Can a Home Help You Heal? – With Psychotherapist Julia Samuel MBE
6/11/202656 min
Today's guest is psychotherapist Julia Samuel MBE, one of Britain's leading experts on grief and trauma.
Julia has worked with hundreds of families navigating bereavement, including members of the Royal Family. She was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales, and supported Prince William and Prince Harry following Diana's death.
In this conversation, we explore belonging and why some people never feel settled where they are, tracing it back to the role home plays in early life.
Julia shares practical advice on how our homes can support healing – from the personal rituals that help us mourn, to why changing a home can sometimes be the most powerful way to regain a sense of agency after loss.
Contact:
Follow Julia on Instagram: @juliasamuelmbe for tips, tools, and conversations about navigating life’s challenges.
For bereavement help, you can download the Grief Works App
If you need help finding a therapist, visit: The Samuel Therapy Practice
To hear more from us:
Patreon: Watch exclusive home tours, HomingWithMatt
YouTube: Subscribe to our channel, Homing with Matt
Instagram: Follow for updates and announcements, @homingwithmatt
Contact: Email us at hello@mattgibberd.com
Matt Gibberd’s book, A Modern Way to Live, is available here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320176/a-modern-way-to-live-by-gibberd-matt/9780241480496
Music by @simeonwalkermusic
Identity & design by @lena.winkler.creative.office
Produced by @podshoponline
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsMatt Gibberd· Host0:00
[gentle music] Hello, welcome back to Homing. Today's guest is the psychotherapist Julia Samuel MBE, who's one of Britain's leading experts on grief and trauma. Julia has worked with hundreds of families navigating bereavement, including members of the royal family. She was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales, and supported Prince William and Prince Harry following her death. In this conversation, Julia tells me about her own family's experiences of loss and how they shaped the emotional atmosphere of her childhood home. We explore the role that home plays in early life and how our earliest experiences become embedded in the nervous system. We discuss belonging and why some people never quite feel settled where they are, and she explains why changing a home can sometimes help us process grief, as well as regaining a sense of agency and making sense of difficult experiences. I found this to be a really fascinating and surprisingly hopeful conversation, and I very much hope you enjoy it as well. Happy listening. Hi, Julia.
Julia Samuel· Guest1:11
Hello, Matt. Nice to meet you.
Matt Gibberd· Host1:13
Yeah, you too. Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it.
Julia Samuel· Guest1:17
Pleasure.
Matt Gibberd· Host1:17
So what I'd really like to do today is look at your work through the lens of the home very specifically, so I think it'd be kind of interesting. So my first question for you is, is how would you personally define that word