Friendship & Grief: how do friendship dynamics play out after we experience loss?

Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help.</p>This week, we have a dilemma from a listener who shares how it feels to continue in friendships after bereavement.</p>At 53, our listener was very sadly widowed, a devastating loss which came after seven other significant bereavements. In the aftermath, long-term friends who initially supported her through grief have now drifted away, leaving behind a fragile web of transactional interactions and emotional limbo.</p>In this episode, we'll unpack the grief beneath the grief that our listener has experienced, the second heartbreak of watching friendships fade just when they’re needed most, and why friends often retreat after death even with the best intentions.</p>If you have a dilemma for Emma, please fill out this <a href="https://forms.gle/6zmRxh3sW3TW77Cf6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">form. </a></p>---</p>Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.</p>---</p>Social media:</p>Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell</p>Dial Emma @dialemmapodcast</p>Email: contact@dial-emma.uk</p>

00:19:46

Toxic Complaining: How people-pleasing shows up at work

Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help.</p>This week, we explore a dilemma that will feel all too familiar to recovering people-pleasers: What happens when your efforts to support a struggling colleague backfire? Is it toxic complaining?!</p>Our listener shares the challenge of working with a teammate who constantly complains, leaving them feeling drained, excluded, and unsure if they’re somehow the problem. I unpack what's really going on beneath the surface, looking at people-pleasing patterns, emotional projection, and the complex dynamics that can make even the most positive workplaces feel heavy.</p>This episode is for anyone who’s ever felt responsible for someone else’s emotional state—or who wonders if being “too helpful” might be doing more harm than good.</p>If you have a dilemma for Emma, please fill out this <a href="https://forms.gle/AfAmnKv2oAtU4LGv6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">form. </a></p>---</p>Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.</p>---</p>Social media:</p>Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell</p>Dial Emma @dialemmapodcast</p>Email: contact@dial-emma.uk</p>

00:24:07

Elizabeth Day: Fertility, failure and unexpected grief

TW: miscarriage, abortion and fertility struggles</p>Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help.</p>This week's dilemma comes from a listener who is navigating a complex and painful fertility journey - but not one that necessarily fits into our pre-conceived ideas of what fertility struggles *should* look and feel like. To help me answer it, I'm joined by my first special guest: author and podcaster <strong>Elizabeth Day.</strong></p>Our listener, 43, writes with extraordinary vulnerability about her unexpected pregnancy in 2023, the decision to terminate, and the heartbreak of multiple miscarriages that followed. While her partner’s desire for parenthood has since waned, her own longing has grown, and she now finds herself grieving something she never expected to want so deeply.</p>This is a conversation about grief, identity, truth, and the emotional complexities of fertility, especially when the path isn’t linear. Elizabeth also shares her personal experiences of miscarriage and fertility treatment, and how she found peace on the other side of her decision to stop pursuing biological motherhood.</p>If you have a dilemma for Emma, please fill out this <a href="https://forms.gle/ANZULghA9me2MXfd6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">form</a>. </p>---</p>Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.</p>---</p>Social media:</p>Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell</p>Dial Emma @dialemmapodcast</p>Email: contact@dial-emma.uk</p>

00:39:12

Self-Loathing: Feeling like an imposter in your own life

Welcome back to Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life's stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help.</p>This week, we hear a deeply personal and vulnerable dilemma from a listener who feels like an imposter in her own life. She struggles to feel like she 'belongs' in her friendship groups and her family unit, and often leans into self-sabotage and feelings of jealousy to cope with an overwhelming fear of ending up alone.</p>During the episode, we unpack where these painful beliefs often come from—early life experiences where a child might learn to take the blame in order to feel safe. Through therapeutic insight and compassion, we explore how harsh self-judgment, fear of rejection, and unmet needs can shape adult relationships and our inner narrative.</p>This episode offers a gentle, validating invitation to reconsider: <em>Is it really you that’s not okay—or is there something about this that’s not okay?</em></p>If you have a dilemma for Emma, please fill out this <a href="https://forms.gle/ANZULghA9me2MXfd6" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">form</a>. </p>---</p>Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.</p>---</p>Social media:</p>Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell</p>Dial Emma @dialemmapodcast</p>Email: contact@dial-emma.uk</p>

00:21:36

Toxic Parents: Rewriting the Script using the Drama Triangle

Welcome to the first episode of Dial Emma! Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life’s stickiest moments. If you've ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here to help.</p>This week, our listener dilemma involves ageing parents in a toxic marriage, and an only child who often gets stuck in the middle of their conflict.</p>How do we manage responsibility for people we love and care about, while also remaining true to ourselves? How can we do things differently to get us closer to the outcomes we actually want?</p>In this episode, we explore the listener's dilemma through the lens of the drama triangle, highlighting the three roles we play in conflict: the Rescuer, the Persecutor and the Victim. We discover what the healthier alternatives to these roles might be, how to change the script, and how to navigate highly emotional family responsibilities while maintaining personal boundaries and self-identity.</p>If you have a dilemma for Emma, please fill out this <a href="https://forms.gle/mSLN93nKJ9ZEgh2G7" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">form.</a> </p>---</p>Dial Emma is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Lauren Brook.</p>---</p>Social media:</p>Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell</p>Dial Emma @dialemmapodcast</p>Email: contact@dial-emma.uk</p>

00:18:40

Dial Emma: Trailer

If you’ve ever wished you had a therapist in your back pocket, Dial Emma is here. Each week, I'll be answering your dilemmas with honesty, empathy, and a few therapeutic truth bombs to help you make sense of life’s stickiest moments.</p>Got a tricky situation, emotional tangle, or just need a fresh perspective? I’d love to hear from you. </p>Be sure to follow the podcast so you don't miss the first episode, coming soon!</p>

00:00:38

S3, Ep 12 Dial Emma: Insecurity in Relationships - how can I build trust with my partner when our relationship started as an affair?

