The Laura Dowling Experience

Anna Lechleiter works with people who have never been able to speak, and who have spent their lives being treated as though they had nothing to say. She is a Spelling to Communicate practitioner, and her job is to give non-speakers a way to tell the world what has been going on in their heads all along.

She explains why speech is a motor problem rather than a thinking one: the words are there, but the brain cannot reliably drive the body that produces them. That distinction changes how non-speaking people are assessed, educated and spoken to, because almost every standard autism assessment measures motor control and reports the result as intelligence.

Anna talks Laura through what happens in a session, from stencil boards to a keyboard, and tells the story that changed her mind completely: a young man called Caoimh, a letter board, and a freezing afternoon when he spelled out that he hoped it would snow. The last stretch belongs to the spellers themselves, as Anna reads the words of Max, Caoimh and Megha in their own language.

🔑 Key Points

Non-speaking is a motor problem, not a thinking one
The words are there. The difficulty is the brain reliably getting the body to produce them, which Anna describes as a brain-body disconnect rather than an absence of understanding.

Spelling to Communicate moves communication out of the fine motor
Speech, writing, texting and sign language all depend on fine motor control, so S2C uses the gross motor instead: a pointing motion towards letters on a board.

Assessments measure motor control and report it as intelligence
Because the tests need reliable motor responses, people who cannot produce them are recorded as profoundly intellectually disabled, and that label follows them for life.

Most non-speakers can already read
Text is everywhere, on signs, subtitles and packaging, and spellers have usually absorbed far more than anyone assumed. That is why sessions start with age-appropriate material rather than the basics.

Progress is built like any other motor skill
New neural pathways are created and then myelinated through repetition, so lessons change every session and words are never spelled twice, keeping the focus on the motor rather than the answer.

The spellers make the argument better than anyone
Max, Caoimh and Megha describe apraxia, sensory overwhelm and their own ambitions. Keith's line, that his mind works perfectly but the messages get mixed up on the way to his body, sums up the conversation.

📚 Resources

PALZ (Play and Language Zone) — Anna's hub in Naas, Co. Kildare

Spelling to Communicate at PALZ — how the method is taught in Ireland

I-ASC — the International Association for Spelling as Communication

Elizabeth Vosseller — the speech-language pathologist who developed S2C

AsIAm — Ireland's national autism charity, information and support line

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 — Max's message to the world
02:18 — The colleague's brother who suddenly had a voice
03:05 — What Spelling to Communicate actually is
07:24 — How assessments measure motor and report intelligence
09:37 — How many non-speakers there are in Ireland
10:10 — Inside a first session at the hub
17:21 — Neuroplasticity and building a brand-new motor skill
24:50 — Stencils, letter boards and moving to a keyboard
36:23 — Anna's ABA background, and why she moved away from it
44:01 — Keith, the letter board and "I hope it snows"
48:55 — Max, Keith and Megha, in their own words
53:54 — Art, an exhibition and the meaning of life
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, preventive cardiologist Dr Paddy Barrett argues that most people chase health without ever defining it — like a blindfolded archer aiming at a target they can't see.

He lays out three things actually worth optimising, and tells the story of walking away from the peak of his career when he realised he'd climbed the wrong mountain.

🔑Key Points
• Why "I want to be healthy" means nothing without a target
• The blindfolded archer, and aiming at something you can actually see
• Three things worth optimising: how long you live, the quality of those years, and how you spend your time
• Why it's never too late to climb back down and start again

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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Vicki Notaro is back! Her new novel, Anywhere but Here, follows three friends all hovering around 40 and living completely different lives. As Vicki puts it, you can be 40 and you can be a granny, or trying to conceive, or single, or divorced. She and Laura talk about the pressure women feel to have everything sorted by a certain age, and why marriage or a mortgage was never meant to be a finish line.

Vicki also gives an honest update on her women's health journey: years of very painful periods, a suspected endometriosis that turned out to be ovarian cysts, a PMDD diagnosis and cyclical depression alongside lifelong anxiety, a coil, surgery, a recurrence, and the oral progesterone that cleared her brain fog within two days.

From there the conversation turns to what young people lost when magazines disappeared. Vicki spent four years at Kiss from the age of 22, acting as a "big sis" to teenage readers, and she makes a warm case for edited, expert-checked advice over the "wild wild west of TikTok" — before Laura hands her a pile of anonymous listener confessions to answer.

🔑 Key Points

Women the same age are living completely different lives

"You can be 40 and you can be a granny" — Vicki's novel follows three friends around 40 at entirely different stages, something she sees as new in Irish life.

Milestones are a beginning, not a finish line

Vicki talks about the pressure to have the house, the relationship and possibly a baby sorted by a certain age, and why she has never seen those moments as the end of the story.

Writing about being child-free by choice once brought hate mail

She first wrote about not wanting children at 22, when it was still taboo, and was told again and again that she just hadn't met the right man.

Years of pain, and a diagnosis that came later

Suspected endometriosis turned out to be ovarian cysts, and a PMDD diagnosis explained the low, cyclical days sitting on top of lifelong anxiety.

Hormones can lift brain fog within days

After a cyst returned, her consultant added oral progesterone alongside the coil she already had, and Vicki describes her brain fog clearing within two days.

