Nathalie’s story
Meet Nathalie. She suffered years of anxious thoughts, while on the outside appearing like she had it all together. She ran her business from a nice office and had a comfortable life. Despite this, she would often struggle to breathe sitting at her desk and end the day panic-crying.
Everything she thought she 'should' be doing wasn't helping: exercising, eating healthy, yoga classes... and telling herself to 'just get over it and push harder'.
Eventually, at a complete loss, she booked in to see a therapist.
This was the beginning of Nathalie's journey to self-discovery. With professional guidance, she uncovered a trauma from her early life and began facing feelings she'd long suppressed.
During this period of intense therapy, making herself a priority became more important than ever.
In fact, she didn’t have a choice but to allow her body to rest and use the little energy she had to work, eat, and do what she needed to for herself.
Self-care helped her function and involved seeing an osteopath for body pains, going for walks, gentle yin yoga, magnesium baths, or simply watching cartoons and Christmas movies.
For the first time in her life, high-achiever Nathalie had to "just be." Her body needed rest, compassion and comfort, and her job was to provide that, without judgement.
Years later, life handed her a different kind of a hard time.
Someone she cared about was struggling with depression. She felt helpless, wanting to fix things for them, but didn’t know how.
On top of that, her marriage ended. The divorce that followed broke her wide open.
This time she didn't just feel anxiety. She felt anger, hurt and grief. Emotions that didn't soften with a face mask or a candle.
Her therapist kept asking her one question, over and over: 'What do you need right now?'
That's when Nathalie understood what self-care truly was: it's whatever you need to feel ok.
Sometimes that's a long walk where you let yourself feel everything you've been pushing down. Sometimes it's screaming into a pillow.
And that's where the idea for Self Cared began. The realisation that real self-care, the kind that you need when you're falling apart, looks nothing like the wellness aesthetic. It simply looks like whatever you need it to.
Through it all, Nathalie has grown and feels stronger and more aligned every day. Feelings like stress and anxiety don't control her anymore.
She has the skills and tools now to listen to what her body and mind need, and continues showing up for therapy. In her eyes, the most important kind of care for herself.
“Self-care is listening to what you need. It’s time to change how we view self-care and prioritise our mental health.”
A self-care solution
Knowing how much mental health care has helped Nathalie grow and transform, she wants everyone to have the opportunity to take control of their own mental health, which includes accessing therapy if they’d like to.
She is passionate about making mental health tools and services more accessible to all Australians and believes access to mental health care should be a right, not a privilege.
So, she has taken matters into her own hands. Self Cared is just the beginning.
“I am working with WayAhead and want to encourage an open conversation about mental health and practising self-care in whatever way people need.
I believe there’s a place for calm activities in the name of self-care, however that’s not all there is; sometimes, self-care is going for a run or screaming into a pillow.
It's about listening to what you need in this very moment.
It’s time to change how we view self-care and prioritise our mental health.” - Nathalie