BEING with Sally Wilson

When Michael Bradshaw moved from Japan to Australia when he was 14, his Caucasian appearance didn’t match his Japanese identity. During his transition through culture shock and social awkwardness, his passion for music became an unhealthy escape before it became, and continues to be, a major means for connection. As a teenager Michael realised that he wanted to teach music, and went on to study mu...

Ashton Bishop, Step Change CEO, has 5 beliefs he uses as his ‘how to best do life’ guide: 1. I believe I always have the power to choose 2. I believe there’s always something to be grateful for 3. I believe that action leads to less regret than inaction 4. I believe in leaving each moment complete 5. I believe in paying things forward This conversation is rich in discussion and clarification aroun...

It’s not everyone who has their initials on a satellite! Futurist Craig Rispin does. He helped a company get their satellite in orbit in collaboration with Elon Musk’s project, and that’s how they showed their appreciation. Imagine being told you’re ten times better than you think you are when you’re ten years old, and believing it might just be true – “let’s see!”. Craig Rispin had this experienc...

Imagine, as a child, having a local minister order gangs to march on your house when your father becomes the first African-American head of the Chicago Police Department. It'd be quite a formative experience, wouldn't it?! It certainly was for James Miles. With such diversity of experience as a career in the military, philosophy, ministry, academia, systems and data analysis, Chicago-based Dr. Jam...

Her parents were the oldest couple in Australia, with a combined age of 206! Given that there was no particular precedent for longevity in their families, Alix Bradfield began to ponder why. Eventually her curiosity led her to interview a number of specialists in health and wellbeing fields, to find out how we can increase our chances of growing older with energy and quality of life. These intervi...

Giving birth – a wondrous, miraculous, painful and traumatic experience for many women. According to birth trauma specialist, Pippa Scott, distress in birth is experienced by upwards of 80% of birthing mothers and affects not just the mother but the baby, the partner and the family unit. In this episode, Pippa talks about the causes of birth trauma – some obvious and others less so – and ways we c...

Tim Thomas never conquered fear. It stayed with him during his tours of duty and the many life-threatening situations in which he found (and placed) himself. What he did realise about fear, though, is that its primary goal is to immobilise us. He realised that action is fear’s antidote. Since he left the armed forces, Tim’s saved more lives in veteran support and recovery than he did in the field....

Dr. Nilmini Fernando is a feminist. Now, as soon as you read that word, your idea of what that means will have come to your mind. In this episode, Nilmini challenges that, just as she challenges our perceptions of racism and unveils the intersections of attitudes, society’s systems and the chains of history which have allowed racism and sexism to continue to flourish. Her knowledge arises from bot...

Our life journey certainly shapes us and makes us who we are but it can also become an unwanted chain shackling us to a painful past, inhibiting people’s ability to see us as a person without a label. Abiola Ajetomobi talks of the exhaustion in being asked to dredge up the trauma and pain of a difficult past. She’s a woman of great courage and tenacity who has overcome so very, very much, and is h...

"Energy for Life" author, Alix Bradfield, asked me the other day whether our listeners know much about me and what I do. My answer was "I don't know"! So Alix and I sought to remedy the situation by having her interview me for this episode.  How does a farm girl turn into an opera singer, then become an international coach for high achieving individuals and teams? Very good question, and one...

There’s something, well, almost indescribable about time spent in Australia’s desert country. It’s something that needs to be experienced to be understood. Chief scientist and desert expedition leader, Max Tischler, speaks about the spiritually transformative effect of the desert and time spent walking through the landscape with camels. He speaks of guests’ unexpected personal “breakthroughs”, the...

Are you in an abusive relationship? Would you recognise it if you were? Are you inadvertently being abusive? Do you know someone else who's in an abusive relationship but doesn't 'see' it? This direct conversation with Judith Richards brings all of these questions to light and addresses them, without making the reality 'palatable'. We get so used to our 'normal', we sometimes don't (or won't) reco...

Narcissism - it's a term thrown around a lot and is used to describe all sorts of self-important behaviour. It's a spectrum, ranging from a personality exhibiting a few narcissistic traits through to its full expression - narcissistic personality disorder.  Judith Richards (founder of The Richards Trauma Process) and I discuss how narcissists' manipulations of relationships can be subtle. It might...

