Challenges That Change Us –

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We’ve talked about experiencing a health issue and not knowing the cause and we’ve talked about the impact of suddenly losing mobility from an accident. But what if you suddenly became paralysed, but no one knew why?

That was the experience for Ro Clark in 2019.

Ro is a Sunshine Coast based acrylic painter and graphic designer with over 14 years’ industry experience. After acquiring a spinal cord injury in 2019, she found solace and expression through her painting. Now, Ro works from her home studio, creating original acrylic artworks, limited edition prints and seamless repeat pattern designs. With a lifelong passion for art and design, Ro brings both technical skill and emotional depth to her practice.

In this episode she shares:

-      Her life before the accident

-      The accident and what happened to her

-      What she was like personally as she realised what was happening to her

-      How realising the secondary aspects of being paralysed made life much harder for her

-      The significant pain she lives with every second

-      What the hard days of recovery looked like

-      What tools from her past life did she pull on to survive

-      Examples of her experiences with low accessibility

-      How she looks forward now and what brings her joy

-      Her art and how it helps her

Key Quotes

I could see my husband’s face and he could see the doctor and that is when I knew something was wrong.”

“The pain is the hardest part for me now.”

More about Ro

Find out more about Ro via her website and Instagram.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

We often talk about how challenges shape us, but planning and prevention are just as powerful as recovery. In this episode we bring back our in-house psychologist Vanessa de Sauty to unpack practical ways to set your year up for success, from visible yearly and weekly planners and color-coding to energy accounting, nervous-system awareness, and managing people-pleasing. 

Vanessa and I share lived and professional tips on spotting early stress signs (hyper vs hypo arousal), understanding ADHD, and building flexible containers that protect your energy.

In this episode we share:

-      The power of matching each family member’s energy needs (introvert vs extrovert)

-      The pros and cons of using visible yearly and weekly planners with color-coding and foundations vs unique items

-      The pros and cons of doing energy accounting to track deposits vs withdrawals and allocate chores by cost

-      Why you need to know your nervous system window of tolerance — hyper arousal vs hypo shutdown

-      The importance of recognising ADHD and using assessment, medication and strategies to improve function

-      How to manage people-pleasing by pausing, deferring, delegating and remembering saying yes is saying no

-      Setting 2026 by clarifying values, plugging priorities into the calendar and using workshops/resources

Key Quotes

“It's amazing how our body can start to display stuff that our mind hasn't caught up to yet."

"When I say yes to something, I'm actually saying no to something."

More about

To find out more about Vanessa, check out her website HERE.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

Claire Torkington has lived a life. That means there have been big highs, as well as some big challenges.

Besides dealing with burnout, and fighting fires as a firefighter, Claire has lived through numerous other close calls and just avoiding multiple deadly incidents, including 3 terror attacks.

Her career spans the globe as she has moved and adjusted to whatever life has thrown at her.

Now she works with Ability Enterprises, a not-for-profit, social enterprise providing meaningful employment opportunities to marginalised individuals living in regional Queensland.

In this episode she shares:

-      Her childhood experience moving around the world

-      The major attacks and disasters she happened to live through

-      What she learnt from living through these incidents

-      How she ended up looking after her dads mum in the UK and how that changed er life

-      Her time as a firefighter

-      the moment she collapsed

-      The realisation she made about her mental health

-      What she does when she realises she is going down the path of her health getting bad

-      The mantras and lessons she has taken from her challenges

Key Quotes

"By the time I got to the gate of the complex, I was physically ill."

"I was actually on a plane on September 11th flying to New York, and we were pulled out of the air..."

"I refused to accept initially that this fall over moment was anything to do with my mental health whatsoever or stress."

More about Claire

Find out more about Ability Enterprises here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey all! We had a bit of a glitch with this weeks episode. It will be coming soon, but until it does I wanted to take a walk down memory lane and highlight an episode that has stayed with me ever since we recorded it.

This one is powerful and such a great listen, and even if you have listened before I think there would be whole new takeaways from a second liusten.

And if you haven't listened. enjoy!

Trigger warning: Domestic violence, sexual assault, mental health

While abuse within the family is something we have discussed on this podcast, one topic we have not covered as much, which often goes hand in hand, is the abandonment many children go through in this experience.

Dante Amato is renowned in the Personal Development space for the deeply nurturing and transformational spaces she holds. She is a Business Mentor, Transformational Life Coach, Spiritual Guide and Energy Practitioner. But besides being a coach, Dante is a woman who has walked the path of trauma and triumph, gaining valuable insights that fuel her mission to help others.

