The BigTalk Podcast

Hosted by Amanda Davies

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116

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Amanda Davies is an award-winning business leader, a Registered Psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) for over 20+ years, and a Certified Somatic Practitioner & Educator. As a Fellow of the Association for Coaching (AC), Amanda has made significant contributions to the industry and pioneered the world's first Psychodynamic Coaching methodology - a depth-oriented approach that translates psychodynamic and Jungian principles into rigorous, ethical coaching practice. She is committed to supporting current and future leaders in the personal development industry, helping them deepen their craft and create a ripple effect of positive change. In 2015, Amanda transitioned from a successful corporate career to pursue her passion for empowering others. With over 25 years of diverse experience, she passionately believes that, regardless of your circumstances or the obstacles you face, you can achieve your full potential in this lifetime. Amanda has been featured in The Times, The Guardian, Yahoo Finance, The Telegraph, and Huffington Post. She was shortlisted as a finalist in the UK's National Business Awards (2017) and named as the UK's leading Business Mentor (2019). Her dedication to bringing depth, embodiment, and psychodynamic insight into the coaching field has established her as a transformative force in the evolution of modern coaching.

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June 9, 202651 min

Episode 116 - The Crisis Beneath the Mental Health Crisis

We live in a time of unprecedented psychological understanding. We know about trauma, attachment, nervous systems, emotional regulation, and mental health more than any generation before us. ... and yet, something curious is happening. Despite all of this insight, many people are quietly struggling with a deep sense of disconnection from themselves, their relationships and from life itself. Of course, the world around us feels chaotic... Traditional meaning-structures are crumbling... Anxiety is rising... Loneliness is on the increase. But beneath the surface of outwardly-functioning lives, there's a question on the lips of many that's becoming harder to ignore: "Is this really it?" In this episode, we explore a different way of understanding what is happening beneath the surface of modern life. Because while we have become incredibly fluent in understanding what is "wrong" with us and the world at large, we have lost fluency in a more ancient question: :: "What is trying to emerge through us?" This conversation explores the idea that many of the experiences we label as burnout, confusion, emotional intensity, or dissatisfaction may in fact be signals. Signals that a life is beginning to outgrow the identity that has been carrying it. We also explore why so many people are unconsciously searching for meaning through new pathways such as spirituality, astrology, depth psychology, shadow work, and altered states of consciousness, and what this reveals about the deeper hunger of our time. At the heart of this episode is a simple but confronting possibility: What is often experienced as emotional or psychological disturbance may also reflect an underlying process of soul-emergence. When viewed through that lens, the focus subtly shifts from "healing what's wrong" to questions of "who am I becoming"? ... Final Places Remain: Become a Psychodynamic Coach - Class starts 22nd June. - $1500 in savings through our Early Bird promotion Discover more here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

May 26, 202645 min

Episode 115 - Why So Many Coaches Secretly Don't Want To Be "Coaches"

There’s a strange tension happening inside the coaching industry right now. On one hand, more people than ever are entering the space because they genuinely want to help others transform. But on the other hand… many practitioners secretly feel disconnected from the very identity they’ve stepped into. Because somewhere along the way, coaching became associated with performance. Scripts. Personal branding. High-energy motivation. Surface-level empowerment. Formulaic transformation. And for many people - especially those drawn to psychology, spirituality, shadow work, Jungian thought, emotional depth and human complexity - something about that feels profoundly incomplete. In this episode, we explore: * Why so many coaches feel disillusioned with modern coaching culture * The hidden embarrassment some practitioners feel around the word “coach” * The difference between real transformation and motivational performance * Why depth-oriented practitioners crave psychological grounding * How the industry often bypasses the unconscious entirely * The growing hunger for work that feels intellectually serious, emotionally honest and soul-deep This conversation is for the people who know they were never meant to do surface-level work. The people who have always been fascinated by the psyche, by patterns, by shadow, by meaning, by what lives underneath behaviour. And perhaps most importantly: the people who have always wondered if there’s another way to practice transformational work altogether. ... EXPLORE DEPTH-COACHING: Early Bird Enrollment for the June cohort of the Psychodynamic Coach Academy is now open with $1500 in savings on offer for a limited time. Discover more here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

