 60 with Naz Demirtas
What if strength training had nothing to do with getting smaller and everything to do with living better.In this episode, I’m joined by Naz Demirtas, certified strength coach and sports nutrition and health coach, to talk about what changes when women stop training for aesthetics and start training for capability.Naz shares how pregnancy became the turning point that shifted her from dieting and c
Episode 12: The Tiredness That Food Can’t Fix
There’s a kind of tiredness I want to talk about today.Not the tiredness sleep fixes. Not the tiredness a holiday fixes.But the exhaustion that comes from carrying too much for too long.If you’re someone who is capable, responsible, high functioning… If your life mostly looks “together”… And food is the one place where things sometimes unravel —This episode is for you.Because if emotional eating w
Episode 11: Your Body Was Never the Problem
In this episode, I want to gently but firmly challenge one of the most damaging ideas we’ve been taught about our bodies.That our body is the problem.That our eating is the problem.That weight changes, emotional eating, restriction, or body hatred mean we’ve failed in some way.They don’t.Through an Internal Family Systems and somatic trauma lens, we explore how the body doesn’t just react to life,
Episode 11: Your Body Was Never the Problem
In this episode, I want to gently but firmly challenge one of the most damaging ideas we’ve been taught about our bodies.That our body is the problem. That our eating is the problem. That weight changes, emotional eating, restriction, or body hatred mean we’ve failed in some way.They don’t.Through an Internal Family Systems and somatic trauma lens, we explore how the body doesn’t just react to lif
Episode 10: The Hidden Roles Behind Emotional Eating - Family dynamics, nervous system load, and why food steps in
Content note:This episode includes discussion of eating disorders, including bulimia, and explores emotional eating through a therapeutic lens. Please listen with care and take what feels supportive for you.In this episode, I want to talk about something that gets missed in almost every conversation about emotional eating.Because food isn’t always just regulating emotions. Sometimes, food is holdi
Episode 10: The Hidden Roles Behind Emotional Eating - Family dynamics, nervous system load, and why food steps in
Content note: This episode includes discussion of eating disorders, including bulimia, and explores emotional eating through a therapeutic lens. Please listen with care and take what feels supportive for you.In this episode, I want to talk about something that gets missed in almost every conversation about emotional eating.Because food isn’t always just regulating emotions. Sometimes, food is hold
Episode 9: Dr Anthea Todd: What's My Body Telling Me?
What if your body was never the problem. but the wisdom you’ve been missing?In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Anthea Todd, chiropractor, women’s health educator, and author of the bestselling book What’s My Body Telling Me? for a powerful conversation about symptoms, safety, and the intelligence of the body.Anthea shares why she believes symptoms are not something to fight or fix, but meaningful s
Episode 9: Dr Anthea Todd, What's My Body Telling Me?
What if your body was never the problem. but the wisdom you’ve been missing?In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Anthea Todd, chiropractor, women’s health educator, and author of the bestselling book What’s My Body Telling Me? for a powerful conversation about symptoms, safety, and the intelligence of the body.Anthea shares why she believes symptoms are not something to fight or fix, but meaningful s
Episode 8: Why You Can’t “Just Stick to the Plan” The Truth About Emotional Eating, Trauma, and Capacity
This episode is a straight talking, compassionate deep dive into why emotional eating doesn’t change just because you know what to do… and why willpower, discipline, and another nutrition plan are never the real solution.We explore the privilege of a regulated nervous system, how childhood support (or the lack of it) shapes your relationship with food, and why comparing yourself to women who “just
Episode 8: Why You Can’t “Just Stick to the Plan” The Truth About Emotional Eating, Trauma, and Capacity
This episode is a straight talking, compassionate deep dive into why emotional eating doesn’t change just because you know what to do… and why willpower, discipline, and another nutrition plan are never the real solution.We explore the privilege of a regulated nervous system, how childhood support (or the lack of it) shapes your relationship with food, and why comparing yourself to women who “just
Episode 5: Food Noise and Capacity - Why food gets louder when your system is depleted
If food feels loud for you, it’s not a discipline issue.And it’s not something wrong with your body.Food noise increases when your system is under strain.Too many decisions, too much responsibility, not enough rest, not enough support. When capacity drops, parts of you look for relief wherever they can find it.In this episode, I unpack food noise through a nervous system and Internal Family System
Episode 4: The Trauma Beneath the Binges
For years, I believed my night-time bingeing was a discipline problem.Something I should be able to control if I just tried harder.But the truth was far more confronting and far more compassionate.In this episode, I share the story of the pattern I couldn’t stop.Waking in the night in full panic. Racing to the kitchen. Eating with a level of urgency that felt completely out of my control.What fina
