Episodios

  • JCIP #285 - Brady Frost & Tom Bradshaw

    JCIP #285 - Brady Frost & Tom Bradshaw
    May 2 2025
    In episode 285 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked back in with Brady Frost and Tom Bradshaw. Brady Frost and Tom Bradshaw are both Huddersfield Town fans and previously co-hosted a series on the Huddersfield Town podcast ‘And He Takes That Chance’ called The Warm Up, where they previewed upcoming games. After doing that for a few years, they wanted to try something new and different but stay within the Huddersfield Town podcast space. They set up a new podcast called ‘Still Smiling’, where they interview Town fans, former players and others and aim to remind Town fans you why they love the club. Our Founder Freddie Cocker was a guest on their first series and they have already interviewed a range of illustrious guests, local celebs in the Town fanbase and iconic former players. We first interviewed Brady on this podcast way back when in JCIP #43, and we first interviewed Tom in JCIP #127. We wanted to bring both back on to discuss the new podcast, what they want to achieve with it, some of their favourite episodes and the role it plays in the Huddersfield Town content creator space. We also have a check in with each of their respective, continued mental health journeys. For Brady, we discuss his experience of redundancy, which he went through during the Covid-19 pandemic period. We also discuss him getting engaged, buying a house and his decision to cut down drinking. We finish by discussing a wonderful article he wrote on journalist Daniel Gray’s website ‘When Saturday Comes’ about a half-and-half scarf and how it became a family tradition for him going to watch Town games. For Tom, we discuss the continued positive role his local Sunday league football team has on his mental health, and his three dogs, which he describes as a ‘life changer’. As always, #itsokaytovent You can subscribe and listen to the Still Smiling podcast on streaming platforms below: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/still-smiling-a-huddersfield-town-podcast/id1756086683 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3HLWlANnokQ6zXsJEDtE5K You can follow them on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stillsmilingpod/ You can listen to Part of Brady & Tom's journeys below: JCIP #43 - Brady Frost: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-43-brady-frost JCIP #127 - Tom Bradshaw: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-127-tom-bradshaw Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk
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    1 h y 31 m
  • JCIP #284 - Daniel John - Part 2

    JCIP #284 - Daniel John - Part 2
    Apr 25 2025
    In episode 284 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked back in with Daniel John. Daniel is the Founder of the mental health platform ‘You, Me & Anxiety’, which he founded in February 2018 to try and tackle the stigma around anxiety, provide him with a channel to voice his own experiences of anxiety and amplify the voices of others. We first checked in with him in JCIP #60, where we discussed the origins of the platform, the skills it gave him and his experience of anxiety, panic attacks, childhood bullying, his religious upbringing and much more. Since we first checked in, Dan decided to take a break from the platform for his own mental health. He was experiencing difficulties in his work and career, which was causing him significant distress. He went on holiday to Lisbon in Portugal for a week with a friend in November 2022 and had a life epiphany. He then took the decision to leave the job he was in and go travelling for three months. However, whilst he was travelling, he started to experience strange symptoms, including exhaustion and chronic pain, which he’d never experienced before. He tried toughing it out but in the end it got too much for him and he made the decision to come home and sort it out. After not receiving the best advice from his GP, he decided to go privately and was told the issue may be caused by bacterial overgrowth in his gut, where his immune system was weaker because of the workplace stress. After a period where he thought it was getting better, at the end of that year, the pain and fatigue came back and Dan began to believe the symptoms were psychological. One day he saw a book in his mum’s house called ‘The Mind Body Prescription’ by John E. Sarno. He read it and after reading it once, his symptoms went down by roughly 30%. Now, whenever he feels these symptoms flare up again, he re-reads the book and uses it as a literal mental and physical tool to help his mental health. He went back out travelling again, enjoyed it and has now returned to the UK where he is back in a stable place with his career. In this episode, we discuss: why he’s starting the platform back up again and his goals for this next chapter, what has changed and stayed the same in the mental health conversation since we first checked in, and the types of voices he wants to amplify on the platform going forward. We then discuss that continued mental health journey, the emotional build-up which may have been at the heart of that distress and pain and the relationship between physical health and mental health. And finally, for the first time, we discuss Dan's relationship with his father, which may explain the origins of some of the experiences we discuss and why he’s reacted the way he has in these periods of his life. As always, #itsokaytovent You can find out more about You, Me & Anxiety here: https://medium.com/you-me-anxiety You can follow the platform on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youmeandanxiety_/ You can listen to Part 1 of Dan's journey here: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-60-daniel-john Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk
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    1 h y 28 m
  • JCIP #283 - Jason Reeves