May 12, 202639 min

Episode 114 - Self Improvement and the Missing Map of the Psyche

Are you healing… or just polishing the personality? Much of modern self-improvement focuses on behaviour change, mindset, habits, emotional regulation, or becoming a “better version” of your socially-conditioned self. But what happens when transformation work never moves beyond the surface of the psyche? In this episode, we explore the deeper unconscious dynamics that shape behaviour, resistance, identity, visibility, self-sabotage, and transformation itself, and why many coaches and practitioners are working with an incomplete map of the psyche. We explore: - why self-improvement often plateaus - the unconscious meaning behind “self-sabotage” - why awareness alone doesn’t necessarily create change - spiritual and somatic bypassing - the difference between adaptation and integration ... and why so much transformation work unintentionally becomes "personality polishing" rather than deep psychological change .... Explore the Psychodynamic Coach Academy: Early Bird Enrolment is now open for our upcoming cohort starting on 22 June. - Save $1500 - Secure over $3000 in bonuses - Limited spots available Discover more here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

April 28, 20261 hr 8 min

Episode 113 - Waking Up to Your Soul's Calling: The Nudges, Niggles & Signs You’re Meant for a Different Path

Today’s episode is for those of you at the very beginning of something… even if you can’t quite name it yet. Most people who find their way into this work haven’t lived linear lives. You’ve changed, outgrown things, and been through many cycles of death and rebirth. You’ve never quite fit the mould and if you're honest, life itself has felt like a kind of training ground. Almost as if you've been prepared for something. Then there comes a moment (or a series of moments), usually around mid-life, where something starts to get your attention. A quiet pull. A persistent niggle. Patterns you can’t ignore anymore. A dissatisfaction some would flippantly call a "midlife crisis". It might show up through synchronicities, dreams, conversations… or just a growing sense that the life you’ve built no longer fully fits. Many people feel this. But just as many rationalise it away. Minimise it. Talk themselves out of it. Tell themselves it’s just a phase, or something external that needs fixing. In this episode, we’re going to slow that down. I’ll walk you through how to recognise when you’re being called, in real, practical terms, sharing some of my own story as I go - and the grounded steps you can take if you choose to follow it.

April 14, 202646 min

Episode 112 - The Sovereign-Coded Woman: Power, Projection & Self Authority

In this episode, we go beyond surface-level ideas of confidence and independence to explore what it actually means to be sovereign-coded and why so many women struggle to fully stand in it... ... even after years of inner work, and even though they *intuitively know* they're here to be noticed, make waves and stand tall. The truth is, you were born sovereign, but you also activated it through descent, through experience, and through doing the work most people avoid. ... and yet despite all of the healing and inner work, there’s often still a part of you that questions whether you’ve earned the right to fully own it. In this episode I cover: - How Tall Poppy Syndrome and Internalised Misogyny have teamed up to keep you small - The conditioning that taught you to fear your own power - The instinct to shrink, soften, and stay acceptable - Why being fully expressed often disrupts belonging - How to hold projection, envy, and misunderstanding - The Good Girl pattern and how it undermines your authority Not everyone will understand you because they’re not meant to. But if you want a bigger, more expressed life, you’ll need the capacity to hold that. This is where sincere Shadow Work comes in... Tune-in for a heart-felt, firey discussion on power, projection and being a self-led woman. .... YOUR INVITATION: If you're ready to go deeper, explore my self-study program, Electric Woman. Electric Woman is a Shadow Medicine Journey for recovering People Pleasers, Super Survivors, and Good Girls ready to get Next-Level Visible and reclaim their Vital Spark. Electric Woman offers a reactivation of the brilliance and creative voltage that was never truly lost - only hidden. Join now for immediate access: https://www.lightpurposelivingtraining.com/electricwoman

