From Bettystown to the world: Molly's podcast is helping women heal

What began as a podcast recorded in Bettystown has grown into an international community of women, with more than 50,000 downloads and listeners tuning in from Ireland, the UK, Australia, the United States, Canada, Sweden, South Africa and beyond.

Two years after launching the Healing Gals podcast, former social worker Molly Smyth says she is still amazed by how far the project has travelled — and by the impact it is having on the women who listen.

When Molly started the podcast over two years ago her aim was simple: to create a safe space where women could share their stories, speak honestly about life's challenges and realise they were not alone.

Today, Healing Gals has evolved far beyond a podcast.

Alongside weekly conversations, Molly now hosts women's circles, forest gatherings and community events, bringing women together in person to connect, reflect and support one another.

Looking back, she admits she never imagined the community that would grow around the podcast.

"I never imagined it would become such a gorgeous, connected community of women," she said.

"It feels like more than a community now. There are women messaging me to say that because of the podcast they have moved to safety."

One conversation in particular has stayed with her.

Following a recent speaking engagement, a woman approached Molly to tell her she had been living in Australia with an abusive partner.

The woman explained that after listening to the podcast and hearing Molly speak about protecting the "little gal" within each of us — the vulnerable inner child we carry throughout our lives — she realised she could no longer remain in her situation.

"She told me she had listened to the podcast, reached out to her family and booked flights home," Molly recalled.

"She moved back to Ireland where she was safe.

"I remember standing outside afterwards and having a big cry because I thought, wow, this really matters."

Stories like that continue to arrive in her inbox.

Over the past two years, women have contacted her to say they have left unhealthy relationships, found the confidence to pursue long-held ambitions, sought support for their mental health or simply felt less isolated because of something they heard on the podcast.

While the download figures are impressive, Molly says it is these personal stories that mean the most.

"I want women to know they deserve to be cherished," she said.

"I think women often minimise what they do. We tell ourselves it's nothing special, but women's contribution to their families, communities and society is phenomenal.

"When women begin to value themselves properly, their decisions start coming from a place of empowerment."

The desire to create deeper connections eventually led Molly beyond the recording studio and into nature.

While listeners now tune in from around the world, many of the conversations have begun much closer to home.

Guests from across Meath have featured on Healing Gals, including Dunboyne biokinesiologist Gena Smyth, Bettystown nurse Aisling Power, psychotherapist Bairbre Kelly, Mornington researcher Sinead Walsh and Bettystown yoga teacher Bernadette of Yoga with Bee, whose episode explored menopause and the mental load carried by many women.

And having experienced first-hand the benefits of spending time outdoors, she began organising women's circles and forest gatherings.

What started as an experiment quickly became one of the most rewarding aspects of her work.

"I knew that when women come together, magical things happen," she said.

"There are so many women who are isolated nowadays. Families don't always live around the corner from one another anymore and people are trying to carry so much on their own.

"I wanted to bring women together and create a space where they could simply be themselves."

The gatherings are intentionally simple. Women meet in forests and natural settings, sharing tea, conversation, meditation and moments of reflection.

Sometimes there is poetry. Sometimes music. Often it is simply an opportunity to sit with others who understand.

"The difference being in nature made to me was incredible," Molly said.

"I'd heard people talking about how healing it could be, but I experienced it for myself.

"Women often tell me they went home and changed something in their lives because of something they heard during a circle."

For Molly, the philosophy behind Healing Gals remains unchanged from when she first launched the podcast.

Honest conversations, she believes, have the power to transform lives.

When she first started sharing her own experiences, including aspects of her life she once felt ashamed of, the response from listeners confirmed something she had long suspected.

"Women would message and say, 'Me too. I felt ashamed of that as well,'" she said.

"When you're honest about something you've carried shame around, it can set you free.

"Sometimes hearing somebody else say the thing you've been carrying allows you to stop carrying it alone."

It is a message that echoes the theme of the podcast's early days — that shame loses its power when stories are told in safe places. Two years on, Molly says that lesson remains as relevant as ever.

"That's why it's called Healing Gals, not Healed Gals," she laughed.

"We're all works in progress."

Through hundreds of conversations, interviews and community gatherings, she has also come to view healing in a broader way.

"Everybody starts from a different place," she said.

"We all come from different family histories and different generational experiences.

"For me, healing is about making things a little bit better for the generation that comes after you."

While Healing Gals continues to grow, Molly has also recently launched EverTold, a project focused on helping families preserve personal stories and memories for future generations through recorded interviews.

However, her primary focus remains the community that has formed around the podcast.

If the Molly of two years ago could see what Healing Gals has become today, she says she would hardly believe it.

"I'm proud that I started and I'm proud that I kept going," she said.

"At the end of the day, if women are safer, happier and more empowered because of something they've heard, then every minute spent creating the podcast has been worth it,” she concludes.