Don't Quit on Me

 Deon Bird is a husband, a father of four, an ex professional rugby league player, a mental health advocate, a proud Aboriginal man, a trainer, a coach, and one of the wellbeing and education officers at the Redcliffe Dolphins for both the NRL team and the state league. Deon says that he once thought that he was put on this earth to play rugby league, but through becoming a mentor for Aboriginal a...

James N. Kirby, Ph. D.,  is a Senior Lecturer, Clinical Psychologist, and the Co-Director of the  Compassionate Mind Research Group  at the University of Queensland. He has broad research interests in compassion, but specifically examines factors that facilitate and inhibit compassionate responding. He also examines the clinical effectiveness of compassion focused interventions, specifically in ho...

 Edwina Kempe lives and works on Turrbal, Jajera and Jinibarra Country in Meanjin, also known as Brisbane. Edwina is an accredited mental health social worker and a qualified yoga teacher. Edwina's, also qualified in trauma center, trauma sensitive yoga as a facilitator, trainer, and mentor. Her framework is trauma informed and committed to social justice issues that underpin her work. Having work...

Kelly Boys is a mindfulness trainer and author of  The Blind Spot Effect . She has created mindfulness programs for UN humanitarians and veterans with PTSD, and directed a teacher training for Google. She has worked with the United Nations Foundation, Search Inside Yourself Institute, and the Integrative Restoration Institute, and is the founding advisor for the Simple Habit meditation app. She cu...

Dr Jakqui Barnfield FACMHN, MACN - Director of Clinical Services   As a registered nurse, focusing her career in the area of mental health, Jakqui has held various roles in the tertiary public health sector and is a passionate advocate for mental health and suicide prevention. She is committed to holistic care, ensuring services strive to meet the needs of consumers, their families and our communi...

Brett Lee is the Founder of Internet Safe Education,Brett is a former detective who took his 20+ years of working and training in cyber crime to helping parents, educators, and the general public to understand how to protect themselves and, most importantly, their children online. Brett has  worked on some of the most high-profile crimes for the likes of the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, a...

Celia Roberts introduces us to deeper dimensions of Yoga, Meditation & Lifestyle Medicine. Celia runs the BioMedical Institute of Yoga & Meditation in the foothills of Brisbane, Australia, and reaches a global online audience with Yoga and Meditation Teacher Training. She invites people from all walks of life to merge science and spirituality for betterment of their health and well-being, to ultim...

Piotr Nabielec is the author of the 4 Step Productivity concept and courses. Piotr has a background in Engineering and Music, and  loves connecting the world of logic and science with the world of emotions and intuition. Piotr has spent over 10 years in IT, first as a software developer and then a manager, and started programming as a teenager and started his professional career at Motorola in 200...

Festive Season Special on working through holiday times with a heavy or tired heart. Ralph De La Rosa, LCSW, (he/they) is the author of two internationally published books. He is a psychotherapist in private practice and seasoned meditation teacher known for his radically open and humorous teaching style. His new book, Don't Tell Me to Relax: Emotional Resilience in the Age of Rage, Feels, and Fre...

Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is one of the first to bring mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon is co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and the author of twelve books,...

Daniel is a Lecturer in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and a pain scientist at the University of South Australia. His research focuses on new approaches to chronic pain that leverage new technologies and modern understandings of body-related perceptual processes. Along with Lorimer Moseley, Daniel is an author of the book ' Pain and The Nature of Perception: A New Way to Look at Pain' which uses vi...

Dr Stan Steindl is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice at Psychology Consultants Pty Ltd, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. He is also co-director of the UQ Compassionate Mind Research Group, and convenor of the annual UQ Compassion Symposium. Stan has over 25 years experience as a therapist, supervisor, trainer and r...

Matt Cowdroy is a Productivity Ninja and the owner of Think Productive Australia. Having spent the first 20 years of working life in the corporate world, Matt has first hand knowledge and experience to understand the pressures faced in todays fast-paced environment. Matt's formal qualifications are in Business and Marketing. He is passionate about people - understanding what motivates them, their...

