My Journey to This Work
I grew up as a tomboy with only brothers. BMX racing, bush bashing in paddocks, driving V8s, and a world dominated by blokes. I've always found it easier to understand and get along with men than anyone else. My best friends were boys. My culture was their culture.
But somewhere along the way, I started noticing something that broke my heart: the good men around me were suffering in silence. The ones with big hearts, the ones who loved their families fiercely, the ones who worked themselves to the bone - they were drowning. And nobody was teaching them how to survive.
I've buried more male friends than anyone should have to. Friends who took their own lives. Friends whose potential was squandered by unprocessed trauma, toxic masculinity they inherited, and a complete absence of emotional education. They were good men. They just never learned how to be emotionally safe men.
That's when I knew: this is the work I'm meant to do.