⚠️ Trigger Warning: Baby loss.

Some conversations stay with you long after the microphones are turned off.

This was one of them.

In this episode of In the Heart of the Vault, I sit down with Rochelle — a woman whose life story is layered with strength, heartbreak, love and resilience.

We talk about life before everything changed.

Her upbringing, relationships, marriage, and the journey that eventually led her to motherhood.

After years of trying for a baby and navigating endometriosis, Rochelle and her husband were preparing to welcome their daughter Milli.

But beautiful Milli’s life would last just six days.

Those six days changed Rochelle forever.

In this deeply honest conversation, Rochelle shares what those days looked like — the fear, the love, the moments of hope, and the unimaginable reality of saying goodbye to a child.

But this conversation isn’t only about loss.

It’s about remembering.

Rochelle speaks about the importance of saying Milli’s name, keeping her memory alive, and creating space for other parents who have experienced the unthinkable.

We also talk about how grief reshapes you.

The importance and the power of trusting your own instinct .

How after going through something so profound, surface-level conversations often feel impossible — and why deep, real conversations become the ones that truly matter.

Out of her grief, Rochelle has created something powerful.

She now runs a charity and podcast that supports families navigating baby loss — providing care packs and a safe place for parents who feel alone in their grief.

Today Rochelle is also mum to beautiful Huey, who was born 10 months ago. Milli’s little brother.

She shares openly about what motherhood looks like now — loving the child in your arms while still honouring Milli everyday who lives forever in your heart.

This episode is raw, human and deeply moving.

It’s about grief.

But it’s also about love, resilience, memory and purpose.

🎧 Episode available now on In the Heart of the Vault

⚠️ Trigger Warning: Baby loss.

Some conversations stay with you long after the microphones are turned off.

This was one of them.

In this episode of In the Heart of the Vault, I sit down with Rochelle — a woman whose life story is layered with strength, heartbreak, love and resilience.

We talk about life before everything changed.

Her upbringing, relationships, marriage, and the journey that eventually led her to motherhood.

After years of trying for a baby and navigating endometriosis, Rochelle and her husband were preparing to welcome their daughter Milli.

But beautiful Milli’s life would last just six days.

Those six days changed Rochelle forever.

In this deeply honest conversation, Rochelle shares what those days looked like — the fear, the love, the moments of hope, and the unimaginable reality of saying goodbye to a child.

But this conversation isn’t only about loss.

It’s about remembering.

Rochelle speaks about the importance of saying Milli’s name, keeping her memory alive, and creating space for other parents who have experienced the unthinkable.

We also talk about how grief reshapes you.

The importance and the power of trusting your own instinct .

How after going through something so profound, surface-level conversations often feel impossible — and why deep, real conversations become the ones that truly matter.

Out of her grief, Rochelle has created something powerful.

She now runs a charity and podcast that supports families navigating baby loss — providing care packs and a safe place for parents who feel alone in their grief.

Today Rochelle is also mum to beautiful Huey, who was born 10 months ago. Milli’s little brother.

She shares openly about what motherhood looks like now — loving the child in your arms while still honouring Milli everyday who lives forever in your heart.

This episode is raw, human and deeply moving.

It’s about grief.

But it’s also about love, resilience, memory and purpose.

🎧 Episode available now on In the Heart of the Vault

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of suicide attempts, mental health, trauma and eating disorders. Please listen with care.

When Ashleigh was just seven years old, her life changed forever.

Her mum attempted to end her life.

She survived — but the attempt caused severe brain injury, leaving her mum needing full-time care for the rest of her life.

Ashleigh describes this as “the other side of suicide that nobody talks about” — what happens when the attempt doesn’t end a life, but changes many.

In this deeply moving episode of In the Heart of the Vault, Ashleigh shares what it meant to grow up in the aftermath of that moment.

As a child, she and her siblings were left trying to understand a reality where their mum was still alive — but no longer able to be their mum in the way they needed. Navigating childhood trauma, grief without closure. Ashleigh reflects on how those early years shaped the person she would become.

Now 28years later, Ashleigh is a mother of three daughters of her own. Becoming a mum opened the door to emotions that had been stored away for more than two decades — the grief of a little girl who simply needed her mum.

