Scotland's Women

From Breakdown to Breakthrough In this raw and uplifting episode Thesia Kambabanza — stand-up comedian, and founder of the Banza Bridge Foundation —chats to Scotland's Women for a deeply honest conversation about mental illness, healing, faith, and finding your light in the darkest of times. Thesia shares her remarkable story: from a seven-month period of isolation in her room, to multiple psychiatric hospitalisations, to becoming the "advocate for all the patients" even while being the sickest person on the ward. With warmth, humour, and hard-won wisdom, she explains how she rebuilt herself from the inside out.She opens up about what "don't stay broken" really means, drawing on a biblical story that became the turning point in her healing journey. She speaks candidly about her experience of mania, and psychosis — and the deep stigma she faced as an African woman navigating the mental health system in Scotland.She traces her path from retreating into her room for seven months to running a charity, performing stand-up comedy, and launching her own podcast. Along the way, she reflects on how she moved from religion to spirituality, and how discovering meditation transformed her relationship with her own mind.Thesia also explores the personal patterns that contributed to her breakdown — including years of over giving with no boundaries — and the moment she realised that being "too nice" had come at a tremendous cost. She describes finding God not in a church, but alone in a psychiatric ward, and shares the painting she made during that time, where a flash of light in the darkness turned out to mean everything. We also hear about her comedy alter ego Foxy Noir, how she bridges African and Scottish cultures on stage, and the work of her nonprofit Banza Bridge Foundation, which is dedicated to uniting people across cultures through community and connection.Thesia's Advice to Anyone Who Is Broken Right Now "It's okay to be selfish. Pour into yourself first. Healing is not a destination — it's a journey." Connect with Thesia:TikTok | Instagram | Facebook: @TesiaBanzaCharity: Banza Bridge Foundation

Your darkest night is just the canvas — your light was always there.What does it really mean to "don't stay broken"? In this episode, Scotland's Women chats to Thesia Kambabanza —stand-up comedian (Foxy Noir), and founder of the Banza Bridge Foundation — for an honest, moving, and very funny conversation about mental illness, faith, healing, and finding your light.Thesia shares her journey from university breakdown to hospitalisation, from brokenness to comedy stages, and from surviving to truly thriving. She opens up about the stigma of mental health in African communities, how faith and spirituality carried her through her darkest moments, and why she believes healing is not a destination — it's a journey. And through it all, she brings a warmth and humour that will stay with you long after the episode ends.This is a conversation about courage, self-love, and the light that was always inside you.Full episode coming soon.Connect with Thesia:TikTok | Instagram | Facebook: @TesiaBanzaCharity: Banza Bridge Foundation

She achieved the body she'd worked years for. And something still didn't feel right.In the up coming episode 'Stop Chasing Perfect' Gosia — women's health coach and founder of GLOW Online Coaching — shares the moment everything fell apart. After months of extreme dieting, losing her period, and achieving the "perfect" bodybuilding physique, she found herself walking with her sister asking one desperate question: "Will this obsession ever end?"This is the moment that changed everything. And it might just change something for you too.Full Episode Coming Soon! and hear how Gosia went from rock bottom to building a coaching method that's helping women across Scotland finally stop starting over — for good.Contact Gosia at glowonlinecoaching.com or on Instagram at @gosia_mumscoach

Have you ever danced your way through the darkest moment of your life — and discovered it was the only thing that actually worked?In this episode of Scotland's Women, we sit down with Jeanique, a body-led mentor who uses intuitive dance, breathwork, and somatic movement to help women reconnect with themselves and take up space — on the dance floor and in life.Jeanique grew up on the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean, where dance was never just entertainment — it was a way of living. After moving to Scotland in 2017, she began to notice how disconnected many women were from their own bodies, and how much shame surrounded something as natural as movement. In this deeply honest conversation, Jeanique opens up about a lifetime of masking — suppressing her vibrant, passionate self to fit into workplaces and spaces that weren't built for the way her brain works. She shares the toll it took, including severe burnout, and the slow, powerful process of unmasking and coming home to herself.She also talks about one of the most painful chapters of her life — losing her mother and her sister back to back — and how dance became her way of processing grief when nothing else could move the cloud of sadness. It wasn't easy, and not everyone understood it, but she chose to honour the women she lost by keeping moving.What started as a pattern of women surrounding her on a dance floor asking "how are you so free without a drink?" became the seed of something bigger — her own workshops, described as embodiment spaces, where women learn to connect with their bodies, alchemise their emotions, and own their existence without judgment or mirrors. This episode is for any woman who has ever made herself smaller to make others comfortable, who has grieved without knowing how, or who has stood at the edge of a dance floor wondering if she's allowed to take up space. Spoiler: she is.connect with Jeanique at @rootedwithjeanique — follow her for more embodiment practices and to find out about upcoming workshops.

