Joyful Being, Studio 17, First Floor, 105 Victoria Street, Fitzroy (2025)

21/11/2025

You can bring your A-game parenting energy and still get met with a hard NO. It’s not failure—it’s just a reminder that they’re their own tiny people, not our performance review.

I’m sharing for my own therapeutic processing and reminder 😂 But perhaps it’s also a helpful reminder for you ❤️

20/11/2025

Baby loss changes you in ways no one warns you about.

You start meeting a new version of yourself—the parent you were becoming—and then it’s suddenly taken away.
And it’s not just the baby you lose.
It’s you.
The identity you were growing into.

People talk about grief like it’s about missing someone.
But baby loss also means missing yourself—
the self you were becoming,
the self you no longer get to meet.

You’re left in a strange limbo.
Not who you were before.
Not the parent you were becoming.
Just… in-between.

If you feel like you don’t belong anywhere right now, you’re not broken.
You’re grieving multiple versions of yourself.
And that grief makes sense 🤍

13/11/2025

Working is mothering. Full stop.

The income we earn isn’t just numbers — it’s safety, food, housing, and stability. We are ensuring that our kids don’t have to worry about tomorrow

Mothers are told to feel guilty for earning and that it is separate to caregiving, but money and security are part of how we care. We acknowledge it as an essential part of a father’s role and now that women are working more we deserve the same definition 🫶🏻

Let’s start naming that 🙌

14/10/2025

October is Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month.

I used to think my Joyful Being business story ended with my pregnancy loss — but it became the seed for something new.

Joyful Being was born twice: once in hope in 2018, and once in healing in 2023.

Now I get to do this work alongside my colleague — .with.bec someone who’s been there through every step of this journey, personally and professionally ❤️❤️❤️

I’m so proud that we get to share this space together and make a difference for others who also know this pain 💔

09/10/2025

I am sharing this for Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness Month.

Awareness is so important — but acknowledgment alone isn’t support. Women need so much more support in their pregnancy losses. The impacts are ongoing and huge.

To anyone feeling unseen in their experiences of loss: your grief counts, exactly as it is.

You may feel invisible, but that’s not a reflection of your worth — it’s society’s discomfort with grief. We have definitely made progress over the years in our levels of awareness.

AND we still have a long way to go in learning how we can show up more ❤️❤️❤️

03/10/2025

When society can’t hold your grief, you start to think something’s wrong with you. After my pregnancy loss at 20 weeks, people didn’t know what to say. I was discharged with no follow up or supports. I wasn’t coping and thought there was something wrong with me. The silence from everywhere made me feel I was the problem for not moving on with ease — but really, I know now that there was no space held for my grief.

I was all alone with such a complex grief. I discovered the power of being in nature and especially the beach. Just the sound of waves and a place big enough for everything I was feeling. Nature didn’t fix the pain, but it could hold it. The ocean soothed my nervous system and reminded me: I wasn’t broken, I was grieving.

If you’re carrying something heavy and there’s no one to hold it with you, let the sky, the ocean, the trees hold it for a while. It’s not a cure, but it’s a way through until you find the right support for you 🤎🤎🤎

15/09/2025

Menopause is often talked about as a “hormone problem.” But research shows it’s much more than that. Psychologists are now reframing menopause as a developmental life stage—just like adolescence.

What this means:
🌱Menopause isn’t only about physical changes. It also involves identity shifts, role transitions, and meaning-making.
🌱Many women describe a sense of “not feeling like myself.” This often includes:
• Burnout or exhaustion
• Mood fluctuations
• Cognitive changes (memory, concentration)
• Relationship strain or re-evaluation
• Old trauma or unresolved stress resurfacing
• Loss of identity after years of “masking” (especially for late-diagnosed ADHD/autism)

The research tells us:
🌱Menopause is linked with identity disruption and a need to reconstruct one’s sense of self.
🌱The pressure and external messaging from society to stay productive, selfless, and compliant adds to stress and internal conflict
🌱Positive beliefs about menopause can protect wellbeing, while negative beliefs can increase distress.
🌱 Many women experience this stage as a gateway to re-embodiment—a time to reclaim autonomy, shift priorities, and reconnect with authenticity…..perhaps for the first time ever.

Core psychological tasks of menopause include:
🌱Disentangling from old roles and expectations that no longer serve
🌱Re-evaluating values and priorities in life
🌱Rebuilding identity with greater authenticity
🌱Integrating new ways of being that support health, relationships, and meaning in a healthy way

Why this matters:

When we understand menopause as a normal psychological transition, not just a medical problem, women can receive the support they need. This recognition allows menopause to become a time of growth, empowerment, and flourishing rather than simply loss or decline.

💡 Key message: Menopause is not only a physiological change—it’s a psychological turning point. With awareness, knowledge and the right support, it can be a powerful stage of renewal and identity reconstruction for women.

Credit: Concepts and research presented by Kirstin Bouse, . Kirstin is doing fabulous work in this space and I highly recommend following her 🌱

28/08/2025

Motherhood is the time women are most likely to struggle with their mental health. And when there’s no village around you, the struggle can feel even heavier.