March 16, 202643 min

Episode 111 - The Moment Most Coach Trainings Never Prepare You For

At some point in their practice, many coaches encounter a moment that their training never quite prepared them for: - A client understands their challenges. - They are motivated to change. - They genuinely want something different. ... and yet, despite some progress, the old patterns of self-sabotage reappear. The coaching conversation begins to circle. The same themes repeat. ... and quietly, the coach may start wondering: "Am I missing something here"? In this episode, we explore a reality many coaches experience but rarely discuss openly - the moment where traditional coaching tools such as strategy, motivation, mindset reframing, and goal setting stop being enough. Because when insight and motivation are already present, and the pattern still persists, it quickly becomes obvious the issue is pushing on something deeper within the psyche. Drawing on principles from depth psychology and the work of Carl Jung, this episode explores how unconscious dynamics (including the shadow, competing parts of the self, and identity protections) can shape client behaviour in ways many coaching models simply don’t explain. We’ll also look at the four pressures many coaches quietly experience in their practice: • The Competence Doubt - Am I actually helping my clients? • The Looping Session Problem - Why do we keep coming back to the same issue? • The Business Pressure - If clients don’t change, will my business succeed long term? • The Integrity Tension - How do I go deeper without crossing into therapy? Understanding shadow dynamics gives coaches a completely different way of seeing what is happening inside a session. Patterns that once felt frustrating or confusing begin to reveal something meaningful about the deeper forces shaping a client’s behaviour. .... *** NEW: What Every Coach Needs to Understand About the Shadow If this episode resonated with you, you may enjoy our new professional briefing for coaches. This 2.5-hour recorded training explores the deeper psychological dynamics that frequently appear in coaching conversations - including shadow patterns, relational dynamics, and the hidden forces that shape behaviour. It’s designed for new, aspiring, and experienced coaches who want a clearer framework for recognising what is happening beneath the surface in their sessions. Access the full briefing for just $27 here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/shadow-briefing ... *** FINAL PLACES: The Psychodynamic Coach Academy For coaches who want to explore this work at a much deeper level, the Psychodynamic Coach Academy is our internationally accredited certification in psychodynamic coaching. Rooted in the insights of Carl Jung and depth psychology, the program trains coaches to recognise and work with shadow, the personal unconscious, and identity-level transformation within an ethical coaching framework. The next cohort begins on March 30 and final places are currently available. Learn more about the program here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

March 3, 202646 min

Episode 110 - Ego Defence at the Edge of Expansion

Why do people say they want expansion… and then quietly resist it when it becomes real? If you’re a coach or work with people in any capacity, you’ve seen it. Clients are excited. They’re inspired. They sign up. They talk about transformation. And then something shifts. Momentum slows. Excuses appear. Energy collapses. We often call this “self-sabotage” or “resistance.” But what’s actually happening is far more precise. It’s ego defence. In this episode, I unpack what really occurs when identity expansion becomes real... and why the ego intervenes just as growth crosses a threshold. Because here’s the truth: Expansion always threatens identity. It asks something to die. It asks something to end. It asks you to redefine who you are. And the ego (whose job is to maintain your sense of self), will defend against that destabilisation. What's often mistaken as 'shadow work' is actually ego protection... and unless we understand the structure of the psyche, it's difficult to support our clients (and ourselves) in a meaningful way. Inside this episode, I also unpack five ego defence archetypes that commonly activate when expansion becomes real: – The Intellectual Neutraliser – The Spiritualised Bypasser – The Overwhelm Collapse – The Perfectionist Retreat – The Moral High Ground Collapse Each reveals how the psyche protects identity when self-redefinition is required. Momentum is easy. Expansion is inspiring. Until it asks you to become someone new. This episode is for coaches, aspiring practitioners, and anyone standing at the edge of their next level. Awareness changes everything. ..... BECOME A CERTIFIED PSYCHODYNAMIC LIFE COACH: If this conversation resonates and you’re ready to understand expansion (and ego defence) at a deeper level, the next cohort of the Psychodynamic Coach Academy (PCA) begins on March 30. The PCA is a 16-week, internationally accredited training in depth-informed coaching, designed to help you work skillfully with identity, shadow, and growth edges - first in yourself, then with clients. There are just two spots remaining in this cohort. Enrollment begins with a consultation call, and if you feel called to step into this work seriously, now would be the time. More information can be found on our website: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

