Strong Tea

Strong Tea - Episode 50 - My Life As A Witch

The history of witchcraft is a long and harrowing one. Witchcraft was not made a capital offence in Britain until 1563 although it was deemed heresy and was denounced as such by Pope Innocent VIII in 1484. From 1484 until around 1750 some 200,000 witches were tortured, burnt or hanged in Western Europe.
 
Brett, know as the Witch of Salopia grew up surrounded by stories of spirits and witches, and even had a few in the family according to legend. He took his first steps as a witch aged thirteen when he found a collection of spells online. He was soon feared on the schoolyard for his curses, and kept seeking out more knowledge.
 
Unfortunately his journey would not always be a smooth one. Just as his practice was beginning to flourish, he found himself caught in an abusive relationship. Cut off from his spirituality, he was forbidden from practicing for five years.
But the universe had other plans for him, and he was helped to escape that awful situation.
 
With a renewed passion and gratitude Witch of Salopia threw himself into his practice. The spirits of his home county welcomed him as an old friend, giving him a deep sense of comfort and protection. This close connection with these spirits of his land remains a key part of his practice.
 
You can read more about Brett here: https://mossmatthey.com/witch-of-salopia/
 

Strong Tea - Episode 49 - Mental Health Disorders: Smashing Stigmas

Trigger Warning: Episode discusses mental health disorders, intrusive thoughts and self harm.
 
Brooke Miller joins us all the way from Wisconsin for this episode to discuss her mental health advocacy journey.
 
Brooke discusses her own journey and experiences of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, eating disorders, panic attacks, panic disorder and Bipolar disorder to help educate and inform others.
 
Brooke's experiences are unique in the sense of the combination and mental health issues that she suffers but 1 in 4 people will suffer with mental health issues at some point in their life and as such, talking about these and smashing stigmas is so important to let people know that they aren't suffering alone.
 
Brooke has her own wonderful blog on which she details her journey for others to read about and she's also highly visible on social media. We've popped all her links on our blog if you'd like to read more about or connect with Brooke.

Strong Tea - Episode 48 - The Truth Behind Miscarriage

Jennie is an award-winning freelance health journalist, writing features for national newspapers and magazines. Her work has appeared in The Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail,  the i paper, Red magazine, Women’s Health, Grazia, ELLE UK, the Guardian, and the Observer, among others.
 
Jennie's first book, Life, Almost: Miscarriage, misconceptions, and a search for answers from the brink of motherhood, was published in February 2023.
 
Jennie also is the author of the blog The Uterus Monologues, where she writes about her own experience of recurrent miscarriage and share the stories of others who have not had a straightforward path to parenthood.
 
In this episode, Jennie shares her story of recurrent miscarriage and the path she travelled to the birth of her son.
 
Jennie's experience is sadly not unique with one in four women experiencing loss whether it be miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death and it is just not talked about enough.
 
At Strong Tea, we want to share Jennie's story to open up the conversation to supporting those that have experienced loss to know that they are not alone.

Strong Tea - Episode 47 - Forgiving My Rapists

Madeleine Black is the courage cultivator. And my goodness, there couldn't be a more appropriate phrase for her if we'd come up with it ourselves!
 
Madeleine Black grew up in London in the late 1970’s and she was brutally raped at the age of 13 by two American teenagers.
 
In 2014, having come to terms with how the trauma had shaped her life, she decided to share her story to help others and wrote the incredibly moving memoir, Unbroken: One Woman's Journey to Rebuild a Life Shattered by Violence.
 
In this incredible episode, Madeleine shares with her experience, her life after and her journey to forgiveness.

