Kintsugi Heroes: Uncovering our Hidden Value

Monica is a wife, mother, mogul, jet setter, and socialite who shares her own personal struggles with social anxiety, failure, and fear to illustrate how to stop being pushed by pain and start being pulled by your own vision. Her story is a compelling account of how she transitioned from poverty and homelessness to a fulfilling and abundant life using the power of vision to create exactly the life...

Ross tells his harrowing story of his lived experience of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression and addiction. He shares his recovery story with us in the hope that it assists in alleviating the stigma of mental health and suicide. He has been sober and gamble-free for nearly 20 years. Biography Ross has worked in the mental health field since completing a Bachelor of Counselling in...

Sophina grew up working for her mother in a not-for-profit business and was drawn back in when her grandmother asked her to help with her mother’s foundation. Determined to learn everything she could she left the business for others to run while she travelled. But while she was away funds were misappropriated and Sophina ended up in jail for a year as somebody needed to be held accountable. She sh...

Kyle’s powerful story begins when he is a healthy young man who develops a serious infection in his heart and is rushed to hospital. He and his loving and supportive family go against the grain by not accepting the medical advice and using natural healing methods then find ways to heal the damage. Kyle was able to work with a cardiologist and eventually had successful open-heart surgery at twenty...

Nathan received an A.B.O. incompatible kidney transplant from his father, Michael in 2009 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA. The incompatible program at Cedars allows people who are not blood compatible to successfully receive kidney transplants. He was the 16th person in Cedars history to receive the transplant. Biography Nathan Gutierrez, Founder and CEO of Wheel Life Enterprises...

David’s extraordinary story of resilience and courage begins in his early teens when he was very involved with sports but diagnosed with Fairbanks Disease or multiple epiphyseal dysplasia a rare genetic disorder affecting the growing ends of bones. He had to change his focus and tried golf but eventually had to give it up and he had the first in a long series of orthopaedic surgeries. He was also...

Mandy was a functioning cocaine addict for sixteen years and is now entering her fourth year of being clean. Her relationship with drugs started at twelve when she experimented with weed, then mushroom, acid and ecstasy, all mixed with alcohol. She has now completely reinvented herself, her mind, body heart and soul and become a successful entrepreneur and recently moved to Nicaragua. She shares h...

Simon developed OCD from the age of around eight and his early life of bottling up his emotions and feelings His struggles with mental health continued after his parents separated and he felt responsible for the family safety at thirteen. He also developed depression on top of his OCD and he finally got help at the age of twenty-eight for his depression then mid-thirties for his OCD. Using alcohol...

Today he's got a successful career, over two and a half years of sobriety, and a lot of contentment about where life is. It wasn't always this way. Luke was FOUR when his father took his own life, and the trauma and knock-on impacts saw Luke develop unhealthy coping behaviours including perfectionism, drug and alcohol abuse, mental illness, and troubles with the law, and hospitalisation. His heali...

Kitt gives us an unflinching account of her struggle with what was initially undiagnosed bipolar disorder. As a trained psychotherapist, she has a unique perspective of living with bipolar disorder; of having an advanced qualification but being unable to work and having a child to look after while she navigated her condition. She describes reframing and making use of her experience and journey as...

Chris describes his early years of low self-worth as a result of family and school issues. Then he became only the second male nurse in Queensland and then an anaesthetic technician and a successful corporate job. He discovered martial arts which set him on a path and he eventually started a small martial arts school in Sydney and a new career in martial arts and helping people. His business faile...

Kahlil’s story is about his challenge which was, that at forty he realised he was not living an authentic life. ‘it's like my whole life, I've just been trying to be someone who I wasn't’. Although living very comfortably and with a job in the family business, he was unhappy, overweight, single and had no friends. At the same time, he helped grant hundreds of wishes as a volunteer of the Make-A-Wi...

