S2 E5: Trauma, Compassion & Change: What Happens When the Plane Actually Crashes - with Briony Gunson

"My body was remembering: we are talking about the thing that is fundamentally unsafe."

That's my guest this week, Briony Gunson - mindset coach, breathwork facilitator, and corporate wellbeing trainer based in the UK. Briony helps people move through stress, burnout, and big life transitions by working with both the mind and the body. Her work is trauma-informed and blends practical tools with embodied practices including breathwork, meditation, and cold water therapy.

In this episode, Briony shares her money story:

•     Growing up in Hong Kong hearing her parents argue about money — and what those early lessons left in her body.
•     The family losing everything, and moving to the UK at 14 with no school place, no internet, and 50p showers.
•     Finding solace in the library. The council officer who came to visit — and what it felt like to be seen.
•     Why her mother never told anyone what was happening, and the generational war history that explains it.
•     Reconnecting with her father in her 30s — the fear, and what happened when she showed up as her "full-ass adult self."
•     What money fear actually feels like in the body — and how breathwork and nervous system science gave her a language for it.
•     The elastic band — and why pushing past money blocks without doing the deeper work means you just snap back.
•     Shame, worthiness, and the women who feel disloyal for doing well — and why she wants us to rock our privilege instead.
•     Her take on manifestation content — what's useful, what's ungrounded, and where it can actively mislead people.
•     Why financial hygiene is sexy — and what consistent, unglamorous money habits actually look like in practice. 

Read the accompanying blog article

Connect with Briony

Website: brionygunson.com

Instagram: @brionygunson

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brionygunson

Facebook: facebook.com/BrionyGunsonMindsetCoach

Briony's Abundance Mindset meditation on InsightTimer  - a 20-minute guided meditation on what it really means to be abundant. Particularly cathartic as a response to some of the more damaging manifestation narratives out there.

Connect with host Harriet Formby: LinkedIn | Instagram | Website

Learn more about The Money Story Project and how to share your own story.

🎧 Listen now — and if this conversation resonates, please follow the podcast and leave a review so more people can find these stories.