From an early age she experienced abandonment, abuse, manipulation and trauma which extended far into her life. As an adult she has done a loooot of healing and work, but her story is one that I think will resonate with a lot of people.

In this episode she shares:

• Her experience of being abandoned by her mum as a child
• The experience of spending time with her unstable mother as a child
• Her experience with domestic abuse in her mother’s home
• How her brother was manipulated and let down by their mother
• How her relationship with her husband helped her
• What happened when she was diagnosed with infertility
• What her journey to heal was like
• The thing that kept her going through recovery when things got really hard
• How she developed her voice in adulthood
• The way she was able to work through her anger
• What she is doing now to help others

Key Quotes

“I had to completely cut my mother off. Really intentionally and energetically remove her from my life.”

“The constant thought that I had was that I just need to do everything that I can to make her love me.”

“When bad things happened, we would never ever speak about them.”

More about Dante

Dante’s website: https://www.danteamato.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedanteamato/?hl=en

Minibook: https://www.danteamato.com/mini-book-of-self-discovery

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website: http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

For her other business you can find it through the websites: www.altitudefitnessarmidale.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Challenges That Change Us –

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

Trigger warning: suicide, depression, acts of war.

Many of us have seen war movies, but nothing can truly explain the horrors and intensity of war. So we can only begin to understand the mental impact that going to war can have on the brave soldiers who are involved.

Dave Payne has carved a difficult path from the frontlines to the boardroom. 

He has served as a leader in Iraq and Afghanistan wars and, as a security supervisor at the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru.

Dave has battled PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and suicide attempts. He has since rebuilt his mind, body, spirit, and purpose.

Now, bringing this skill set to Lifespan Supplements as Director, Dave delivers top quality health products that help people live stronger, longer, vibrant, and more purposeful lives. 

He also uses his hard fought and won skills to support and enrich the lives of veterans through Sage and Sovereign Group, as well as his Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) coaching business.

In this episode he shares:

-      His early upbringing in Australia with his parents and why it was good and paved the way for him to have the life that he has now

-      The things that built resilience in his youth

-      What life in the military was like

-      The accident he had while off duty

-      How he was made to go back to military work when he hadn’t recovered

-      His time in Iraq and the horrors he witnessed

-      How he realised he was in trouble while back home on leave

-      The damaging response he was given when he opened up about his struggle

-      How bottling up his feelings lead to drinking

Key Quotes

“I just felt this, like a hole just appeared in me. These thoughts and feelings were creeping in. There was lots of sadness.”

“They were testing chlorine bombs…and it just literally melts skin. It just melt human.”

More about

You can find out more about what Dave does via the Lifespan Supplements website.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trigger warning: suicide, depression, acts of war.

Many of us have seen war movies, but nothing can truly explain the horrors and intensity of war. So we can only begin to understand the mental impact that going to war can have on the brave soldiers who are involved.

Dave Payne has carved a difficult path from the frontlines to the boardroom. 

He has served as a leader in Iraq and Afghanistan wars and, as a security supervisor at the Regional Processing Centre on Nauru.

Dave has battled PTSD, depression, substance abuse, and suicide attempts. He has since rebuilt his mind, body, spirit, and purpose.

Now, bringing this skill set to Lifespan Supplements as Director, Dave delivers top quality health products that help people live stronger, longer, vibrant, and more purposeful lives. 

He also uses his hard fought and won skills to support and enrich the lives of veterans through Sage and Sovereign Group, as well as his Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) coaching business.

In this episode he shares:

-      His early upbringing in Australia with his parents and why it was good and paved the way for him to have the life that he has now

-      The things that built resilience in his youth

-      What life in the military was like

-      The accident he had while off duty

-      How he was made to go back to military work when he hadn’t recovered

-      His time in Iraq and the horrors he witnessed

-      How he realised he was in trouble while back home on leave

-      The damaging response he was given when he opened up about his struggle

-      How bottling up his feelings lead to drinking

Key Quotes

“I just felt this, like a hole just appeared in me. These thoughts and feelings were creeping in. There was lots of sadness.”

“They were testing chlorine bombs…and it just literally melts skin. It just melt human.”

More about

You can find out more about what Dave does via the Lifespan Supplements website.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

Trigger warning: sexual abuse

For many survivors of child sexual abuse, the moment the truth comes out can almost be another form of trauma while for others it can be cathartic. In fact as Alison Mau knows very well, the needs of survivors are infinitely varied.

