How I got here.
I am telling you this not because my story is special, but because you will probably recognise more of it than you expect to.
Where it startedThe rule I didn't know I was following
I was raised by parents who lived to serve other people. The message was never spoken, but it was clear: your value is what you do and who you help. I took that rule into adult life without ever noticing it was there, and it ran everything.
Where it was rewardedFifteen years in sales
Sales culture loved that rule. I crushed quota, got promoted into leadership and was praised for the very thing that was wearing me down. I could not stop, and the industry called that drive.
I burnt out three times. Each time I got up, blamed myself for not being tough enough, and went back harder. Nobody suggested the problem might not be me. I certainly didn't.
Where it made senseFour daughters and a diagnosis
When my daughters were diagnosed as neurodivergent, late, after years of being missed by the system, I saw myself in every assessment. The relentless drive, the inability to switch off, the belief that I was only worth what I got done. These were not personality traits. They were a body that had been on high alert for decades.
That was the moment I stopped trying to fix my mindset and started paying attention to what my nervous system was actually doing.
Where it changedThe alarm finally switched off
I had done the therapy, the coaching, the courses. I understood myself in enormous detail and it made no difference under pressure. What finally changed things was a process called TRTP, The Richards Trauma Process, which works with the part of you that runs on high alert rather than the part that understands why.
It took a handful of sessions, not years. The exhaustion lifted. The drive stayed. That combination is what I now offer other people.
Where I am nowThe work
I trained as a TRTP practitioner and built Unapologetic Edge for the people I used to be: leaders, professionals and parents who are still delivering and quietly running on empty. I work from the Sunshine Coast and online, and most of the people who find me have already tried everything else.