Through motherhood, reflection and time, Ashleigh has gained a deeper understanding of the pain her mother must have been living with, and the unimaginable darkness that can lead someone to believe the world — even their children — might be better off without them.

This conversation explores:

• The lifelong ripple effects of suicide attempts on families

• Growing up with grief that has no clear place to land

• The trauma children carry when life changes overnight

• Becoming a parent while still healing from your own childhood

• Finding compassion and understanding decades later

Ashleigh’s story is raw, honest and deeply human.

It shines a light on a part of suicide that is rarely spoken about — the lives that continue in its wake.

⸻

Support Resources

If this episode brings up difficult feelings for you, please reach out for support.

Australia

Lifeline — 13 11 14

https://www.lifeline.org.au

United States

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988

https://988lifeline.org

United Kingdom & Ireland

Samaritans — 116 123

https://www.samaritans.org

Finding Sunshine When Your World Has Fallen Apart

Sometimes the hardest part of trauma…

isn’t just what happened.

It’s the fear of the unknown that follows.

When your nervous system has lived in survival mode, it’s so easy to stay there — constantly waiting for the next thing to go wrong.

In this solo episode of In the Heart of the Vault, I talk honestly about how I’ve navigated that space.

People often ask me if recording these episodes makes me sad…

but the truth is, this podcast has become something very different.

It’s not about staying stuck in trauma.

It’s about learning from extraordinary people who have faced the unimaginable and found ways to keep going.

Every guest who sits in the Vault teaches me something.

About resilience.

About perspective.

About the quiet strength humans are capable of.

And the most beautiful part of this community is knowing that when someone listens and thinks “that’s exactly how I feel”…

they realise they’re not alone.

Sometimes that’s all we need.

Just the reminder that someone else understands.

And that, in itself, can feel like a big warm hug.

She Held Three Hearts Together — Through Love, Loss & Survival | Candice Randall

⚠️ Trigger Warning: This episode discusses suicide, infidelity, substance abuse, and complex medical trauma.

Candice Randall was just 19 when she became a mother — and almost immediately, a medical advocate.

Her eldest child has endured multiple open-heart surgeries. Her two younger children also live with heart conditions, a genetic thread running quietly through their lives.

But medical trauma wasn’t the only battle Candice faced.

Infidelity. Addiction. Separation. Shared parenting under strain. And then — a loss no family is ever prepared for.

When her former partner died by suicide, the ripple effects reshaped everything. Including a devastating truth revealed at his funeral that added another layer of grief Candice never saw coming.

In this episode, Candice opens the vault on:

• Raising three children with heart conditions

• Navigating betrayal and single motherhood

• Addiction and its silent impact on families

• Suicide loss and the long road of grief

• Finding strength when life keeps asking more

This is a story of endurance, truth, and a woman who kept showing up — even when her world shattered.

If you’re struggling or in distress, support is available:

Australia: Lifeline – 13 11 14 / https://www.lifeline.org.au/

UK: Samaritans – 116 123 / https://www.samaritans.org/

USA: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – 988 / https://988lifeline.org/

Please reach out — you’re not alone.

To close out the year, I sat down with Evie.

Not as a host and a guest — but as a mum with her daughter.

We talk about grief, bullying, kindness, and growing up.

From my perspective — and from hers, when she was right in the middle of it. This conversation is honest, raw, and full of love.

FIND EVIE HERE:

INSTAGRAM

NEW EPISODE — Amanda Anderson | In the Heart of the Vault 🎙️

Today’s conversation is with the incredible Amanda Anderson — public speaker, storyteller, and one of the most resilient women you will ever meet.

Amanda has lived through moments that could have broken her… yet she rebuilt her life with radical honesty, humour, and a courage that hits you square in the chest. From the shock of experiencing a stroke in her 30s, to navigating life-changing family trauma, to rediscovering her voice and purpose — Amanda’s story reminds us of what the human spirit is capable of.