Alison is an award-winning journalist with more than thirty years in major television, radio, and print media roles. A long-time advocate for gender equity, in the wake of the global #metoo movement, Alison created a ground breaking investigative journalism project at NZ’s largest news platform in 2018. Over five years, the #MeTooNZ project published dozens of major investigations and supported hundreds of survivors to tell their stories, leading to widespread change in the way sexual harassment is reported by media.

In many ways her experience helped her when it came to exploring and sharing her own personal experience with childhood sexual abuse.

In 2023, Alison co-founded Tika, a tech-first access to justice charity designed to remove the barriers survivors experience when seeking justice and accountability.

Her #1 bestselling memoir, No Words For This, was released in April 2025.

In this episode she shares:

-      How her curiosity, optimism, and likely undiagnosed ADHD have shaped who she is

-      Why she wrote No Words for This and the lack of language around sexual harm

-      The decision to tell her family’s story and why leaving it out felt dishonest

-      The unexpected impact of the book and how it helped survivors feel less alone

-      Her role leading Me Too NZ and changing how survivor stories are reported

-      What trauma-informed journalism looks like in practice

-      How a phone call from her sister brought buried childhood abuse into the open

-      The relief and complexity of discovering she was no longer alone

-      Why justice and healing are not one-size-fits-all for survivors

-      How she transformed anger, struggle, and grief into advocacy and systemic change

Key Quotes

“I spent my whole life pushing it down just so I could survive, until one moment made it impossible to stay alone with it.”

“Struggling isn’t weakness, it’s what happens when you’re carrying something that was never meant to be carried alone.”

“The hardest part wasn’t what happened to me, but learning to believe it wasn’t my fault.”

More about

Find out more about Tika here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

Welcome to 2026! For many 2025 was a pretty hard year, and some of you may have just been knuckling down and powering through, often even being the support for those around you whilst also desperately trying to keep your head above water.

I wanted to do this episode to help those of us who have fallen into the role of being ‘The Strong one” find a way to an easier 2026.

In this episode I shares:

-      How we can take a moment to pause

-      What it means to be the strong one and why people become the strong one

-      The cost of always being the strong one

-      What happens when the strong one finally can’t be strong

-      What is a more positive kind of strength

-      A simple strategy to begin shifting the pattern

Key Quotes

“Over time strength stops being something you do and it becomes someone you are.”

There is a hidden cost of being the strong one.”

“Your body often knows the cost long before your mind does.”

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

What is it like to be a narcissist? And how can. Narcissist do good in the world?

This week we are continuing our conversation with 89-year-old keynote speaker, author, and Gestalt therapist Lenny Kravich.

After an abusive upbringing, Lenny realised a long time ago that he might be a narcissist, and that realisation shaped an entire journey of discovery and development that he then went on.

In this episode he shares:

-      What the word narcissist means for him and what his experience with it is

-      How he made a decision that changed the way he viewed and interacted with people

-      What happens when he lets himself down

-      How he came to write his book

-      What impact did writing the book have on him

-      The lesson he still has to learn

-      

Key Quotes

“I am very manipulative about how I get attention.”

“It screwed up a lot of things in my life.”

More about Lenny

Find his website here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Try our FREE burnout quiz.

Grab your burnout workbook HERE. 

We have heard from the victims of generational trauma from it’s victims, but what about the people who perpetuate it, until they finally realising what they are doing?

That is the story of Lenny Ravich, a man who experienced abuse as ‘punishment’ and passed it on to his children until he realised what he was doing and worked hard to make the change.

Lenny is an 89-year-old keynote speaker, author, and Gestalt therapist whose life work bridges humour, healing, and human connection. His message lands with lightness and truth – shaped by decades of lived experience, not theory. Lenny doesn’t just talk about joy – he lives it.

In this episode he shares:

-      What it was like for him growing up and the violence he experienced from his parents

-      How he perpetuated generational violence

-      His relationship with his sister and reconciling with her

-      how a conference and gestalt therapy led him to realisations about himself

-      Gestalt therapy and realising awareness and mindfulness

-      An experience that led him to fully accept himself

-      What was his process of changing after his realisation

-      His experience of deep listening and how it has impacted his life

Key Quotes

“Aa person could tell me they're dying in 3 days and I would joke about it.”

“It was all about me, anything that came up, it was all about me.”

“I didn’t tackle my narcissism it's still there but I’m aware of it happening

More about Lenny

Find his website here.

You can get involved with the podcast online

On facebook in our community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/challengesthatchangeus

Or on Instagram: @challengesthatchangeus

If you want to contact the podcast, email us here: [email protected]

Or check out our website: www.Challengesthatchangeus.com

If you want to find out more about what Ali does, check out her business via the website:

http://www.trialtitudeperformance.com.au

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.