What do you do when grief is so heavy that nothing can shift it — not walks, not dinners, not time with friends? For Jeanique, the answer was dance.Originally from Curaçao, where music and movement are part of daily life, Jeanique knows firsthand what it means to lose yourself — and what it takes to find your way back. In this episode she talks honestly about masking, burnout, and losing both her mother and her sister within two years. She shares why she returned to the dance floor in the week after her losses, the judgment she faced for it, and why she'd do it again.She also tells the story of how strangers kept surrounding her at clubs, asking how she could move so freely without a drink in hand — and how that moment sparked a series of women's workshops combining breathwork, somatic movement, and intuitive dance.New episode coming soon. Follow Jeanique at @rootedwithjeanique

For too long, women have been told that painful periods, chronic fatigue, digestive issues, and hormonal chaos are just part of life.In this powerful episode, we speak with Kezia Hall — Holistic nutritionist, yoga teacher, and women's health coach — about what it really means to know your body, advocate for yourself, and take back control of your health.Kezia opens up about her own journey: years of chronic symptoms spanning gut issues, joint pain, unpredictable periods, and crippling fatigue that began in childhood and followed her into her twenties. Despite countless doctors' appointments, blood tests, biopsies, and scans, she never neatly fit a diagnosis. It was only when she stepped outside conventional medicine and began truly listening to her body that things started to shift.She talks honestly about why so many women have historically been disconnected from their own bodies — and why, when you understand the history, that disconnection makes complete sense. From the moment she realised the medical system couldn't give her the answers she needed, Kezia began tracking her symptoms, cycles, and patterns, gathering her own health data and slowly piecing together a picture that no single doctor had been able to give her.After years of being told she had IBS and to manage her symptoms with medication, Kezia turned to functional testing — including a gut microbiome test — and finally found some clarity. Within 12 weeks of targeted support, her joint pain eased, her energy improved, and for the first time in years, she could move freely again. She also speaks candidly about the emotional weight of chronic illness, and the mindset work required when your body starts to heal but your psychology hasn't caught up yet.The conversation moves into hormones — and Kezia breaks it down in a way that actually makes sense. She explains how estrogen and progesterone affect far more than just periods: from brain health and cognitive function, to sleep, libido, mood, and even long-term risk of conditions like Alzheimer's. She also explores why how your body clears hormones is just as important as how much it produces, and how the right foods — from ground linseeds to brassica vegetables — can make a meaningful difference to how you feel every single day.One of the most powerful threads running through this conversation is Kezia's reframe of the body as an ally rather than an enemy. For women who have spent years frustrated with their own symptoms, this shift — paired with real knowledge, self-compassion, and the right support — can be genuinely life-changing. Her mission is simple but far-reaching: more well women, with the energy and clarity to go and do extraordinary things in the world.Kezia's quote to live by is one that has carried her through both her physical and mental health journey: "The only way out is through." Accepting where you are, while holding onto hope for where you're going — these two truths don't cancel each other out. They're how healing begins.Follow Kezia: https://www.instagram.com/iamkeziahall/Get in touch: https://keziahall.com/Listen to Kezia Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@keziahall

What happens when you're in your early twenties, feeling like you're falling apart, and the doctors don't have answers?In this episode, we sit down with Kezia Hall — holistic nutritionist, yoga teacher, and women's health advocate — who spent years navigating chronic symptoms, dead ends, and the frustrating gaps in conventional medicine before discovering a different path: learning to truly listen to her own body.Kezia shares how she went from dismissing her symptoms to becoming her own health detective — and why she believes that understanding your body isn't just about feeling better. It's about reclaiming your life. This is a story for every woman who has ever been told she's fine when she knows she isn't. Because knowing your body is power — and this episode is here to remind you of that.Follow Kezia: https://www.instagram.com/iamkeziahall/Get in touch: https://keziahall.com/Listen to Kezia Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@keziahall

In this deeply honest and inspiring episode, we sit down with Trish, a Scottish-born film editor now based in New Jersey, working out of New York City. From growing up as the youngest of five in a strict Catholic family in Paisley, to building a celebrated career editing TV commercials and films — Trish's journey is one of resilience, reinvention, and refusing to give up.Trish opens up about getting pregnant at 18, giving her son up for adoption, and the shame and silence that surrounded it all. Raised in a deeply Catholic household where these things were never spoken about, she carried that weight largely alone — and channelled it into an unstoppable drive to prove herself. She left Scotland, worked her way through London and Italy, and eventually landed in New York, where she finally felt at home.She talks candidly about building a career as one of the few female editors in New York, raising a family without any support network nearby, and navigating the relentless hustle of the industry. She also shares the joy of reconnecting with her son years later, her breast cancer diagnosis and what it taught her about letting go, and the film script she wrote during the pandemic about her own life story.Trish leaves us with the wisdom she wishes she'd had earlier: "This too shall pass." "Sometimes the best decision is no decision at all." And her firm belief that when you stop holding on too tightly, life has a way of working itself out.Follow Trish on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/trishmfuller/ and follow her film project at @birdsthemovie