    JCIP #283 - Jason Reeves
    Apr 18 2025
    In episode 283 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Jason Reeves. Jason is the Founder of Embers Woodcraft, a charity which offers bushcraft experiences, workshops and a range of other activities that bring people together and focus on the natural environment’s power to improve their mental health. Jason began his career in the military, joining the Parachute Regiment at the age of 19, serving in Northern Ireland during The Troubles in 2Para. He then left the Paras and worked offshore on an oil rig for a year, before joining the Fire Brigade as a firefighter. He served in Kent Fire Brigade for 28 years at various stations in the county, and he will be retiring from the Fire Service in May 2025. Jason set up Embers in March 2024 and made it a C.I.C in September 2024. They currently put on one workshop a month and exclusively cater to helping male and female current and ex-emergency service personnel, as well as serving and non-serving military personnel. For Jason’s mental health journey, his passion for mental health also stemmed from his own mental health difficulties as well as his family’s. At the end of 2023, Jason found something in the back of his brain, which he feared was a brain tumour but thankfully turned out to be a benign cyst. However, between discovering it and the eventual reality, the cyst caused him to experience late-stage epilepsy. Thankfully there were no seizures, but he did experience tingling sensations in parts of his body which he could not explain at the time. After doctors believed he was having a stroke, they did a brain scan and found a cyst the size of a 50p piece. In addition, in 2023 his eldest daughter experienced her own mental health difficulties, which included self-harm, and it caused Jason immense stress and difficulty managing her mental health towards recovery. In this episode we chart Jason’s career across the armed forces and fire brigade, how it led to his work with Embers now, his passion for men’s mental health and utilising the power of nature, the outdoors and walking and talking to help men. We then discuss how the cyst impacted his physical and mental health, his relationship with his daughter during her mental health difficulties and after she recovered, his plans for retirement and his plans for taking Embers to the next level in the years to come. As always, #itsokaytovent You can find out more about Embers Woodcraft here: https://emberswoodcraft.co.uk/ You can follow them on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emberswoodcraft/ Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk TRIGGER WARNING: this podcast contains descriptions of self-harm, which some listeners may find distressing or upsetting, so please listen with caution.
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    1 h y 26 m
  • JCIP #282 - Holly Brencher

    JCIP #282 - Holly Brencher
    Apr 11 2025
    In episode 282 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Holly Brencher. Holly is a journalist and currently works as an AI Expansion Reporter at Newsquest. We came across Holly through a very personal article she wrote on Newsquest about the death of her brother Billy, who tragically took his own life 6th November 2024. The article was called a ‘Tribute to Welling's Billy Payne - love, struggle and advocacy’. In this episode we discuss how Holly got into journalism, through a chance workshop she saw on how to get into the industry after initially picking courses on script writing, despite her anxiety about going to university altogether. We then discuss the three year journalism degree she did at News Associates, based in Twickenham and landing the job she is in now. For industry issues, we discuss work-life balance and social class. For Holly’s mental health, we discuss her experience of anxiety from an early age and her difficulties with it when she entered an all-girls school in secondary school. This included severe panic attacks which took her out of school for a year and a half. We then discuss the life and death of her brother Billy, who is her half-brother biologically. On that aforementioned day in November 2024, Holly and her mum were given the news that Billy had taken his own life in prison. This is the first major grief Holly has gone through and she has been trying to process the news in the months following his death. There has been an inquest into Billy’s death which is still ongoing at time of recording and hopefully once this has been completed, Holly and her family can have closure. As always, #itsokaytovent You can read Holly's article in full here: https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/24748582.tribute-wellings-billy-payne---love-struggle-advocacy/ Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk TRIGGER WARNING: this podcast contains a deep discussion about grief, loss and suicide, which some listeners may find upsetting or distressing, so please listen with caution.
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    1 h y 28 m
  • Mind On The Game - Aaron Bowes - Part 2

