[Background music] I think probably
from the time that I was very little,
I absolutely ultimately always
wanted to help people.
I had a wonderful opportunity to talk with
friends and family about my next move in life
and one of the best pieces of
advice I got was if you're doing it
because you have a love of
learning, just do it anyway.
I decided to go back to study because I
actually realised that after around 15 years
in my current practice, which is around
counselling and case management and social work,
that as the world was changing, I
actually needed to change with it.
When you do something like positive psychology
and I think any type of graduate study,
there's something transformational
that happens as well.
Everything that we were learning for or on in
our service of others also applied to self.
What I started to discover is that when you
are being taught about being at your best
and finding a way to flourish and thrive
in life, I realised I wasn't in the way
that I was doing my current work.
From there, the idea of the art space group
actually probably got birthed actually,
so this idea around how do I take
what I know that I'm really good
at which is fertility counselling and
fertility and infertility support,
and how do I now create an organisation, a
practice, a culture that actually says to people
when you're going through a very
challenging life stage, which is infertility,
that there is lots of ways to navigate this
territory that looks after your mental health.
It looks after your well-being.
It nourishes your relationships.
It was absolutely the first time for me
that I had an experience of university life
where I went, "That is what
it always was supposed to be."
And so for me, it really consolidated
this sense of working with people who are,
got amazing minds, who can take you on a
journey just embedding yourself in research
but also working with people
who are like-minded.
And I felt like I had found a tribe.
And even to this day, we're
so connected as an alumni.
We now support other people
doing the same course.
And I never had that at any stage throughout
my professional or university life,
and it's been so incredibly valuable.
[ Music ]