Whitney describes her journey as she coped with autoimmune conditions wanting to avoid surgery or drug treatments for her thyroid issues. Realising she has multiple food sensitivities she adopted an autoimmune protocol to heal her thyroid this led to her changing her lifestyle and eating habits. She began working with many other women to help them heal themselves and like her take responsibility f...

Luiz's story is about addiction. It began when he left his traditional Catholic family in Brazil and moved to London, where he became addicted to cocaine. He returned to Brazil and tried for fifteen years to overcome his addiction without success despite trying many different solutions. During that time, he maintained a job, so he always had the money for drugs and to live a comfortable life ...

Scotty Schindler is a force of nature. He has a quintessentially Australian identity as a born optimist and clear-cut straight talker and is an extraordinary entrepreneur and businessman who ‘retired at forty-six.’ He takes us through his amazing career and how he triumphed over adversity as he built as super successful business ReNet from scratch while at the same time being dedicated to his fami...

Diane shares her story of growing up in extreme domestic violence with no safe adults and how dreaming of escape to a safe place ignited her love for real estate at a very early age. Her good work ethic, resilience and determination resulted in her becoming an entrepreneur by seventeen and moving into her first home at twenty-one. She describes the huge personal cost to her health and wellbeing an...

David was born to eighteen-year-old drug addicts, in the UK, who did their best to provide for him and support him, while working through their addictions.  He achieved a Masters in Sports Science and later became his father’s carer until his death which devastated him, so he moved to Australia. He was unable to get a job in his field so manged an aquatic centre. He shares that about three ye...

Endre was born in Hungary and his story is based around healing the trauma of his toxic relationship with his father. He felt angry and unloved and a sense of worthlessness so powerful that in 2002 he moved to New Zealand dreaming of a new life. He describes the many challenges and rejection he experienced as an unskilled migrant without a work permit. Eventually he succeeded in finding work, but...

Josie Parata’s story is an inspirational and heart-breaking account of survival from domestic violence and cancer. She was a single mum of four young children when she moved out of her own victim and poverty mentalities, found her faith and began equipping the community to move forward in order to step into their best lives no matter what they are confronting in their lives. Biography Founder/CEO...

Phillip has a very simple but profound story. He holds the record at St Vincent’s Hospital for the most heart by passes in one operation when he was 51. This was a defining moment for him as he realised, he may not have much longer to live and needed to live every day for today. Twenty-two years later he is still here, and he is living his life with meaning mostly around helping others. His volunt...

This episode is a preview of the first episode in the new Kintsugi Heroes - Alpine Series Podcast available on podcast platforms and YouTube. What is the Alpine Series? The Black Summer fires in 2019/2020 were devastating in Victoria and around Australia. The ripples of the effects on the environment were catastrophic, but the trauma is still felt by the residents of the alpine region today. These...

Adam’s story begins with treatment at thirteen for depression. He attributes his later emotional issues to craving attention from his dad who suffered the same condition. Periods of work success then unemployment and financial losses lead to drinking and smoking weed. But meeting his wife and commission work improved things for him until the GFC. Family health issues, unresolved trauma and other p...

Naomi a psychotherapist located in Toronto, Canada. Her story is about her experience in the client's chair, why she was there and what that was like for her. Her second child was born with a severe brain injury and expected to die, but it took a long time. Her husband was having an affair and he left so she dealt with both traumas at once. Her recovery was slow and painful until she realised she...

Dean’s powerful story began with his addiction to drugs as a middle-class teenager initially following a football injury. He quickly moved on to heroin and petty crime which eventually led to a period of imprisonment for more serious offences. He describes his time in the criminal justice system and long-term battle with addiction in harrowing detail. His personal experience and observation of the...

Usman Sheikh’s family migrated from Pakistan to Canada. He describes their experiences as they navigate the migrant experience and how they were all shaped by their backgrounds and life experiences.  While his parents worked hard to sustain the family and provide education, he became involved with gangs and bad behaviour and finally dropped out of school behind their backs. Usman eventually r...