Part of the problem is that so many spaces don’t support mother and baby to both have their needs met. Mothers are often feel societal expectations to keep babies quiet, feed discreetly, and often to be apart for appointments- even when separation feels biologically stressful for both of you.

That’s not how it works here. In my therapy room, you don’t need to apologise for mothering. Babies cry, feed, wriggle, and need to be held—that’s normal. We can make space for both your needs and your baby’s.

I’ll hold your baby if you need the toilet. I’ll grab you water. We can pause for feeds, changes, and settling. And if you’d rather come alone and soak up the chance to just be you—that’s supported too.

You do you. This is your space—for both of you. 💜

08/08/2025

This World Breastfeeding Week, let’s move beyond pressure and personal guilt — and look at what actually shapes breastfeeding outcomes: policies, workplace expectations, and social supports.

🍼 In Australia, government-funded parental leave ends around 3–4 months postpartum. While many families stretch that leave using unpaid time or personal savings, it’s often a financial squeeze — not a true choice.

🍼 In Norway, parents are supported with up to 59 weeks of paid leave — and over 75% are still breastfeeding (to some extent) at 6 months.

🍼 In the US, where there’s no national paid leave, many parents are back at work within weeks — and breastfeeding drop-off is steep.

These numbers aren’t about how hard parents tried.
They’re about the conditions we’re asking them to parent in.

🤍 You are not less if you didn’t keep breastfeeding.
🤍 You did what you had to, within the system you’re in.
🤍 You deserved more support — not more pressure.

And yes — of course there will be many nuances to these numbers that cannot truly be reflected and captured in an Instagram post.

Every family’s feeding story is shaped by personal, cultural, medical, and emotional factors.

But too often, we treat breastfeeding as a personal success or failure —
when it’s deeply shaped by the systems around us.

Let’s stop asking: “Why didn’t you keep going?”
Let’s start asking: “What support was missing for you”

07/08/2025

Breastfeeding isn’t always a Pinterest-perfect bonding moment. Sometimes it’s boring. Sometimes it’s sensory hell. And sometimes it feels like the entire mental load of the household is crushing you while you sit on the couch, “resting.”

You are not broken for feeling this way.

These strategies aren’t about “making it all okay” with toxic positivity.

They’re survival tools for the trenches—while we work on shifting the bigger systems that leave breastfeeding parents so unsupported.

Which of these strategies do you already use?
Which one are you going to try next time you’re stuck on the couch with a baby attached to you?
Let’s share the hacks that actually help.

And if you need further support .with.bec and I are here for you 🧡

06/08/2025

Breastfeeding is often painted as this magical, instinctive act of bonding. But inside the therapy room? The conversations are a little more honest.

✨ It’s a skill that requires practice, not something that always comes “naturally.”
✨ You can be grateful for the opportunity and still feel overwhelmed, bored, or touched-out.
✨ The emotional labour of feeding can feel invisible, even though it’s relentless.
✨ And if your journey didn’t involve breastfeeding, this can stir up complicated feelings. Your story is valid, too.

Feeding your baby—however that looks—is deeply personal. There’s no one “right” way to feel about it. It’s okay if it’s messy, nuanced, and layered.

You’re doing the work, whatever it looks like.
Feeding is one part of the story. Showing up for your baby—in any way—is what truly matters.

💕 In the next post, I’ll be sharing strategies for when breastfeeding feels boring, overstimulating, and like the entire mental load is sitting on your chest.
Stay tuned—it’s not about “just being grateful” or “enjoying the moment.” You deserve real tools.

31/07/2025

Hey lovely humans and trauma-informed clinicians—this one’s for you:

We are on the lookout for an experienced Perinatal Psychologist with a passion for working collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team, and who brings EMDR experience to the table.

If you have a warm presence, an easy sense of humour, and the ability to support people through the messy, magical, sometimes terrifying journey of pregnancy, birth, postpartum and early parenting—keep reading.

🧡 Who You Are:

A registered psychologist (or equivalent) with specialised experience in perinatal mental health

Trained in EMDR and confident in applying it around pregnancy, birth-related trauma, and transition to parenthood

A team player: you thrive in multidisciplinary settings (think obstetricians, midwives, lactation consultants, GPs)

Warm, grounded, non‑judgmental, and able to hold space with both empathy and sass

Ready to co‑design treatment plans, consult with allied health colleagues, and advocate for holistic care

🧡 What We Offer:

A flexible, supportive environment, where your voice matters

A multi‑professional team dedicated to supporting parents in every way—from emotional healing to parenting challenges

A platform for creativity in therapy, with opportunities to contribute to workshops, group programs, and educational content

Opportunities for clinical supervision, case‑consultation, and growth in perinatal/infant mental health

📩 Sound like your kind of work?
Slide into our DMs or email hello@joyfulbeing.com.au with:
🗂 A brief bio/CV
💡 A snapshot of your EMDR & perinatal experience
💬 Why you vibe with a practice that’s warm, real, and deeply collaborative

Joyful Being

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