Magazines did a job nothing has replaced.

At Kiss, Vicki answered readers' questions about periods, spots and first kisses as their "big sis" — advice that was edited, curated and expert-checked.

Confessions, answered without judgement

Laura hands Vicki anonymous confessions from the Love Your Vulva live show — desire, hygiene, being left out for not having children, Botox and breast reduction — and the answers stay kind throughout.

📚 Resources

Anywhere but Here
Vicki Notaro's fourth novel, published by Penguin

Endometriosis
the condition first suspected behind Vicki's years of period pain

Period problems and PMDD
HSE guidance on severe premenstrual symptoms

Love Your Vulva Live
Laura's live show, where the anonymous confessions were gathered

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 — Vicki takes over as host for the summer
06:23 — Anywhere but Here: three women, three different lives at 40
09:29 — The pressure to have it all sorted by a certain age
10:34 — Writing about being child-free at 22
13:30 — Kiss magazine and being everyone's "big sis"
21:51 — Writer's block in her mother-in-law's spare room
24:50 — Painful periods, suspected endometriosis and ovarian cysts
25:50 — A PMDD diagnosis and cyclical depression
26:39 — Oral progesterone and brain fog lifting in two days
28:27 — Listener confessions, answered honestly
35:40 — Botox honesty, and why Laura stopped
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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In this bitesize moment pulled from the Laura Dowling Experience back catalogue, fitness coach, author and speaker Brian Keane tells the story of hating his first career as a teacher — and the line from his mum that changed everything.

He's honest that reinvention isn't instant (he went broke twice before it worked) and lands on a reframe anyone can use: it's not being stuck that traps you, it's the feeling of being stuck.

🔑Key Points
• The day Brian knew his first career was the wrong fit
• His mum's question: "what would you do for free?"
• Why it's the feeling of being stuck, not the situation, that holds you back
• How reinvention can take time, including failing along the way

🎧 Listen to the full episode here.
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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What do you do when you feel stuck - in a job you hate, a relationship that has gone flat, or a version of yourself you no longer recognise? Life and business coach Mark Fennell joins Laura for a warm, practical conversation about how people actually get moving again - starting not with a grand plan, but with a single next step.

A qualified electrician who began as a youth volunteer worker, Mark shares how coaching became his life's work, and why identity - how you see yourself - sits underneath almost everything. He speaks with real tenderness about the loss he and his wife carried when they were told they couldn't have children, and how they slowly built a genuinely contented life by asking one question: what can we still do that brings us in that direction?

From the medical student who became a millionaire painter-decorator to the young carer who believed he would never laugh again, Mark's stories keep returning to the same truths: make the decision, take the action, and be careful what you define yourself as. Along the way, he and Laura take a more realistic look at manifestation, the fluff in the wellness world, and why, in relationships especially, action communicates far more than words.

🔑 Key Points

You don't have to figure out your whole life — just the next step
When a young medical student admitted he only knew what he didn't want, Mark's question — when were you last fully content? — led him to painting, and eventually to running a hugely successful painting and decorating business.

Identity is the most important vision board
How you see yourself matters more than any board on the wall — even a Fortune 500 CFO Mark worked with was gripped by imposter syndrome until she saw that her experience, not her credentials, had earned her the role.

Contentment can be rebuilt after loss
When Mark and his wife were told they couldn't have children, they refused to let it ruin their lives — and by taking small steps towards contentment, without putting a time on it, they reached a place with no void.

Take manifestation with a pinch of salt
What you focus on shapes what you notice, but thinking without action is dead — and the most important thing to manifest isn't the bigger house or the best job, it's a content life.

Burnout ends where honesty begins
Mark collapsed in the gym and was rushed to hospital with a suspected heart attack — what followed was health anxiety, and a recovery built on balance, movement and refusing to say "I am an anxious person".

Action communicates far more than words
A couple Mark worked with rediscovered each other not through big emotional talks but through a date night — a reminder that relationships, like gardens, need tending before you decide they're done.

Be careful what you define yourself as
Mark learned from his granny, who refused to see herself as a cancer victim, that the labels we accept shape how we live — and, as he reminds young people, nobody is confident all of the time.

📚 Resources

Breakthrough — Mark Fennell's book on moving from stuck to unstoppable, published by Gill
Mark's practical guide to getting unstuck.

Mark Fennell — coaching, courses and speaking
Also on Instagram and TikTok.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 — Introduction
02:36 — From electrician and youth worker to coach
05:47 — Identity: the most important vision board
07:32 — Fertility loss and choosing contentment
10:00 — The med student who became a painter-decorator
13:07 — Manifestation with a pinch of salt
16:46 — How the book Breakthrough came about
19:15 — Is contentment actually realistic?
20:35 — The fluff in the wellness world
23:29 — The young carer who thought he'd never laugh again
30:13 — Burnout, the gym collapse and health anxiety
39:27 — The date-night story
57:32 — Advice for young people and the meaning of life
Thanks for listening! You can watch the full episode on YouTube here. Don’t forget to follow The Laura Dowling Experience podcast on Instagram @lauradowlingexperience for updates and more information. You can also follow our host, Laura Dowling, @fabulouspharmacist for more insights and tips. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us out! Stay tuned for more great conversations.
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