Alive and Kicking with Clare McKenna

Jacqui Taaffe was a young teenager in hospital for a minor procedure when and incident led her to carry trauma in her life for many years. This week on Alive and Kicking she talks to Clare McKenna about how she worked through it and why she was ready to document her story in her book ‘Inspire Heal Empower’ Aidan O’Brien was working as a personal trainer in Limerick when a job led him on to cruise ships where he began to speak to groups of people about mindset. Today he joins Clare  to talk about how even the most successful people have a guide or mentor to nudge them in the right direction and how he’s not comfortable with the label of life coach.

This week on Alive and Kicking Clare McKenna talks to Neuroscientist Sabena Brennan to find out more about our REM sleep and what’s really going on when we dream.  A new podcast series has recently launched for people living with and affected by migraine in Ireland and Clare meets the host Debbie Hutchinson. Plus Clare brings us a report from a big sea swim when she meets June Curtin who lost her husband to suicide in 2013 and looking for some solace she embraced sea swimming and over the years she has built a community called Snaimhai Sasta

This week on Alive and Kicking Clare McKenna talks to Dr Joshua Wolrich  who is the author of ‘Food is not Medicine’ and in it he talks about the turnaround he made on how he views dieting, weight-loss and why now his life’s work and personal view has changed to health and every size. Plus we hear from Dr Catherine Kelly on our relationship with water and why we are attracted to blue spaces. She is the author of ‘Blue Spaces-How and Why Water Can Make You Feel Better’

With the kids back to school how do we help them through the anxiety brought on by the pandemic or life in general and should we even use the term 'anxiety' around them? This week on Alive and Kicking Clare McKenna chats to Psychologist Jennifer Ryan about all of this. She is also joined by the man who has set up a research team who hope to discover a way to diagnose mental health conditions quicker based on his own breakdown. Plus Clare chats to the organisation 'Sick of Plastic' about ending the single-use scourge!

This week on Alive and Kicking Clare McKenna chats to Dr Corine de Boer about the clinical trials using psychedelics to treat PTSD. She is also joined by Australian author Andrew Wear to talk about his new book ‘Recovery’ which looks at how best to recover from crisis and what we can learn from the world’s biggest comebacks. Clare also talks to Dr Cliona Murphy about the latest advice on Covid 19 vaccinations while pregnant.