Nathalie’s story

Meet Nathalie. She suffered years of anxious thoughts, while on the outside appearing like she had everything together. She ran her own company 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 was able to uncover a trauma that happened in her early life and began facing feelings she’d 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 do for herself. Self-care helped her to 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.

As she found her feet again, Nathalie was forever changed. Of course, she still feels anxiety and stress and all the things, but these feelings don’t control her anymore. She learned to be kind to herself and now has the skills and tools to listen and attend to what her body and mind need.

Nathalie also 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