171: Natural Healing Show with Catherine Carrigan - Episode 171

171: Natural Healing Show with Catherine Carrigan - Episode 171

What drives someone to seek a life without chronic work stress and burnout? This conversation on the Natural Healing Show pairs career talk with health talk, showing how deeply job satisfaction is tied to body, mind and spirit. Host Catherine Kerrigan chats with career coach and author Patti Boyle about what happens when people feel stuck in toxic workplaces, underemployed, or suddenly out of a job.

Patti points out that work stress hits the big three – money, health and relationships – and shares that only about a third of people are truly thriving in their careers. The rest? Often dealing with disrupted sleep, constant illness, anxiety, shame and a sense of lost identity.

Patti explains that purpose "is not fluffy, it's stabilising", and walks through how she helps clients clarify meaningful work by asking what they do well, what they love, what the world needs and what can actually pay the bills. Catherine adds a fascinating angle with her body-type and "dominant drives" approach, linking happiness to whether someone is mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually driven.

You’ll hear practical, down-to-earth ideas: simple daily structure for the unemployed, movement and spiritual practice as a kind of "rhythmic structure", and the importance of cutting back on alcohol and drugs when life feels overwhelming. Both stress that forgiveness is essential, with Catherine stating plainly that lack of forgiveness blocks healing.

The episode also tackles job loss as a "breakdown to breakthrough" moment, with Patti helping people reframe redundancies as a chance to redesign their lives and craft a new vision for work that feels meaningful and health-supportive. If your job is draining you, or you’re facing a career shake-up, this conversation may get you asking: is this a breakdown, or the start of your breakthrough?