Hysteria Hotline

☎️ Episode 8: Our Stories Are Medicine (Season Finale) In this season finale, Vesna, Jacky & Dr Nurse Paula reflect on the power of the spoken word and the way one person’s story can become medicine for a stranger who needed to know they weren’t alone. Vesna, Dr. Nurse Paula, and Jacky come together for the Season 2 finale to do what this podcast has always done best, sit with the stories, honour...

☎️ Episode 7: The Weight of Their Words What happens when the people meant to heal you become the ones who harm you? This is not a story about weight loss, it’s a story about survival & the cost of being told your body is a problem to fix. At 20 years old, Rachel Blake was told she wouldn’t live to see 30 unless she had bariatric surgery immediately . With no comorbidities and no time for a second...

☎️ Season 2 | Episode 6: Stop Trying to Fix Me Dropping the cure, rewilding the nervous system and trading the “spoon theory” for something a little more honest…the “f*ck bucket”. In this episode, Vesna and Jacky sit down with Lori Glazebrook , a somatic practitioner who spent decades navigating chronic pain while being handed the same answer on repeat, you’re fine . She was not fine. She was just...

☎️ Episode 5: Field Notes from the Oncology Ward When you’ve spent decades studying how humans build hierarchies and power structures and then you find yourself inside one, you start taking notes. In Episode 5 , Vesna , Jacky & Paula sit down with Karin Costenoble , former anthropologist, systems lover and ongoing breast cancer patient who shares her experience navigating cancer care in Australia....

☎️ Episode 4: Limits of Our Language In this episode, we unpack a central truth; language doesn’t just describe reality, it constructs it, and in healthcare and helping systems, that construction is shaped by power. Vesna , Jacky & Dr. Nurse Paula are joined by Maria Papadontas , a mother, social worker of nearly 30 years, trauma counsellor, and somatic-based trauma-informed yoga teacher, for a co...

☎️ Season 2 | Episode 3: Nurse Mildred & The Responsibility Thread If you’ve ever powered through exhaustion, been praised for coping or your body whispered slow down and then eventually screamed it, this space is for you. In this episode of Hysteria Hotline , we welcome back Thea Baker , a trauma-focused somatic psychotherapist, counsellor, and PhD researcher at Deakin University , who first join...

☎️ Season 2 | Episode 2: Hysteria & The Womb Awakening If you’ve ever been told your pain is normal, your cycle is inconvenient, or your body is something to override rather than understand, this episode is for you. In Episode 2 , Vesna , Dr. Nurse Paula and Jacky sit with Fotini , a traditional women’s body worker and womb keeper, for a conversation that traces hysteria back to its roots, not as...

☎️ Episode 1: The Listening Begins Welcome to Season 2 of Hysteria Hotline, in this episode we begin with a conversation about listening not as a concept, but as a practice of care. Vesna and Jacky welcome Peter , a TCM practitioner and acupuncturist working in women’s health. Peter shares that this was never the path he intended to take. As a young practitioner, he actively tried to avoid women’s...

☎️ Episode 8: Take Up Space (Season Finale) You don’t need permission to take up space, but here it is anyway. This is a closing circle. A pause. A place to notice what has been said and what was finally allowed to be heard. This isn’t a recap. It’s a moment to stop, listen, and breathe. In the Season 1 Finale , Vesna , Jacky & Dr Nurse Paula come together to reflect on the stories shared througho...

☎️ Episode 7: The Imposter Ever tried to survive a medical appointment without developing a full-blown identity crisis? If you’ve had your symptoms dismissed, your instincts undermined, or been told to “just relax” while a metal instrument is inside you, stay on the line, Thea Baker is here. In this week’s episode, we sit down with Thea Baker , a mother, counsellor, trauma-focused somatic psychoth...

☎️ Episode 6: The Memory In Our Bones What if the moment that silenced you became the one that shaped your power? What happens when the earliest version of you, the one who was three, terrified, unseen, and taught to “be a good girl” grows up and starts talking back? This week, we sit with Michelle Maulette-Evans (Aunty Mixch) a healer, storyteller, an absolute powerhouse and birthday girl, as she...

☎️ Episode 5: The Doctor Said What? Have you ever dragged yourself to yet another doctor’s appointment, hoping for some answers, but got misogyny instead? If you’ve ever watched your health spiral while doctors assured you everything was fine, Jessica Rizos’ story will feel achingly familiar. Welcome to Episode 5 of Hysteria Hotline , today we introduce our first guest, Jessica Rizos , who shares...

☎️ Episode 4: When Pain Is Real and Nobody Believes You Proving you’re suffering shouldn’t be a full-time job… but it is. If you’ve ever pushed through pain because no one took it seriously, this space is for you. In this episode, Paula continues her story from childhood hypermobility and endless injuries, to being put on opioids at 17 and left there without follow-up for years. She shares how her...

☎️ Episode 3: Weighing In on Medical Bias Welcome back to Hysteria Hotline, the podcast for the chronically unheard, where being believed shouldn’t be a radical act. If you’ve ever been told “you’d be fine if you just lost some weight,” this episode is for you. In Episode 3 of Hysteria Hotline , hosts Vesna , Paula , and Jacky sit down for an unfiltered conversation about how medical bias seeps in...

☎️ Episode 2: Strength, Dismissed Pain & Being Your Own Advocate Sometimes strength looks like survival, especially when your pain keeps being dismissed. When you’re constantly told you’re fine, the body starts to protect itself by going quiet. In this episode of Hysteria Hotline , Vesna , Paula , and Jacky explore the complicated relationship between strength , pain , and dissociation and what it...

☎️ Episode 1: The Story Begins Here Welcome to Hysteria Hotline — a podcast for the chronically unheard. If you’ve ever been told “you’re fine” while your body screamed otherwise, this space is for you. In our very first episode, hosts Vesna , Paula , and Jacky open up about what inspired Hysteria Hotline , a space built for every woman and marginalised person who’s ever felt dismissed , disbeliev...