PodcastsKids & FamilyNourishing the Mother

Nourishing the Mother

Bridget Wood & Julie Tenner
Nourishing the Mother
Latest episode

549 episodes

  • Nourishing the Mother

    NTM 548: When Masculine Defensiveness Meets Feminine Overwhelm

    03/2/2026 | 44 mins.
    A simple ask for help on the sidelines becomes a powerful mirror into long-term relationship dynamics. In this episode, Julie and Bridget unpack a very real rupture between Julie and Nick, revealing how moments of overwhelm can activate old attachment wounds, masculine defensiveness, and feminine collapse. Together they explore how childhood patterns quietly replay in adult partnerships, why competence can become a barrier to intimacy, and what it actually takes to keep choosing each other when nervous systems are under pressure. A raw, honest conversation about communication, polarity, and the ongoing work of conscious love.

    In this episode we discuss:
    - How small moments can activate old relational wounds
    - What happens when asking for help is met with defensiveness
    - The grief and humiliation that can arise when support isn’t available in panic
    - How childhood patterns (especially with our mothers) replay in adult relationships
    - The strategies women develop to avoid rejection, and the intimacy cost of those strategies
    - The difference between trusting your partner generally and trusting them in chaos
    - Masculine and feminine nervous system differences under stress
    - Masculine fixing reflexes versus feminine needs for presence and support
    - How polarity breaks down in moments of overwhelm — and how to restore it
    - Why clear, moment-to-moment communication matters more than good intentions
    - How to name behaviour in real time without attack or collapse
    - What accountability looks like in a conscious, long-term partnership
    - Why healing in love is ongoing, layered, and deeply relational
    - How understanding masculine–feminine dynamics changes the way you ask, respond, and repair

    Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub

    Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life
  • Nourishing the Mother

    NTM 547: Creating Back to School Calm (Without Losing Your Mind)

    21/1/2026 | 33 mins.
    Back to school isn’t just a diary change…it’s a full nervous system reboot.

    In this episode, Julie and Bridget get radically practical about what actually creates calm in the return-to-school season. Not mindset hacks. Not “just be more organised.” But the real, lived strategies that reduce friction, soften mornings, and help both parents and kids land back into rhythm; especially when neurodivergence, sensory needs, or emotional overwhelm are in the mix. This is about removing the predictable stress points so you’re not burning through your capacity before 8.30am… and so you can meet your children with steadiness instead of snapping over socks.

    In this episode, we discuss:

    - Why back to school dysregulates parents just as much as children, and how to work with that instead of against it
    - How small, repeated friction points quietly drain your nervous system (and why it’s never really about the socks)
    - Identifying your personal school-morning kryptonite before it takes you out
    - Running each child individually, instead of treating the family like one blurred system
    - Supporting neurodivergent kids with predictability, sensory-aware systems, and reduced decision load
    - How personalised stationery, colour-coding, and clear structure can dramatically lower anxiety
    - Why writing everything down actually restores capacity (and isn’t another thing to “get right”)
    - Front-loading the obvious — socks, uniforms, lunches — so you’re not regulating chaos later
    - The reframe: you don’t need more patience, you need more margin
    - How logistics create emotional safety for kids (and parents)
    - Streamlining lunchboxes and routines to reduce daily decision fatigue
    - Having the conversations early that prevent meltdowns later
    - Clarifying assumptions around sleepovers, screens, bedtimes, and flexibility
    - Preparing for wobble: school changes, transitions, big feelings…without trying to prevent them
    - Why this isn’t control… it’s care
    - How planning for reality lets you soften into the year instead of bracing against it

    This episode is for the parent who wants calmer mornings, steadier energy, and a school year that feels more doable - not because life is easier, but because you are better resourced.

    Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub

    Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life
  • Nourishing the Mother

    NTM 546: Who They Were Depends on Where You Stood; Family, legacy, and the limits of knowing the people we love

    12/1/2026 | 29 mins.
    In this episode, Bridget shares her experience of her grandfather’s passing, and the reflections that surfaced in the aftermath. Together, Julie and Bridget explore how our understanding of the people we love is always shaped by proximity, role, and family narrative.

    We unpack the idea that we never truly know a whole person; only the version revealed to us through relationship, family dynamics, and shared stories. This conversation gently examines legacy, memory, and the quiet humility required to accept that every life is larger and more complex than the slice we are given. It’s a reflection on grief, inheritance, and the ways family both connects us and limits what we can see, without needing answers, conclusions, or neat meaning-making.