Liz Stanley is a Georgetown University professor and the creator of Mindfulness-based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT) ®, referred to as MMFT® for short.  Elizabeth A. Stanley, Ph. D., is a professor of security studies at Georgetown University. She speaks, teaches, and writes about resilience, political psychology civil-military relations, and international security. She is the award-winning author o...

ROB BUYEA taught third and fourth graders in Connecticut for six years before moving t Massachusetts, where he taught high school biology for seven years at Northfield Mount Hermon.  In addition to teaching, Rob was also a high school wrestling coach. He is best known for his Mr. Terupt series, which has won numerous awards and has been translated into a dozen languages. He is also the author of t...

KD has been described by the New York Times as "the chant master of American yoga" - Krishna Das is an American vocalist known for his performances of Hindu devotional music known as kirtan. He has released seventeen albums since 1996. He performed at the 2013 Grammy Awards, where his album Live Ananda was nominated for the 2013 Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.  He's taken the call-and-respons...

Piotrek Nabielec is a huge fan of human-centered productivity and the founder of the 4 Step Productivity system. For the last 6 years Piotrek has created courses that help people organize chaos, stop procrastinating and find the time for hobbies and dreams. Before this he spent 10 years as a software developer and IT manager.  Piotrek loves creativity and is a part time musician. 4stepproductivity...

Matthew received Australia's National Mental Health Advocate award by the Mental Health Foundation of Australia in 2020. Matthew is the Founder/CEO of The Australian Centre for Lived Experience, a peer run centre for lived experience persons seeking alternative peer approaches. They live with Bipolar Affective Disorder and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( 'as defined' by DSM/Psychiatry), i...

Lisa Jones is the Director of Recovery for Metro North Mental Health. This is a lived experience role that sits within the Metro North Mental Health Executive Leadership Team and provides leadership to the Metro North Mental Health lived experience workforce.  Lisa has experienced acute mental health challenges in her life and now uses her passion for mental health and recovery to ensure the lived...

Michelle Mitchell is an award-winning speaker, and bestselling parenting author. She has been termed 'the teenage expert' by the media and is sought after for her compassionate and grounded advice for parenting tweens and teens. Michelle started her career as a teacher, but soon discovered a special interest in wellbeing. She left teaching in 2000 and founded Youth Excel, a 'boutique' health promo...

Christine Runyan, PhD, ABPP  Christine Runyan is a clinical health psychologist, Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and the Co-Founder of Tend Health. After starting her career as a psychologist in the US Air Force, she focused her research, clinical service, and teaching on behavioral science in family medicine as...

Ralph De La Rosa (he/they) is an internationally published author, trauma-focused psychotherapist, and seasoned meditation teacher. Ralph began practicing meditation in 1996 and has taught since 2008. His new book, Don't Tell Me to Relax: Emotional Resilience in the Age of Rage, Feels, and Freak Outs (Shambhala Publications) was celebrated as one of the "Top 10 Books of 2020" by Mindful Magazine. ...

Dr Amanda L Rebar is an associate professor at Central Queensland University, an NHMRC Early Career Fellow, and the founding director of the Motivation of Health Behaviours (MoHB) Lab. She obtained her PhD from The Pennsylvania State University in 2013. Dr Rebar is a health psychology and public health researcher with interests in the motivation of health behaviours, specifically the non-conscious...

Dr. Cathy Kezelman AM is President of Blue Knot Foundation – National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma, a medical practitioner by training, and has a lived experience of childhood sexual and emotional abuse. She is committed to supporting people who have experienced violence, abuse and neglect to find pathways to healing and a trauma-informed approach to care which puts the humanity back in...

Chony Bowden is an experienced and qualified educator who began witnessing the positive inner healing work that a regular arts based practice has on people's mental health and well being. She is a  big hearted adventurer and truth seeker, who throughout her life chose to find answers to the 'deeper' questions in life by taking risks. Her journey's took her to places such as; Papua New Guinea, some...