Meet the Kiwi women changing the narrative around mental wellbeing
This is an excerpt from an online article written by NZ Fashion Quarterly. You can read the full article here
We took the plunge to start Girls Minds Matter, creating a beautiful, uplifting and inspiring space for teens and young women, where we could offer peer support and mentorship around well-being—something we wished was available growing up. My co-founder Sorcha Wolnik and I have both coached women for years and now for the first time, we are launching our online program for women, The Fulfilled Woman, next month. We are passionate about sharing our wisdom and expertise on how to lead authentic and empowered lives, while also navigating family, business, and lifestyle.
Sorcha and I met as she was my midwife to all three of our children. Becoming a mother is a massive transition mentally and emotionally—Sorcha held that space for me and we discovered we had really similar backgrounds with our mental health journey. Our struggles started really young as pre-teens and carried on longer than we wanted to admit. As Sorcha is a mother to three beautiful daughters in the pre-teen and teenage years, we were witnessing firsthand the same struggles we had navigating the teen years. Our midwifery appointments would end up hours long, sowing the seeds of how we could support teens so that they don’t carry these same struggles into their adulthood.
Our strength has come from our lived experience with mental illness and our many more years of self-discovery and growth. This compassion and understanding enables us to build trust with our clients, allowing them to know that they are not alone in their feelings. We have personally transformed our lives—from hitting rock bottom, feeling stuck and unfulfilled, to rising above and living truly authentic and joyous lives. Our mission is to share this wisdom, experience, and learning to show women and teens the processes and techniques to move away from self-limiting beliefs and step into a life that they are so worthy of. Our hope is that all women feel supported, connected, and empowered.
Self-growth and healing has a ripple effect. If we can get more organisations to teach these tools to teens and women we can start to change the narrative around mental health. These initiatives need to be available in all schools, not only for students, but also teachers. Organisations need to be looking at how they can support their staff, training managers in leadership, wellbeing, and vulnerability so that their employees feel safe to openly talk and seek support when needed. We need to move away from comparison, judgement, and competition and become a community that supports, uplifts, and inspires one another.
This article is intended to provide general information only. If you, or a loved one, is struggling with mental health, talk to your doctor, free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor, or call Lifeline on 0800 543 354.