    In this episode we discuss:
    - What it’s like to lose a grandparent and sit with what remains unspoken
    - How family stories shape who someone is allowed to be in memory
    - The idea that we only ever know people through our own relational lens
    - How different family members can hold entirely different versions of the same person
    - Why legacy is never the full truth of a life; just a fragment
    - The tension between intimacy and unknowability in close relationships
    - How grief can soften certainty rather than create clarity
    - What it means to honour someone without needing to define them
    - The humility of accepting partial knowing
    - Allowing complexity to exist without trying to resolve it

    Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub

    Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life
  • Nourishing the Mother

    NTM 545: New Year Reset: 10 Questions to Meet the Year Ahead (Without Forcing It)

    05/1/2026 | 41 mins.
    You don’t need a quiet house.
    You don’t need a fresh journal, a candle, or the “right headspace.”

    In this episode, Bridget and Julie walk you through 10 gentle New Year reflection questions in real time - the kind you can answer as you listen. Sitting in the car. On the couch. With a notes app open and a half-drunk cup of tea beside you.

    We pause.
    We give you space.
    And then…imperfectly and honestly…we answer them ourselves, on the fly.

    This is not about crafting beautiful intentions or saying the “right” thing. It’s about noticing what’s actually true after a full year of living, loving, mothering, working, holding, and becoming.

    You’re invited to reflect alongside us - not as a student, not as someone who needs to get it together - but as a woman in motion.

    Let this be messy.
    Let it be simple.
    Let it meet you exactly where you are.

    Press play. Grab your phone or a pen.
    And join us in meeting the year ahead, without forcing it.

    Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub

    Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life
  • Nourishing the Mother

    NTM 544: When Sex Feels Like One More Job: Christmas, Exhaustion & the Loss of Erotic Self

    29/12/2025 | 23 mins.
    The post-Christmas crash can leave many women feeling not just tired, but disconnected — from their bodies, their partners, and their erotic selves. In this deeply relieving episode, Julie and Bridget explore how the adrenaline of December masks exhaustion until it drops, and why that comedown so often shows up as sexual shutdown. They gently dismantle the myth that intimacy requires energy women simply don’t have at this time of year, and explore what it looks like to reconnect without pressure, performance, or guilt. This conversation reframes low libido not as a relationship problem, but as an intelligent signal of depletion, mental load, and modern motherhood…and offers a softer, more honest pathway back to connection.

    In this episode we discuss:

    - Why the post-Christmas adrenaline crash often brings emotional and sexual disconnection

    - How modern motherhood, constant vigilance, and over-functioning contribute to sexual shutdown

    - Why Christmas and January amplify “roommate mode” in long-term relationships

    - The link between mental load, resentment, and loss of erotic aliveness

    - Why low libido is usually a symptom; not the problem itself

    - How women’s bodies move into protection when overloaded or depleted

    - Why many women confuse loss of desire with loss of love

    - How arousal is contextual and relational; not a random internal drive

    - The difference between erotic aliveness and sexual performance

    - How pressure (even loving pressure) quietly kills arousal

    - Why fixing sex by focusing on sex often backfires

    - The power of noticing and appreciating everyday contributions in a relationship

    - Small, genuine interactions that reduce resentment and rebuild connection

    - Ways couples can stay connected that aren’t about sex — but often lead back to it

    Want support on this journey? Come join us inside Honey Club - where we melt these blocks together, one breath, one practice, one deep remembering at a time. Find out more at julietenner.love or visit: https://julie-tenner.newzenler.com/courses/honeyclub

    Reach out to Bridget for 1:1 coaching - bridgetwood.life

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About Nourishing the Mother

Mothering can be an inspired journey to our most glittering, authentic, passionate, creative and connected selves. Through the mirror offered to us by our children, we are taken to every hurt, unmet need, and also every joy and excitement we’ve ever experienced. We want every woman and mother to give themselves and those around them the compassion, love and healing they so readily offer their children, but rarely allow themselves. Journey with us as we discuss the many layers of being a mother today, where we have come from and where we want to go. Learn tools to connect with yourself, offer compassion to those parts we’d rather deny and get back in love with yourself, motherhood and who you are as a feminine woman.
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