Send us Fan Mail

For the next few weeks we’re going right back to where Shoulder to Shoulder began over two years ago, revisiting the first six episodes of the podcast and the conversations that helped shape the series.

These early episodes introduced us to people with powerful lived experience, honest reflections on mental health, and a deep belief in the value of peer support.

Listening back now, they still feel just as relevant. These early episodes introduced us to people speaking honestly about lived experience, mental health, recovery, and what peer support actually looks like in real life.

They still matter, because the heart of it was always the same, people who had been through something difficult, sitting alongside others who needed to know they weren’t on their own.

In this first episode of Shoulder to Shoulder by With You, we revisit where the podcast began with Anita’s powerful story of identity, culture, motherhood and peer support.

She shares her journey from childhood in Africa to building a life in Manchester, reflecting on the challenges of adapting to a new country and the importance of connection during difficult times.

At the heart of the conversation is the impact of peer support and how it helped her feel seen and understood, and why support from those with lived experience can be so meaningful. Anita also talks about co-founding Holding Her Space, an organisation supporting mothers and families through pregnancy and early parenting.

As we look back on the first six episodes, this conversation captures what the series set out to do: highlight the people behind peer support and the difference it makes in mental health and everyday life.

Hosted by Cate Munro, Shoulder to Shoulder explores these stories with peer supporters from all walks of life.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

Send us Fan Mail

In this honest and thoughtful episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Cate speaks with Ciara, a peer support leader, trainer and activist from Ireland, whose own experience of trauma, distress and trying to find the right support has shaped the way she now works with others.

Ciara manages Solace Café in Dublin, an out-of-hours crisis prevention service built around lived experience, connection and compassion. In this conversation, she reflects on growing up in difficult circumstances, struggling with fear, shame and substance use, and spending years in systems that often left her feeling unheard rather than helped.

What changed things was finding spaces where she could speak openly, be heard as a human being, and begin to make sense of what had happened to her. Her story is candid, grounded, deeply human, and speaks powerfully to what peer support can offer when people are properly listened to.

In this episode, we explore:

✔️ How peer support helps people feel understood, not managed

✔️ Why trust, mutuality and human connection matter in recovery

✔️ The difference between lived experience and purely clinical support

✔️ The challenges peer workers can face inside formal mental health systems

✔️ Why honest, compassionate spaces can change the course of someone’s life

Show Notes

Connect with Ciara:
http://linkedin.com/in/ciaraglynn1

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of Shoulder to Shoulder, Cate speaks with Charlie, a peer support worker in an NHS community mental health team, a trainee therapist, and the founder of a growing sober community in Shrewsbury, whose own recovery has shaped the way she now shows up for other people.

Charlie speaks openly about a childhood marked by trauma, anxiety, and feeling responsible for everyone else. She talks about first struggling with her mental health as a child, turning to alcohol in her early teens, and the way drinking gave her a false sense of confidence, control and escape.

She also reflects on being the first person in her family to go to university, getting sober at 22, and the long, "messy" and unglamorous reality of recovery. She speaks about therapy, diagnosis, setbacks, self-discovery, and slowly building a life that actually feels like hers.

Now five years sober, Charlie uses that lived experience in her work every day. In this conversation, we explore:

✔️ How peer support can help people feel seen, understood and less alone

✔️ The link between trauma, addiction, mental health and recovery

✔️ Why lived experience matters in community mental health services

✔️ The difference between clinical support and genuine human connection

✔️ How peer workers can stand alongside people, advocate for them, and help rebalance power

Show Notes

Connect with Charlie:

Insta / Messy Healing

https://www.instagram.com/charlie_martina_fae?igsh=MWRza3NyaWk1aDdw

Shrewsbury Soda Club CIC Insta

https://www.instagram.com/shrewsburysodaclub?igsh=eGx3cnRuZHIxMWt1

My LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlie-martina?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

With-you consultancy: www.with-you.co.uk