How to heal the wounded men: trauma, numbness & masculinity - Hugh Newton
Release Date: 11/06/2025
The hidden power in mythic stories of desire and love - Stephanie MacKay
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Stephanie MacKay. Stephanie is a mythologist, wilderness guide, and cultural craftswoman devoted to the long, slow work of remembering how to belong—to land, to lineage, to story, and to each other. As founder and director of Fianna Wilderness School, she has spent the past 15+ years guiding rites of passage, seasonal myth circles, and nature-based mentorship rooted in the wilds. Stephanie’s work braids together her Celtic ancestry, years of deep study with Martín Prechtel and the Animas Valley Institute, and a fierce love of story as medicine. She...
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How to heal the wounded men: trauma, numbness & masculinity - Hugh Newton
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Hugh Newton. Hugh’s life began in the midst of a war in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia). Growing up in such harsh conditions meant that he had to work hard to overcome his complex childhood trauma. Hugh began his self-development journey 30 years ago, and has been passionate about both supporting men to step into the fullest versions of themselves, and strengthening and uplifting the African continent that he loves so much. Hugh works as the lead male facilitator at Celebration of Being, and was a certified leader at A Band of Brothers for 7 years....
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The ‘small print’ of working with powerful myths and archetypes - Caitlín Matthews
Be Mythical
This week’s show is with Caitlín Matthews. Caitlín is an internationally renowned author, a teacher of shamanic training programme, a facilitator of Systemic Ritual® and the co-founder of the Foundation for Inspirational and Oracular Studies (FÍOS). Caitlín is the author of over 80 books, including Diary of a Soul Doctor, Singing the Soul Back Home, the Art of Celtic Seership, Celtic Devotional and The Celtic Book of the Dead. Her books have won a number of awards. She is known internationally for her work on the spiritual, mythic and ancestral traditions of Britain and Ireland. She...
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How to honour the differences between men and women - Serdar Hararovich
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Serdar Hararovich. Serdar is a Relationship & Secure Attachment Specialist offering integrative, attachment-based coaching and healing. He supports both men and women to heal early attachment wounds, establish inner security, reclaim their deepest self, and cultivate the emotional skills required for deep, soulful, and secure love. Serdar works with a wide variety of individuals - including, but not limited to, therapists, relationship coaches, and other practitioners. The common thread among his clients is a deep desire to go beyond the surface -...
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Plato’s allegory of the cave: how to journey from shadows to truth - Lian Brook-Tyler
Be Mythical
In this episode, Lian tells the ancient allegory of Plato’s Cave, a story of awakening and the painful beauty of learning to see. Each month, Lian’s shared a mythical tale as a doorway into your own soul. These stories are one of the oldest ways ancestral wisdom has been carried down to us, a living inheritance that continues to speak when we meet them with reverence. And this one feels especially poignant, because it will be the last story Lian tells in this way. Our community is evolving into its next form, UNIO: the Community for Wild Sovereign Souls. UNIO now becomes the living home...
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How to manifest beyond vision boards: metaphysics & morality - Mike Bais
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined once again by Mike Bais. Mike is Lian’s own Kabbalah teacher, a physiotherapist, counsellor, university lecturer and author, also having had his own practice for many years. He is a trained priest in the esoteric christian tradition, which lead him to follow the mystical side of this lineage called the A.S.A. (Apostolic Succession of Arimathea). He believes that the Teachings of Christ are universal and should not be limited to a religious structure. His esoteric training comes from the western mystery tradition and the Toledano Kabbalah. Living in the...
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Shamanism vs animism: how to live spiritually in modern times - Nicholas Breeze Wood
Be Mythical
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Nicholas Breeze Wood. Nicholas has practiced shamanism for over 40 years, combining it with the 'earthier' end of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as with 'medicine' teachings from Native North American peoples. He has worked with many gifted medicine people and shamans over the years, and is deeply apprenticed to his own spirit helpers, whose teachings never fail to awe and surprise him. Nick’s shamanism is a fusion of traditional Himalayan and Mongolian forms, combined with teachings from his own spirits. He works especially deeply with ritual objects -...
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How to be seen: small changes that make your unique presence work for you - John Kippen
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by John Kippen. John is an entrepreneur, professional magician, speaker, resilience and empowerment coach and published author. John was dealt a bad blow in 2002 when he was diagnosed with a large benign brain tumor. Its removal, although successful, left him with permanent facial paralysis which stopped his forward momentum forcing him into hiding for more than 12 years. As John hit bottom, he rediscovered his childhood love for performing magic and storytelling. Now filled with passion and hope, he discovered that his facial paralysis had become his...
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Ancient technology & modern science: the power of the shamanic drum - Sophie Messager
Be Mythical
In this week’s show, Lian is joined by Sophie Messager. Sophie bridges worlds that rarely meet. A former reproductive physiologist with a PhD, she traded her microscope for holistic practices after experiencing the transformative power of an empowered birth. Her decade-long journey as a doula, birth educator, and author of deepened her exploration of the rhythms surrounding women’s transitions. Now a holistic life transition mentor, Sophie guides women through significant life thresholds – from birth to perimenopause and beyond. Her unique combination of scientific expertise and...
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The healing home: how to design your house as a sanctuary - Paula Robinson
Be Mythical
In this week’s show Lian is joined by Paula Robinson. As an intuitive interior designer, Paula understands the profound effect that the spaces where we live and work have on our health, happiness and success in life. Often called the ‘space whisperer’, she helps people to create living and working environments that transform their lives on all levels. Paula has been an interiors columnist for The Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph and Move Or Improve? magazine, and is the author of "" and "". Paula is happiest in nature - especially by the sea - and loves designing outdoor spaces. She is...
info_outlineIn this week’s show Lian is joined by Hugh Newton. Hugh’s life began in the midst of a war in Zimbabwe (then known as Rhodesia). Growing up in such harsh conditions meant that he had to work hard to overcome his complex childhood trauma. Hugh began his self-development journey 30 years ago, and has been passionate about both supporting men to step into the fullest versions of themselves, and strengthening and uplifting the African continent that he loves so much.
Hugh works as the lead male facilitator at Celebration of Being, and was a certified leader at A Band of Brothers for 7 years. He’s also a trained shadow work facilitator and coach. His body of work supports men to show up as their best selves in the world, overcome their wounding, and build rich, nourishing lives for themselves and those they love.
In this episode, Lian and Hugh explore men, trauma, and the long road back to wholeness. They touch Hugh’s childhood on a remote Rhodesian farm under civil war, the day a nine-year-old was trained and armed to protect his mother and sister, the years of numbness that followed, and the moment he named the predator within and chose to meet it.
They turn to what creates healing: men’s work that faces danger with love, simple daily honesty instead of performance, and steady boundaries that make intimacy possible.
Listen if you are or love a man who can’t feel, wondered why good men go numb, or wanted to understand how even the deepest wounds in men can become strength.
We’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
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How men’s childhood survival strategies become adult numbness, and the concrete steps that begin to thaw it without collapsing into chaos and overwhelm
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Why naming the predator within changes behaviour, desire, and trust in relationship, and the practices that keep it in the heart rather than the shadows
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What happens when women respond to men’s early, imperfect vulnerability with steadiness and praise… and how that accelerates genuine masculine healing
Resources and stuff spoken about:
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Join UNIO, The Community for Wild Sovereign Souls: This is for the old souls in this new world… Discover your kin & unite with your soul’s calling to truly live your myth.
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