The Dark Side with Verity cover art

The Dark Side with Verity

The Dark Side with Verity

Written by: Verity Jo Coonan
Listen for free

About this listen

The Dark Side with Verity is a raw, real podcast about healing, transformation, and the moments that change everything. Hosted by Verity Coonan, founder of VIDYA Breathwork™, this show dives deep into Breathwork, somatics, and Nervous System healing. Through personal stories and expert insights, we explore grief, trauma, resilience, and the power of rewriting your story. No fluff, no sugarcoating—just real conversations about what it takes to rebuild from the inside out. Breathe deep, tune in, and step into your next chapter.Verity Jo Coonan Self-Help Success
Episodes
  • Permission to Move On: Grief, Dreams & the Breath That Holds Us
    Feb 1 2026

    Grief doesn’t end, it expands.

    In this deeply personal episode, Verity Jo Coonan shares a raw reflection on living with grief fourteen years after the death of her partner. She speaks to what it means to experience life “backwards,” how loss reshapes priorities, and why acceptance isn’t about letting go, it’s about learning to hold more.

    Verity shares a powerful dream that marked a turning point in her grief: imagining her partner grown, happy, and moved on, and how that dream became an unexpected moment of permission to move forward herself.

    This episode explores grief through the lens of the Nervous System, Breathwork, dreams, and daily practices like meditation and journaling, reminding us that healing doesn’t come from pushing pain away, but from meeting it with curiosity, compassion, and presence.

    If you’ve ever felt like you needed permission to move on, this episode is for you.


    🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.

    Connect & Train with Verity

    ● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification

    ● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app

    ● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

    Show More Show Less
    17 mins
  • Safety Over Intensity: Why Regulation Heals More Than Peak Experiences
    Jan 25 2026

    In this episode, Verity Jo Coonan explores a powerful reframe in healing and Breathwork: intensity does not equal transformation, safety does.

    In a wellness world that often glorifies peak experiences, emotional release, and catharsis, Verity invites a slower, more honest conversation about what actually creates lasting change in the nervous system.

    Drawing on trauma-informed principles and real-world facilitation experience, this episode unpacks why regulation matters more than how “deep” a session feels and how integration, consistency, and daily practices are where healing is truly embodied.

    Inside this conversation:

    • Why safety must come before intensity in breathwork and healing

    • How a regulated nervous system creates sustainable transformation

    • The difference between catharsis and integration

    • Why grounding after intense experiences is essential

    • How daily practices build resilience, capacity, and self-trust

    • When intensity becomes escapism rather than healing

    This episode is for anyone navigating healing, breathwork, or personal growth, especially those who feel drawn to “more” but are craving stability, safety, and integration instead.

    Because your body already knows what safety feels like.
    Healing begins when you listen.


    🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.

    Connect & Train with Verity

    ● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification

    ● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app

    ● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

    Show More Show Less
    17 mins
  • Certification Doesn’t Make You Safe: The Truth About Trauma-Informed Breathwork
    Jan 18 2026

    In this episode, Verity Jo Coonan speaks openly about one of the most important and often avoided conversations in the breathwork space: safety.

    - Not safety as a checkbox.
    - Not safety as a certification.
    But safety as something that is lived, embodied, and practiced.

    Drawing from personal experience, facilitation work, and years of holding people through deep emotional states, Verity explores why being “trauma-informed” isn’t something you learn once, it’s something you become.

    This conversation challenges the belief that technique equals readiness, and instead invites facilitators, coaches, and space-holders to reflect on their own nervous system, self-awareness, and capacity to truly meet another human.

    Inside this episode:

    • Why certification alone doesn’t make you a safe facilitator

    • What trauma-informed facilitation actually requires

    • Why technique should never come before nervous-system safety

    • How lived experience shapes real leadership and presence

    • The human element that can’t be taught only embodied

    This is an honest, grounded conversation for anyone working in healing, coaching, or Breathwork and for anyone who has ever trusted another person with their vulnerability.

    Because transformation doesn’t happen through methods alone.
    It happens through presence, humility, and safety.


    🎧 Listen now and be sure to share this episode with anyone who needs to hear it.

    Connect & Train with Verity

    ● @verityjocoonan @vidya_certification

    ● Join Breathwork & healing ⁠APP @vidya.app

    ● Follow us on @thedarksidewithverity

    Show More Show Less
    20 mins
No reviews yet