February 18, 202637 min

Episode 109 - The Age of Exposure: What This Moment Is Asking of Us

Have you noticed how much is being exposed right now? Secrets are surfacing. Collective shadow is being exposed. Power structures are being destabilised. Understandably, this is causing people to react in volatile ways: Outrage. Denial. Fascination. Fatigue. Splitting. The truth is, when the light of consciousness hits what has been buried, it disrupts - it shakes loose whatever has been hidden and festering behind the scenes. ... and when that happens, the shadow doesn't show up dressed in light. What we’re watching collectively mirrors something deeply human... The fragmentation "out there" reflects fragmentation within. Exposure in culture echoes self-confrontation. Using the Johari Window as a lens, I explore where shadow actually lives (especially in the “unknown-unknown” parts of ourselves) and why moments like this accelerate contact with what we’ve never examined. The real question isn’t what’s being revealed: It’s how we’re meeting it and how we're using this opportunity for healing, wholeness, and growth. Integration is the work. .... For Those Called to Work With Depth: If this conversation resonates, enrollment for the next cohort of the Psychodynamic Coach Academy is now open. PCA is a 16-week, internationally accredited training in working with unconscious drivers, shadow material, and depth processes - ethically and professionally. Early bird enrollment is available throughout February. For more information visit: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

February 2, 20261 hr 8 min

Episode 108 - Why Depth is No Longer Optional: Coaching as the Work of Our Times

We are living through a profound moment of transition... Old structures are dissolving. Identities are shifting. Many people feel called toward purpose-driven work, yet find themselves stuck, anxious, or disconnected, even after years of self-improvement. In this episode, Amanda explores why some forms of coaching are quietly evolving into a study of consciousness, and why depth is no longer a “nice-to-have,” but a necessity for anyone guiding others through change. In this episode, we explore: - Why surface-level change no longer holds in times of complexity - How Jung’s concept of individuation reframes coaching and personal development - Why so many coaches, therapists, and other practitioners feel something is missing from mainstream training - The difference between optimisation and becoming who you truly are - How coaching becomes steadier, safer, and more effective when it’s informed by psyche, embodiment, and meaning. Amanda also shares how this understanding sits at the heart of the Psychodynamic Coach Academy - a training designed not just to teach skills, but to support the inner development required to hold others well. This episode is for: - Coaches and aspiring coaches who feel called to deeper work - Practitioners who sense that insight alone isn’t enough - Those drawn to purpose, consciousness, and meaningful change - Anyone who feels the quiet pull toward a more integrated way of living and leading If you’ve ever felt that coaching is more than a career, that it’s a calling asking you to grow alongside the work... this episode is for you. ... A Gentle Invitation: Applications are now open for the next cohort of the Psychodynamic Coach Academy, beginning 30 March. Early Bird enrolment is currently available. You can explore the program and learn more here: 👉 https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification

October 14, 202547 min

Episode 107 - The Shadows That Gather Around a Woman of Innate Depth & Power

Have you ever noticed how your presence can make people both admire and resent you at the same time? One moment they’re drawn to your composure, your depth, your light - and the next, they’re calling you intimidating, too intense, or “a bit much.” Perhaps this has been the story of your entire life. In this episode, I unpack what’s really happening when your presence activates projection in your friends, clients, colleagues, even family. We’ll explore six common archetypes that powerful women unconsciously embody (the Refined Outsider, the Initiatrix, the Independent Light, and more) and why these energies stir admiration and shadow in equal measure. You’ll learn how to read the feedback of the field without shrinking, apologising, or over-explaining yourself and instead, how to stay rooted in your own energetic sovereignty as a woman of depth. Because when you understand projection, you stop taking people’s reactions personally and start reading them as data from the collective unconscious. If you’re ready to turn your depth into your profession, this is the work we do inside The Psychodynamic Coach Academy - our internationally accredited certification for coaches who want to work at soul-level depth. - Early Bird savings are ending soon. - Just 2 spots left! Discover more here: https://www.psychodynamiccoachinginstitute.com/certification