Welcome back to the last episode of Dial Emma for this season! You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it.<br /><br />This week, Emma hears from a listener who is navigating feelings of insecurity in her romantic relationship, which started as an affair with her boss and is now a complex dynamic with an ex-partner and children involved.<br /><br />In this episode, Emma explores how we can address feelings of insecurity constructively by acknowledging and validating our feelings and where they might be coming from, and communciating them openly. Are we fearful of being abandoned, or perhaps not being good enough? Are there feelings of guilt or mistrust at play, particularly in situations characterised by secretiveness or deceit?<br /><br />Emma also encourages listeners to set boundaries that feel respectful and safe and gives some tips on how to build on our sense of self worth and confidence from within.<br /><br /><br />If you have a dilemma for Emma, drop us a voicenote on Instagram @friendshiptherapypod.<br /><br />---<br /><br />Friendship Therapy is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Chris Sharp and Lauren Brook.<br /><br />--- <br /><br />Social media:  <br /><br />Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell<br /><br />Friendship Therapy @friendshiptherapypod<br /><br />Email: contact@friendshiptherapypod.co.uk

00:11:09

S3, Ep 11 Friendship Therapy: Asking for Help in Friendship - how family dynamics play into our friendships in adulthood

Welcome to this week's episode of Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens. This week, Emma is joined by Katherine to talk about just how hard it can be sometimes to ask for help in friendships.<br /><br />Emma and Katherine talk about the specifics of how to get help that's actually helpful in the present, as well as Katherine's experience growing up as the youngest sibling with the smallest voice, and the impact that her parents' separation in her twenties had on her as an adult child of divorce.<br /><br />Emma also draws on Eric Byrne's transactional analysis parent adult child model to notice how Katherine has an abundance of critical parent around her, both within her friendships and in some of her family relationships too, but not so much of the nurturing parent that could offer genuine comfort, support and acceptance - and what it might take for Katherine to change some of those dynamics going forwards.<br /><br />If you’d like to apply to appear on the podcast, please click the link below to fill out the form: <br /><a href="https://forms.gle/9yZAVgF9BbyKhwsV7" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://forms.gle/9yZAVgF9BbyKhwsV7</a><br /><br />---<br /><br />Friendship Therapy is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Chris Sharp and Lauren Brook.<br /><br />--- <br /><br />Social media: <br /><br />Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell<br />Friendship Therapy @friendshiptherapypod<br />Email: contact@friendshiptherapypod.co.uk<br />

00:38:22

S3, Ep 10 Dial Emma: Friendship After Loss - the impact of grief on friendship

TW: loss, suicide<br /><br />Welcome back to this week's episode of Dial Emma. You share your dilemma, any dilemma, and Emma shares her reflections as a therapist to give you the tips and tools you need to navigate it.<br /><br />This week, we hear from a listener who tragically lost her husband when he took his own life, and is now navigating the loss of the friends that they shared in the wake of his death.<br /><br />In this episode, Emma challenges the societal expectation that friendships can only be joyful, fun, happy spaces, encouraging us all to have open, vulnerable conversations with our friends and evolve and adapt to support each other through loss.<br /><br />Emma also explores grief in all its complexity and the impact that it can have on friendships, especially when it comes to the emotional challenges of losing a loved one as a result of suicide.<br /><br />If you have a dilemma for Emma, drop us a voicenote on Instagram @friendshiptherapypod.<br /><br />---<br /><br />Friendship Therapy is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Chris Sharp and Lauren Brook.<br /><br />--- <br /><br />Social media:  <br /><br />Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell<br /><br />Friendship Therapy @friendshiptherapypod<br /><br />Email: contact@friendshiptherapypod.co.uk

00:09:07

S3, Ep 9 Friendship Therapy: Surface Dwellers and Depth Seekers - exploring emotional depth in male friendships

Welcome to this week's episode of Friendship Therapy, the podcast in which we look at friendships through a therapeutic lens.<br /><br />This week, Emma is joined by Elliot to talk about what it's like to be an, as he puts it, emotional male within male friendship groups. Elliot shares an experience that many of us might be able to relate to: being unceremoniously exited from a friendship group chat, with no real explanation or conversation beforehand. <br /><br />In this episode, Emma and Elliot talk about why being a lone voice in the wilderness might feel lonely, but might also be necessary when it comes to blazing a trail towards greater emotional intimacy and permission to be authentic among a group of individuals who haven't necessarily been encouraged to be vulnerable.<br /><br />Emma and Elliot also chat about the difference between friends who are surface dwellers and the ones who are depth seekers, and how to avoid emotional bends when we're traveling between different water pressures. In fact, this episode makes a lot of references to the ocean, from Finding Nemo to treasure chests - so we encourage you to settle back on your Lilo and enjoy the conversation.<br /><br />If you’d like to apply to appear on the podcast, please click the link below to fill out the form: <br /><a href="https://forms.gle/9yZAVgF9BbyKhwsV7" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://forms.gle/9yZAVgF9BbyKhwsV7</a><br /><br />---<br /><br />Friendship Therapy is hosted by Emma Reed Turrell, produced by Chris Sharp and Lauren Brook.<br /><br />--- <br /><br />Social media: <br /><br />Emma Reed Turrell @emmareedturrell<br />Friendship Therapy @friendshiptherapypod<br />Email: contact@friendshiptherapypod.co.uk<br />

00:40:37