Trigger warning, this podcast contains discussions relating to PTSD, trauma, mental health, suicide and other potentially distressing experiences. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, you can call Lifeline on 131114.

There’s the trauma you experience in the job, and then there can be the trauma that comes after it.

I know what it’s like to finally acknowledge that you’re psychologically injured, ask for help, and then find yourself in a process where you can feel like you have to continually prove just how injured you are.

I call it “the trauma after the trauma”.

For police and first responders already carrying the weight of PTSD and psychological injury, the way we handle that next part matters. Because behind every claim number is a person who has already carried more than most people will ever see.

In this episode I share:

• Why having to repeatedly prove and explain a psychological injury can become another layer of trauma
• The enormous shift from being the person who helps others to suddenly being the one who needs help
• How uncertainty around treatment, finances and your future can compound an injury that already has your nervous system on high alert
• Why your claim and your recovery are connected, but should never become the same thing
• The five things every injured officer needs to remember when the claims process starts taking over their life
• What a genuinely trauma-informed workers’ compensation process could look like
• Why the injury, the badge and the claim can all be part of your story without getting to write the ending

Key Quotes

“Sometimes psychological injury is not one dramatic event. It's cumulative. One incident laid over another and another and another.”

“Do not make permanent decisions in temporary moments of hopelessness.”

“Your claim and your recovery are absolutely related, but they are not the same thing.”

You can get involved with the podcast online

You can follow us on Instagram.

Find out more via my website.

You can reach out to me via email.

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

Trigger warning, this podcast contains discussions relating to PTSD, trauma, mental health, suicide and other potentially distressing experiences. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, you can call Lifeline on 131114.

Recovery is often focused on surviving what happened to us. But what happens when we’re ready to start actually enjoying life again?

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about trauma, PTSD, identity, nervous system regulation, grief, illness and rebuilding. But there’s another part of recovery I don’t think we talk about nearly enough: fun.

For a long time, PTSD made my world smaller. I became used to asking whether I could handle something rather than whether I might actually love it. Now, I’m learning that joy isn’t frivolous after trauma. It can be a sign that life is getting bigger again.

I don’t want the rest of my life to be defined by recovering from what happened to me. I want to see how good I can make the life that’s left.

In this episode I share:

- Why I believe fun and joy deserve a place alongside the more serious parts of trauma recovery

- How PTSD slowly shrank my world and made fear the filter for so many of my decisions

- How I shifted from asking “what if I can’t handle it?” to “what if I absolutely love it?”

- Why I’ve started deliberately putting things in my calendar that I genuinely look forward to

- How creating an “Alive Again” list can help us reconnect with the things that make us feel most like ourselves

- Why I stopped waiting until I was healed, confident or “ready” before allowing myself to live

- Why I now see having fun, letting go and trying something new as acts of courage

- How my definition of strength has changed from what I can endure to how much life I’m willing to let back in

- Why I believe joy can coexist with trauma, grief and everything we’ve survived

- Why I’m no longer interested in simply getting through life, but in how good I can make the life that’s left

Key Quotes

“Joy is not frivolous after trauma. It is evidence that life is getting bigger and better again.”

“I was spending so much energy asking, what if I can't handle it? That I wasn't asking, what if I absolutely, really love it?”

“Sometimes allowing yourself to fall in love with life again is so courageous.”

You can get involved with the podcast online

You can follow us on Instagram.

Find out more via my website.

You can reach out to me via email.

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

Trigger warning, this podcast contains discussions relating to PTSD, trauma, mental health, suicide and other potentially distressing experiences. If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, you can call Lifeline on 131114.

Sometimes the moments that nearly break us are the ones that completely change how we choose to live.

Sharon Morrish had spent decades building. A career that saw her become a young female leader in male-dominated industries, a family of three children and, alongside her husband John, a crane business they grew from a single crane into a multi-million-dollar operation.

Then, without warning, a brain aneurysm ruptured.

Sharon woke days later on life support, with no memory of what had happened or of the goodbye letter she'd written to her family before emergency surgery. What followed gave her a very different perspective on resilience, success and how she wanted to spend the life she'd been incredibly lucky to keep.

Sharon's story is about backing yourself when others tell you not to, finding another way when the path in front of you disappears and recognising just how much strength we can find when life gives us no choice but to use it.

In this episode we share:

- Sharon’s early career and what she learnt about backing herself as a young female leader in male-dominated industries.

- Finding the inner strength to keep going when people around her actively didn't want her to succeed.

- The reality of balancing a demanding career with raising three children and feeling guilty whether she was at work or at home.

- Why Sharon and her husband backed themselves to start their own crane business when everyone around them told them not to.

- The risks, setbacks and sacrifices behind building their business over 20 years, including surviving the GFC, union battles and COVID.

- The brain aneurysm that ruptured without warning and left Sharon fighting for her life.

- The goodbye letter Sharon somehow wrote to her family before emergency surgery, despite having no memory of doing it.

- How surviving something she had only a small chance of walking away from changed Sharon’s perspective on life, resilience and what really matters.

- Why gratitude and recognising what is still good can coexist with some of the hardest moments of our lives.

- What it really means to rise when moving forward can sometimes mean simply getting through what is in front of you.

Key Quotes

“You go home and you have a big cry and you go, you're not going to beat me.”

“My subconscious was like, don't know whether I'm going to live or die, but I'm going to say goodbye.”

“You have to zig and zag. You have to go, all right, what can we do to make this happen?”

More about

Check out Shaz’s Linktree and follow her on Instagram.

You can get involved with the podcast online

You can follow us on Instagram.

Find out more via my website.

You can reach out to me via email.

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