In this episode, Amanda opens the vault on:

✨ rebuilding yourself after life shatters suddenly

✨ how trauma doesn’t define you — but it does refine you

✨ finding meaning inside the mess

✨ the power of storytelling as healing

✨ what she teaches in rooms across Australia as a public speaker

✨ how resilience is a muscle we learn to strengthen

✨ why she believes we’re all “allowed to start again”

This episode is filled with gems, perspective, truth, and laughter through the pain — the kind of conversation that stays with you long after it ends.

If you’re ready for a raw, uplifting, beautifully human chat… this one’s for you.

https://wellbeingatwork.world/meet-the-speaker-amanda-anderson-2025/

✨ New Episode — with Amanda from @AddictionMakesthree

This conversation opens the vault on the side of addiction most people never talk about — the impact it has on the partners, the families, and the people silently holding everything together behind closed doors.

Amanda shares the hidden reality of living alongside someone in addiction:

the chaos, the hyper-vigilance, the constant checking, the broken trust, the cancelled plans, the emotional whiplash, and the feeling of slowly losing yourself in someone else’s struggle.

She speaks for anyone who has ever found themselves asking:

“Is tonight going to be okay?”

“Can I trust what they’re saying?”

“Why do I feel like I’m the problem?”

“How did their addiction turn me into someone I don’t even recognise anymore?”

This episode isn’t about blaming.

It’s about understanding the emotional cost of living with addiction — any addiction — and the toll it takes on your identity, your stability, and your sense of safety.

It’s for the people who love deeply, carry silently, and finally reach the moment they realise:

You didn’t cause it.

You can’t control it.

And you don’t have to lose yourself trying to fix it.

🎧 Listen now on In The Heart of the Vault

Available on Spotify

This conversation hit differently.

You know those episodes where it doesn’t feel like an interview — it feels like two women sitting together, soul-to-soul, honouring the truth of what life can take… and what it can give back?

Phoebe Stuart’s life changed in a single moment.

First year of uni. Healthy. Happy. Future laid out in front of her.

Then — an unexpected medical emergency that placed her in ICU for five weeks and set off a chain of consequences most of us can’t imagine living through.

Phoebe became a triple amputee.

She was left legally blind.

Her body was burned, traumatised, reshaped.

And then… she rebuilt everything.

She became a lawyer.

A public speaker.

A mentor.

A mother.

A woman who leads with grace, humour, perspective and fire.

This isn’t a story about tragedy — it’s a story about choosing life every day, even when life doesn’t look like what you planned.

It is one of the most open, honest, belly-to-belly conversations I’ve had inside In the Heart of the Vault.

I walked away changed — and I know you will too.

🎧 Episode now live.

Please listen. Please share.

Someone you know needs her story.

https://www.instagram.com/phoebsgram?igsh=cTd5dGpkYTZlb2Vt

Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussion of domestic and gender-based violence, including physical assault. Please take care while listening. Support service links are provided below.

In this deeply moving episode, Simone O’Brien shares her journey of survival after a brutal act of domestic violence that almost took her life.

What happened to Simone is confronting — but what she’s done since is extraordinary. From fighting for her recovery to becoming a national advocate and public speaker, Simone has transformed unthinkable pain into powerful purpose.

https://www.simoneobrien.com.au/

Today, she uses her voice to raise awareness, to educate, and to remind survivors that there is life after violence. Her message is one of strength, hope, and unwavering courage.

This is not just a story about what was taken from her — it’s a story about what she rebuilt, and the lives she continues to touch.

If this episode brings up any feelings for you, please reach out. You are not alone.

💛 This episode of “In the Heart of the Vault” was created to honour stories that matter, amplify voices that deserve to be heard, and shine light where silence once lived.

⸻

🌏 Support Services & Helplines

🇦🇺 Australia – 1800RESPECT (https://www.1800respect.org.au/) — 1800 737 732 (24/7 National Helpline)

🇳🇿 New Zealand – Shine Helpline (https://www.2shine.org.nz/) — 0508 744 633

🇬🇧 United Kingdom – National Domestic Abuse Helpline (https://www.nationaldahelpline.org.uk/) — 0808 2000 247

🇺🇸 United States – National Domestic Violence Hotline (https://www.thehotline.org/) — 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please call emergency services (000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand, 999 in the UK, or 911 in the US).