It should never happen, but it's so incredibly common. Horrifying? Yes. But unfortunately true. Approximately 50% of my clients have been victims of it. If this was not an experience in your childhood, you will know someone for whom it was - whether you're aware of it or not. In this episode Judith Richards (Founder of The Richards Trauma Process) and I discuss the ways victims of childhood sexual...

It's everywhere, and yet so few know the truth behind anxiety. Not only that, but the bar is so very low in terms of helping people who suffer from it. Here, Judith Richards (Creator of The Richards Trauma Process) and I talk about the foundational causes of anxiety, what it's a symptom of and how it can be resolved... Yes, resolved! Too many sufferers are told that they have to live with it and m...

Law of Attraction... woowoo gobbledegook or real phenomenon? We'd all like to think it's real, right - particularly as we consider the year ahead?  In this conversation Judith Richards and I uncover the truth behind the law of attraction as well as the things you're not told - things that could prevent its ever working for you. It's based in science, not wishful thinking, and it may well make all...

JUDGEMENT… We’re not talking end of life stuff here! We address judgement here and now and less external than internal. I talk about how I was a living example of someone who was incredibly hard on myself and, as so often happens, then held others to my own impossibly high, exacting standards. Thank goodness I’m over it!  It's common. It’s destructive. It diminishes our performance. It takes...

In this short, poignant, powerful episode, Judith Richards and I discuss ‘learned helplessness’. So often we are so much stronger, more capable, intelligent than we give ourselves credit for, AND those around us are so much stronger, more capable, intelligent than we give them credit for. How can this look? Think helicopter parenting – protecting our children to the point where they become anxious...

If you haven’t already heard about Judith Richards, her life, and the extraordinarily quick and effective process she created to resolve anxiety, depression, PTSD, well, I suggest you listen to Episode 4 of our podcast here ( https://www.iamsallywilson.com/podcasts/victim-to-victor-leading-others-beyond-their-pain ). You’ll be so glad that you did. In this brief, punchy, no-nonsense episode, Judit...

As CEO of Impact Solutions International, Mary C. Dwyer’s particular interest is in the correlation between higher levels of consciousness and wise, ethical and powerful leadership. Over the past 10 years, Mary and her team have worked in 16 different countries with leaders from 44 different nationalities, including working with leadership of countries emerging from war. Our conversation in this p...

CELEBRATING OUR MOST-PLAYED EPISODE! If you missed it, you need to hear it. If you've heard it, have another listen and you'll hear things which slipped past you last time. Judith Richards is someone you need to know about. She’s a person of extraordinary strength and courage, with a history that beggars belief… a life remarkable and profound in its content and experience. Judith has an intimate u...

Cathy Domoney is acutely aware of factors which allow for a child’s inner genius to shine and those that don’t. Parents out there, be encouraged! This is not about fault-finding and pressure to do the ‘right thing’ according to others. This is about you being the right person to parent your child – no one else. It’s about trusting your genius as a parent and looking deeply beyond society’s expecta...

“My intuition only wishes me to have the easiest & most joyous life… It finds every way to communicate with me. The reason it does this is that I have given it permission to… Each day I live on this earth plane, gets easier for me.” Jennifer Cluff convinced head hunters in Papua New Guinea not to kill her crew. She frightened off machete-wielding attackers when they threatened her and her jeep...

Sam McIntosh, in his very own unassuming, modest, quiet, sensitive way, is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever met. When the three-time paralympian from Ocean Grove had the accident which resulted in his disability, his words to his desperately worried mother on the accident scene were: “I’m going to be the first person in a wheelchair to base jump into the Grand Canyon.” He already had a m...

If you sat in a doctor’s office and were told you had very little time to live, would you find a way to do the things you’ve always wanted to do? Kirsten Macdonald did and is pretty sure that you would too. She ticked everything off her bucket list in 2 years. Then, to her surprise, she was still alive and wondered… hmmm, what now?! During our last interview in Episode 13 Kirsten talked about her...