Why trauma is like rebuilding a shattered vase – talking on BBC 1’s The One Show

Today I spoke about my breast cancer and double mastectomy on BBC 1’s The One Show. I described my experiences and explained why they prompted me to write my book, Rise.

I said: “I thought I knew all about how to deal with trauma because I’ve done a science masters in psychology and I knew a bit about trauma from assessing other people. And I thought – I’m ok physically. I seemed to be hitting all the targets physically. Sometime’s you slip back.

“But emotionally, I didn’t seem to be progressing as fast as I hoped, and I thought: I’m failing. I’m just not doing it properly. Look at all these people who are coping – why am I not coping?

“What I wanted to do was develop a psychological first aid kit for me, but also for anyone who’s going through something really difficult and challenging. So the people I talked to for the book have gone through all sorts of different loses – their health, someone they love or even the loss of their mind.”

You can watch the full interview on BBC iPlayer.