In this episode, Christina—Victorian Mental Health Advocate, creative mindset coach, writer, and founder of Destination BRAVE, shares the forty‑year journey of caring for her son through severe and complex mental illness. It is a role that consumed her life long before there were services, support, or even language for what caregivers were carrying. On the outside she appeared whole, but privately she was falling apart under the weight of exhaustion, grief, and the relentless 24/7 nature of caregiving. She gave up work, dreams, financial security, and any sense of a future of her own, because her son’s survival mattered more. What ultimately kept her going was creativity. In the years when she had no one to share the burden with, she began collecting images, making collages, and creating small pieces of art that gave her just enough energy to keep moving. Creativity became the one place where time stood still, where she could breathe, feel, and let something inside her flow out. She now teaches this practice to others—the simple truth that creativity lives inside all of us, and that giving ourselves even a few minutes of presence can shift the entire day. Our stories intersected in this space. Christina found art after decades of crisis‑to‑crisis caregiving. I found art in my forties when my world collapsed and I had to rebuild from the inside out. We both learned, in different ways, that caring for others while abandoning ourselves eventually breaks us. And we both learned that self‑compassion is not indulgence, it’s survival. At fifty, Christina returned to study Fine Arts. It took nine years to finish, through illness, surgery, and her son becoming unwell again. She speaks honestly about how carers fall apart when they have no resources, no support, and no space to care for themselves. And she speaks about the turning point: learning to put herself back in the centre of her own life, learning to say no, and discovering that caring for herself made her a better, steadier presence for the people she loves. Christina has recently launched Destination BRAVE, a five‑minutes‑a‑day practice for carers, mothers, mental health workers, paramedics — anyone who spends their life holding others. Her message is simple: you are not your diagnosis, your role, or your exhaustion. You can change the trajectory of your life by choosing yourself for a few minutes each day. She is also working on a new book about caregiving, told through four perspectives: her own, her son’s reflections, the raw truth of their lived experience through her lens as a coach, and the insights of a mental health clinician. Her son’s willingness to read the chapters and offer his own reflections is a testament to what is possible when people are given space, support, and dignity. This conversation is a reminder that caregivers are often invisible, underestimated, and carrying far more than anyone sees. And it’s a reminder that caring for ourselves is not optional—it’s the foundation that allows us to keep going. *Special thanks to the artists of Pixabay for their royalty-free music.