    Mind On The Game - Aaron Bowes - Part 2
    Apr 9 2025
    In this episode of Mind On The Game we checked back in with Aaron Bowes. Aaron plays as the First XV fly-half in the Ashford Rugby Club's Men's team. He is also an old friend of VENT Founder Freddie Cocker. We first checked back in with Aaron way back when in December 2020, where we discussed how he got into rugby, the life skills it gave him including self-confidence and his friendship with Freddie, when they first met whilst studying at Sussex University together. We also discussed some bullying he went through in school because of his ears and the operation he had to pin them back which stopped the bullying and the fresh start it gave him. In Part 2, we discuss an ACL injury Aaron suffered in September 2021, at a point where he was playing his best rugby, the surgery he had to have for it in June 2022 and the recovery journey he went through for a whole year, before starting playing again in the 2023/24 season. We also discuss his desire to get back into the gym now he is fully recovered and so he avoids going through a similar injury again, and some memorable games he's played in this year and last year which helped him get his mojo back. For Aaron’s continued mental health journey, we discuss the milestone of reaching 30 years old, the stress of buying a house with his partner and the role she has played on his mental health, and a recent award he received at his workplace. As always, #itsokaytovent You can listen to Part 1 of Aaron's journey here: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/mind-on-the-game-aaron-bowes Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk
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    1 h y 4 m
  • JCIP #281 - Tom Toolan

    JCIP #281 - Tom Toolan
    Apr 4 2025
    In episode 281 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Tom Toolan. Tom Toolan is a father and the Founder of the 'Find Rhian' campaign, a campaign he started to find his daughter Rhian who was abducted by her mother in 2018, taken out of the UK and to her home country of Poland against a court order. Rhian was just six years old at the time. Rhian's abduction is a Criminal Offence under the 1984 Child Abduction Act and is currently wanted by Suffolk Police for the abduction. Despite his campaigning work, Rhian has not been found and Polish authorities have done very little to nothing to help him. In this episode we first discuss Tom’s upbringing in Liverpool and his working-class background, the death of his dad and Tom’s discovery that he had suffered from mental health difficulties. We then discuss his marriage and divorce from his first wife, which caused him to lose his house and contact with his children from that relationship. Tom then married again but it unfortunately ended in divorce again, and he spent another period on his own. He said this was the lowest point in his life up to that point. Tom then entered into a relationship with Rhian’s mother but this relationship broke down in 2017. Prior to Rhian’s abduction, Tom went through the family court system where he was faced with false accusations of rape and domestic abuse from Rhian’s mother in the UK and the astonishing situation where his second ex-wife testified against him in court too and he claims campaigned to encourage Rhian’s abduction. He then went through the Polish court system where she made further claims of alcoholism and implied he had used her for slave labour and exploitation. At time of recording Rhian will be around 11 years old and she has been completely alienated from her father. We chart Tom's story from the start to where it is now, the campaigning work Tom is continuing to do to fight for his daughter, what needs to change in the UK legal system to give fathers a voice, why this issue continues to be ignored by the mainstream mental health conversation and how it plays into the conversation around male suicide. As always, #itsokaytovent You can find out more about the 'Find Rhian' campaign here: https://www.rhiantoolan.com/ Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk
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    1 h y 32 m
  • JCIP #280 - Luke Loughlin & Lindsay Loughlin

