Nov 27, 2020
Rachel Gotto was pregnant with her first child when she saw her husband's body hauled from the sea on a diving trip in Ireland. Having lost her brother to cancer previously she was no stranger to grief however what follows is an extraordinary journey that encompasses having a supposedly terminal brain tumour, being paralysed, learning to walk again and overcoming agoraphobia before becoming an acclaimed Rapid Transformational Therapist and Clinical Hypnotherapist. She travels the world giving inspirational talks and has explored China, India, the Himalayas, Bhutan, the Dominican Republic and much more.
On this episode we cover:
Galway on the west coast of Ireland
Coming to Ireland on a boat
Her maverick father buying a Baltic trading boat
The potato farm in the south of Ireland
Heath Robinson journey
Never making it to New Zealand or the Seychelles
The boat with the nailed down sofa and an Aga
Being truly grateful for her unusual life
Her journey recovering from extreme trauma
Becoming completely paralysed
Being told she would never walk again
Pregnant and grieving the loss of her husband
Grieving the lost of her brother
How recovering made her re-train as a clinical hypnotherapist
Harnessing the power of your own mind
Harnessing the power of the body’s innate ability to heal itself
Neuro-plasticity and therapy being a powerful tool
Feeling a duty to share her story
Her scuba diving business with her fisherman husband
The fateful day her husband went out on a diving trip
Being told her husband was convulsing in the deep water
Feeling her baby lurch inside when she was told her husband was dead
The lonely birth without her husband
Starting to lose the use of her legs
Being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour
Being told to write her will
Travelling to desperately try to find a cure
Finding a maverick surgeon in Bristol who would ‘give it a go’
Becoming paralysed
Furiously willing her body to move
Learning to walk again (in black cowboy boots!)
Staring at her limbs and willing them to move
Motivated to be ‘a normal mum’
Allowing yourself to explore possibilities
Covid creating opportunities for more self compassion
How we can sometimes sabotage our happiness with anxiety about something going wrong
Holidays and travel helping bring your mind into the moment
Dicing with death on steep mountain roads in Eastern Bhutan
Spending three weeks ‘in utter terror’ visiting monasteries in the
Himalayas
Staying with the nomadic Merik tribe in far Eastern Bhutan
Seeing ‘new faces’ when travelling
How smiles connects us whilst travelling
Being born with an adventurous spirit
Catching her own fish for dinner age 5
Travelling on rickety local buses in the Dominican Republic
Liking to ‘travel the hard way’
Locals writing little letters of translation for her in Southern China
Travelling helping remind you that you love home too
Agoraphobia taking hold after her hospitalisation
Learning to travel through her mind
The long journey of overcoming the mental paralysis of agoraphobia
Being grateful for the journey, despite the trauma
Digging herself out of landslide in the Himalayas on the way to the remote monastery to the song of A Horse With No Name