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
53 episodes
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 ...
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 Somat...
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 ...
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 you...
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 kee...
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, cer...
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 eat...
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 ...
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...
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 Me...
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 ...
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 n...
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...
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 eat...
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’...
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.<...
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 begin...
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 eati...
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....
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 m...
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 themselve...
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...
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 eat...
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 infor...
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 rea...