184: Natural Healing Show with Catherine Carrigan & guest fashion stylist Ellie Richards184: Natural Healing Show with Catherine Carrigan & guest fashion stylist Ellie Richards
UK Health Radio Podcast
Catherine Carrigan and fashion stylist Ellie Richards talk about how clothing choices, colour and a simpler wardrobe can influence mood, confidence and wellbeing. The conversation shares practical ways to use what you wear as a gentle tool for feeling more like yourself, especially during challenging life phases.
46:47•26 Jul 2026
How Dressing For Yourself Can Lift Your Mood and Calm Your Mind
Episode Overview
- Clothing affects how you think, feel and behave, so outfits can be used as daily support tools for emotional wellbeing.
- A minimalist wardrobe built from capsule basics, personality pieces and a few dopamine items reduces mental clutter and decision fatigue.
- Colour and fabric choices can calm or energise the nervous system, making them useful during anxiety, grief or major transitions.
- Dopamine dressing focuses on reusing existing feel-good pieces instead of constantly buying new clothes for a temporary boost.
- Aligning your wardrobe with who you are now and how you want to feel helps you show up as a more confident, authentic version of yourself.
“"When you're depressed, get dressed."”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This chat on the Natural Healing Show takes a slightly different route to feeling better, focusing on what’s hanging in your wardrobe rather than what’s in your glass. Medical intuitive healer Catherine Carrigan talks with New Zealand fashion stylist Ellie Richards about how clothing can support emotional wellbeing, confidence and even nervous system regulation.
Ellie explains fashion psychology as "the study of how what we wear affects how we think, feel, behave," sharing the famous white-coat experiment that showed people perform differently depending on the meaning they attach to their clothes. You’ll hear why your favourite jacket can make you "stand taller" and how dressing for the person you’re becoming can shift your mindset.
Catherine drops the memorable line, "When you're depressed, get dressed," and backs it up with a story of a client who bought four complete outfits and then lost weight because she started treating herself differently. Ellie walks through her minimalist wardrobe formula: capsule basics, personality pieces and "dopamine" items that give you an instant lift, like Catherine’s turquoise cowboy boots.
She talks about decision fatigue from overstuffed wardrobes, using colour as emotional support (blue for calm, bright yellow for a mood boost), and choosing fabrics and fits that feel safe and comforting during anxiety, grief or major life changes. Rather than chasing trends or copying outfits online, Ellie encourages reflecting on who you are now, what your days look like and which pieces genuinely make you feel good.
As she puts it, your clothes become "a wearable reassurance" and an everyday tool for feeling like yourself. If getting dressed has felt stressful or joyless, could a few small changes in your wardrobe help you feel more like the person you’re working so hard to become?
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