Episode 3: When Your Body Remembers Why the Holidays Can Trigger Old Patterns With Food
The holidays don’t create emotional eating. They reveal it.In this episode, we explore why this time of year so often activates old patterns around food, even when your life looks stable on the surface. Through the lens of trauma, the nervous system, and Internal Family Systems, we unpack how the body stores memory and how certain seasons, dates, and environments can reactivate responses learned l
Episode 2: Why Food Gets Loud When You’re Holding Everything Together
In this episode, we explore why emotional eating so often shows up in women who are high-functioning, capable, and already doing everything they can to cope.We look at emotional eating through an Internal Family Systems lens and unpack what’s actually happening in the nervous system when food becomes loud. Not as a lack of discipline, but as a signal that parts of you are working hard to regulate
Episode 1: I Thought My Body Was the Problem
For most of my life, I believed my body was the problem.Not in a dramatic way. Not in a way I could easily name. Just in the quiet, unquestioned way that sat underneath everything — shaping how I ate, how I moved, how I looked at myself, and how much peace I felt in my own skin.In this first episode, I share part of my personal story with food, body image, control, and emotional eating. From dieti
The Self Led Woman Podcast trailer
The Self-Led Woman is a podcast about emotional eating, the experiences that shape our relationship with food, and the kind of healing that unfolds when women reconnect with their sense of self.In this space, we go beneath behaviour, exploring trauma, the nervous system, nourishment, unmet needs, and mental health - with deep respect for the intelligence of the body.Hosted by Megan Darnell, Intern
Episode 7: Why You Eat More When Your Nervous System Is Overwhelmed
There are things your body does that feel confusing, extreme, or “too much” until you understand what your nervous system has actually been trying to do.In this episode, we explore why anxiety, shutdown, emotional eating, cravings, people pleasing, collapse, urgency, and overwhelm so often aren’t signs of dysregulation or weakness, but signs of an intelligent system trying to complete something th
Episode 6: Why Emotional Eating Happens (It’s Not Just Willpower)
Emotional eating gets talked about like it’s one behaviour with one cause.It’s not.In this episode, I break down the different roles food can play in your life and why understanding which role it’s playing matters far more than trying to “fix” your eating.Because food isn’t always about avoidance or numbing.Sometimes it’s regulation.Sometimes it’s comfort.Sometimes it’s relief.Sometimes it’s nouri
Episode 5: Food Noise Explained - Why Your Brain Won’t Stop Thinking About Food
If food feels loud for you, it’s not a discipline issue.And it’s not something wrong with your body.Food noise increases when your system is under strain.Too many decisions, too much responsibility, not enough rest, not enough support. When capacity drops, parts of you look for relief wherever they can find it.In this episode, I unpack food noise through a nervous system and Internal Family System
Episode 4: The Trauma Beneath the Binges
For years, I believed my night-time bingeing was a discipline problem.Something I should be able to control if I just tried harder.But the truth was far more confronting and far more compassionate.In this episode, I share the story of the pattern I couldn’t stop.Waking in the night in full panic. Racing to the kitchen. Eating with a level of urgency that felt completely out of my control.What fina
Episode 3: When Your Body Remembers Why the Holidays Can Trigger Old Patterns With Food
The holidays don’t create emotional eating. They reveal it.In this episode, we explore why this time of year so often activates old patterns around food, even when your life looks stable on the surface. Through the lens of trauma, the nervous system, and Internal Family Systems, we unpack how the body stores memory and how certain seasons, dates, and environments can reactivate responses learned l
Episode 2: Why Food Gets Loud When You’re Holding Everything Together
In this episode, we explore why emotional eating so often shows up in women who are high-functioning, capable, and already doing everything they can to cope.We look at emotional eating through an Internal Family Systems lens and unpack what’s actually happening in the nervous system when food becomes loud. Not as a lack of discipline, but as a signal that parts of you are working hard to regulate
Episode 1: I Thought My Body Was the Problem
For most of my life, I believed my body was the problem.Not in a dramatic way. Not in a way I could easily name. Just in the quiet, unquestioned way that sat underneath everything — shaping how I ate, how I moved, how I looked at myself, and how much peace I felt in my own skin.In this first episode, I share part of my personal story with food, body image, control, and emotional eating. From dieti
Trailer - The Self Led Woman
The Self-Led Woman is a podcast about emotional eating, the experiences that shape our relationship with food, and the kind of healing that unfolds when women reconnect with their sense of self.In this space, we go beneath behaviour, exploring trauma, the nervous system, nourishment, unmet needs, and mental health - with deep respect for the intelligence of the body.Hosted by Megan Darnell, Intern
