On the podcast today to celebrate the 50th episode I have a very special guest, Michelle Dawn Silcox.

I have often been asked to talk about boarding school syndrome and relationships.

Well, today I thought that I would get one of the experts in this field, my wife!

Michelle is a relationship counsellor and has been interested in psychology and wellness for many decades.

Today she shares some of her journey of being married to a boarding school survivor and what she advises those who are in relationships with ex-boarders and those ex-boarders themselves.

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Michelle Dawn Silcox is a complementary therapist, spiritual counsellor, and Reiki teacher. In her 20s she worked as a model and then became a complementary therapist and a spiritual and relationship counsellor. In her 30s she had a near death experience which gave her a greater understanding of the work that she was doing. In the 1990s she set up a healing centre in Hebden Bridge which is still running to this day. She has also been married to the podcast host, Piers Cross, for the past 13 years.

Some of the questions that I ask her:

1. I would love for you to talk a bit about your life and journey.
2. In your work you talk about the importance of the masculine and the feminine. Can you please explain? How does this relate to relationships?
3. What are some of the key traits of ex-boarders in relationships? How is that different from people who have not been to boarding school? Both the positives and the negatives?
4. Can you talk about some of these other areas:
5. Control and manipulation
6. Projective identification – when you feel like you are going crazy if the other partners is in denial or dissociation.
7. Workaholism and how we struggle to stop
8. Shut down hearts and how we open them up again.
9. Growing up in a world with leaders with shut down hearts – what was it like growing up in this environment for a young girl – thinking that you had been born on the wrong planet.
10. How we met
11. Separation between sex and love
12. Elders
13. Complaining and blaming
14. What are relationships all about?
15. How does a man deal with a woman's anger or upset?
16. How do we as men/ ex-boarders/ people who have been through trauma heal and recover?

#marriedtoaboardingschoolsurvivor #boardingschoolsyndrome #relationshipsandtrauma

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An Evolving Man (AEM) Podcast is for men (and women) who want to grow, evolve and want support in learning how to do this.

On a regular basis there will be an interview around men's (and women's) topics ranging from self-development, relationships, spirituality, archetypes, trauma, boarding school syndrome and men's work featuring authors and leaders in this field.

The sense with these interviews is to support people during these times of change. What are the teachings, tools and practices that you can use to help you through these turbulent times?