    JCIP #280 - Luke Loughlin & Lindsay Loughlin
    Mar 28 2025
    In episode 280 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Luke Loughlin, and his sister Lindsay Loughlin. We first checked in with Luke in JCIP #244 where we discussed the story of men's mental health platform Men United, whom he was previously a co-founder of. We also discussed his own personal story of being diagnosed with ADHD and a learning difficulty, sexual abuse by a female perpetrator, addiction and suicidality. We then discussed his journey of recovery, using faith as a vehicle for it, getting sober and practicing sobriety, and working on his attachment style. All these positive steps have got him to where he is today. The missing part of the conversation around addiction in the mainstream, and it’s one we wanted to cover in this episode is the negative behaviours it causes addicts to do, and how the addicted person's loved ones handle those behaviours and find a path back to a healthy relationship, if that is possible. In this episode with Luke and Lindsay, we discuss their family upbringing and the values their parents instilled in them, the rough tides of Luke’s addiction and the sexual abuse he went through which fuelled the addiction. We then discuss the difficult decisions Lindsay and her family made to detach from Luke whilst he was in the throes of this addiction. We then explore the concept of forgiveness, how Luke forgave himself for his actions and understanding his abuse and how Lindsay felt when she discovered the abuse Luke had been going through and the context it provided for his actions and addiction. We then finish by discussing how Lindsay and his family forgave Luke and, together, found a path back to redemption, love and reaching the place they are now in their relationship. Since we checked in, Luke is now godfather to Lindsay’s son, Luke’s nephew and is giving back to his family and his community through his church, other avenues of positivity and will be starting his own new project in 2025 called 'The Inside Job Project'. The inspiration for the name is because, as Luke says, ‘recovery is an inside job. Change is an inside job’. Recovery only started for Luke when he got honest with himself, owned his shit and self-reflected to discover the trauma he had buried. Once he had done that, he started to produce a change inside that lead to outside changes in his life. As always, #itsokaytovent You can follow Luke on social media below: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mentalhealthloughlin/ You can listen to Part 1 of Luke's journey here: https://soundcloud.com/venthelpuk/jcip-244-luke-loughlin Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk TRIGGER WARNING: this podcast contains a brief discussion about sexual abuse, which some listeners may find extremely upsetting or distressing, so please listen with caution.
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    1 h y 24 m
  • JCIP #279 - Leah Morris

    JCIP #279 - Leah Morris
    Mar 21 2025
    In episode 279 of The Just Checking In Podcast we checked in with Leah Morris. Leah currently works as a Centre Manager at the Liverpool branch of James’ Place UK, a charity who are doing lifesaving work for men's mental health. Leah was diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) in her early 20s after experiencing some workplace bullying in a previous role prior to joining James’ Place UK. Prior to that, she had experienced panic attacks as a teenager whilst studying for her GCSEs but didn’t know what they were at the time. After she was diagnosed with GAD, she was prescribed medication in 2019, specifically Fluoxetine which she said helped get her back to a baseline level and she has now been off medication in 2020. At the heart of her mental health recovery has been fitness and exercise. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, she started running, doing the ‘couch to 5k’ programme. She got to the point where she was running 5ks three times a week for a year. However, in Christmas 2021, she bought a house and stopped running when she was dealing with the upheaval that moving house brings. She tried picking up running again in 2022 but couldn’t get back into it. In May 2023, she joined James’ Place UK and at the start of 2024, she got back into fitness, this time trying swimming to help her mental health. She found her rhythm again and now swims three times a week at time of recording. In this episode we talk about Leah’s anxiety, workplace bullying, the role fitness played in her recovery and the importance of having the right support network around you to maintain or boost your mental health. As always, #itsokaytovent Support Us: Patreon: www.patreon.com/venthelpuk GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/help-vent-supp…ir-mental-health Merchandise: www.redbubble.com/people/VentUK/shop Music: @patawawa - Strange: www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70wfeJSEvk
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    43 m
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