27: The Healing Power of Your Dreams with Theresa Cheung & Kelly Sullivan Walden - Episode 27

27: The Healing Power of Your Dreams with Theresa Cheung & Kelly Sullivan Walden - Episode 27

UK Health Radio Podcast

Therapists, authors and spiritual guides join dream specialists to rethink selfishness as a healing force, linking self-care, boundaries and dreams. The conversation looks at carers, super helpers and parents who give endlessly, and offers practical, heart-led ways to start putting their own wellbeing back on the list.

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53:10•28 Mar 2026

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Selfish with a Capital S: Dreams, Boundaries and Filling Your Own Cup

Episode Overview

  • Healthy "selfishness" is reframed as self-advocacy and a basic human need rather than a moral failing.
  • Simple practices like a hand-on-heart water ritual or the "face hug" can offer quick, somatic comfort in stressful seasons.
  • Dreams are described as created by you, for you, reflecting every part of your inner life and offering nightly self-care.
  • "Super helper syndrome" highlights how constant helping without boundaries can damage mental and physical health.
  • Heart-led living, accepting emotional seasons and modelling self-respect are presented as key for both adults and children.
“My depletion serves no one and my replenishment serves everyone.”

Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of how saying "yes" to yourself can change everything. This lively UK Health Radio episode of *The Healing Power of Your Dreams* brings together dream-focused hosts Theresa Cheung and Kelly Sullivan Walden with a rich line-up of psychologists, authors and spiritual guides to talk about what they call "positive selfishness". Chartered psychologist and self-care specialist Susie Redding kicks things off by challenging the idea that looking after yourself is a character flaw.

She shares how many women label basic rest and boundary-setting as "selfish", and offers a powerful reframe: "My depletion serves no one and my replenishment serves everyone." From tiny rituals like sipping water with a hand on your heart to somatic holds such as the "face hug", she keeps things practical for carers and burnt-out helpers who feel they have no time.

Author and former Miss Spain Lorena Bernal adds a heart-centred angle, describing how "it all starts with you" and suggesting a mental camera placed inside the heart rather than the head, so actions come *from* you rather than just *for* others. She talks about emotional "seasons" and the goal of "heartfelt peace" instead of external success.

Clinical psychologist Jess Baker introduces her idea of "super helper syndrome" – helping others to the point of damaging your own wellbeing – while actor and spiritual life coach Phil Webster brings a gentle male perspective on ego, caring and the need for emotional balance between feminine and masculine. Throughout, dreams are framed as the most "selfish" practice in the best sense: created by you, for you, reflecting every part of your inner life.

If you’ve ever felt guilty for needing a break, or worn yourself out being there for everyone else, this conversation asks a simple question: what might change if you let yourself shine instead of shrinking?

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