Strong Tea - Episode 46 - OCDad with Jason Adams

Today’s episode is with a fantastic human, author of the book OCDad: Learning to be a Parent with a Mental Health Disorder, Jason Adams.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is something we should all know more about as it is frequently mis-referenced when people say they are “a little bit OCD” because they like cleaning or symmetry. Miseducation is sadly rife.
OCD is a mental health condition where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. It can affect men, women and children. People can start having symptoms from as early as 6 years old, but it often begins around puberty and early adulthood.
OCD can be distressing and significantly interfere with your life, but treatment can help you keep it under control.
If you have OCD, you'll usually experience frequent obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours.
An obsession is an unwanted and unpleasant thought, image or urge that repeatedly enters your mind, causing feelings of anxiety, disgust or unease.
A compulsion is a repetitive behaviour or mental act that you feel you need to do to temporarily relieve the unpleasant feelings brought on by the obsessive thought.
In this episode, Jason shares his experiences after the birth of his twins, which included persistent obsessive and intrusive thoughts and overwhelming compulsions which were taking over his life. 
This is an informative and insightful episode and a must for everyone to learn more about Obsessive-Complusive Disorder.
Jason’s book can be purchased here:
https://www.whsmith.co.uk/products/ocdad-learning-to-be-a-parent-with-a-mental-health-disorder/jason-adams/paperback/9781039109544.html
Or from selected independent bookshops.

Strong Tea - Episode 45 - Surviving Childhood Sexual Abuse

Trigger Warning: Episode contains descriptions of childhood sexual abuse.
 
Strong Tea podcast is all about talking about issues which people find difficult to discuss, the things that people shy away from talking about and this was one of the hardest topics to talk about.
 
Our guest "Sam" has asked to remain anonymous as she tells her story of childhood sexual abuse by family members and her journey of recovery.
 
Today's episode was not an easy episode to record or to listen to but it is so important that we stand with victims of abuse to ensure that they know they are not alone and are supported.

Strong Tea - Episode 44 - Bi-Erasure

Bisexual Erasure. 
A pervasive problem in which the existence or legitimacy of bisexuality (either in general or in regard to an individual) is questioned or denied outright.
In this episode, we chat with our own fabulous Vikki and our fantastic, returning Strong Tea family favourite April Kelley, all about their own experiences of bisexual erasure and overall bisexual representation. 
We chat and, more appropriately, challenge views and opinions of bisexuality and how the world views these FABULOUS humans.

Strong Tea - Episode 43 - Trans Therapy: My Life, My Work

Marianne Oakes is an extraordinary woman, not only has she been through her own transitional journey, she now dedicates her life to helping and supporting others in the LGBTQ+ community. 
Assigned male at birth, Marianne grew up with a feeling of not fitting in her body, that something wasn’t quite right. She started presenting female in the privacy of her home in her teens, her journey from meeting her incredible partner Vikki to being outed behind her back to transitioning to living as female is quite simply incredible. 
Marianne then chose to retrain as a therapist and now works daily to support the trans and wider LGBTQ+ community with their mental health.
This really is an episode not to be missed!

Quick Brew - Episode 28 - LGBTQ+ - What Does It All Mean?

Welcome to the third episode in our 2023 Pride series! 
This is a hugely important episode for us. Terminology and what you can and can't say these days can be incredibly confusing in an ever changing culture so, as part of our Pride series, we've decided to round up an extensive (but not exhaustive) list of LGBTQ+ terminology to help you understand what it's ok to say.

Strong Tea - Episode 42 - HIV & Me

We are so lucky to be bringing you the second episode in our Pride series with the incredible Tom Hayes-Isaacs who is a passionate HIV activist and advocate. Working across the UK and Europe he aims to both help reduce the number of new diagnoses, and improve life for those living with HIV.
 
Born in October 1985, Tom grew up in the the Midlands. Tom was diagnosed HIV positive on August 4th 2011, a day that changed his life, and work forever.
 
From the week following his diagnosis, Tom started blogging his journey – anonymously at first as UKPositiveLad. The blogs followed the ups and downs he experienced as he grappled with his new status, his fragile mental health and the minefield of sex and relationships as a newly diagnosed gay man.
 
Since then Tom has dedicated myself to tackling stigma and improving education around HIV, sexual health and mental health – with an aim of improving life for people living with HIV, and bringing down the number of new diagnoses.
 
Please check out our blog for all the links to follow Tom.