Therapists Rising Podcast

Picture a physio who launched her first online program with seven people enrolled. Six of whom she already knew personally. A sales page with no checkout connected. A program she hadn't finished recording yet. That was Vicky Stewart's launch one. Her most recent launch just crossed six figures. Today's guest, Dr. Vicky Stewart, is a vestibular physiotherapist who spent years watchin...

Picture a psychologist with 25 years in perinatal mental health — burned out from holding space for loss and trauma for decades. She needed something that was just hers. No clinical notes, no disclosure risk, no empathy fatigue. She chose floristry. And then her perinatal colleagues found out. And asked her to bring it to conferences. Then to teach it online. Now she has a waiting list of clinicia...

Picture a corporate wellness landscape where companies are tired of boring PowerPoint workshops but also can't justify wine tastings when burnout is a WHS compliance issue. There's a gap there. A big one. And what if you could fill it? Today's guest, Dr. Mitzi Liddle, is doing exactly that. She's teaching corporations about play and pleasure - yes, you read that right - as nerv...

You've got the notebook. The voice memos. The Google Doc titled "possible program ideas" you haven't opened in weeks. You're not short on ideas. You're drowning in reasonable options. And somehow that feels worse than having no ideas at all. Because when you're stuck with multiple good directions and still can't get traction, it starts to feel like a you pro...

For 12 months, I've been warning you the traditional therapy model is breaking down. Some of you have been listening. But many have been waiting for clarity. Here's what you need to hear: The last eight weeks changed everything. November 2025: Australia restricted Better Access referrals. December 2025: Fifth consecutive year of US Medicare cuts. January 30, 2026: US telehealth flexibili...

Let's talk about passive income, and NO, this isn't another "make money while you sleep" pitch. This conversation with Kayla Das is the most honest, transparent take on passive income for therapists I've heard in a LONG time. Kayla's a Canadian social worker, business coach, author of The Passive Practice , and someone who's actually DONE this work. She's bu...

I've been noticing this pattern with the therapists I work with. Incredibly capable people with clear ideas for what they want to build - programs, offerings, shifts in their practice. They can describe it in detail. But when I ask what's stopping them, the answer is always some version of "I'm stuck." In this episode, I'm not giving you productivity tips or telling y...

Everyone's doing planning episodes right now. Goal-setting frameworks, vision boards, annual reviews - and those resources are great. But here's what I think most people are skipping: the single piece of clarity that actually makes planning work. I just came back from two weeks completely offline (forced digital detox courtesy of terrible cruise internet). And while I was offline, one qu...

If you've ever headed into a break thinking "I'll finally catch up on everything," only to feel guilty the entire time—this episode is for you. Dr. Hayley Kelly breaks down why the pressure to be productive over holidays backfires, and gives you a practical framework to actually rest (or maintain minimal momentum) without the guilt. This is the final Therapists Rising episode b...

If you've ever felt unsafe speaking up, shrunk your practice to avoid regulatory scrutiny, or wondered if the system designed to protect you is actually harming you—this conversation will validate everything you've been feeling but haven't said out loud. I'm speaking with Dr. Julie Sladden, a medical doctor, writer, and advocate who walked away from clinical practice, handed in...

If you’ve ever ended the year thinking, “Why didn’t I get to my program?” or “How am I still drowning in clients?”, this episode is basically a loving intervention. Therapists don’t miss their goals because they’re unmotivated — they miss them because the system trains them to prioritise everyone else first. So their dream project becomes the “neglected child” of the business. Loved, wanted… alway...

If you've ever thought "scaling means selling out" or "growing a team means burning out," Dr. Catherine Hart is about to prove you wrong. She's built a 35-person psychology practice across five sites with a salaried employment model that actually retains clinicians—and she did it by breaking every rule. In this episode, I'm talking with Dr. Catherine Hart, clinic...

If your business feels like it's draining you instead of filling you up, you're probably recreating the same patterns from therapy practice that burned you out in the first place. The endless availability, saying yes to everyone, undercharging out of guilt, and the resentment that builds when you're trying to be generous but running on empty. In this episode, I'm breaking down...

"You just need more self-care." That's what I kept hearing when I was burnt out, seeing 30+ clients a week, barely breaking even. I tried bath bombs, meditation apps, yoga breaks. None of it worked. Because the problem wasn't my self-care routine. It was the business model. In this episode, I'm dismantling the 7 lies that keep therapists overworked, underpaid, and stuck in...

For 12 months, I’ve been sober, and until a recent doctor’s appointment, I’d completely forgotten. No countdown. No recovery story. No before-and-after moment. Just life, without alcohol. When my doctor asked, “None? Not even socially?” and looked at me like I’d just confessed a crime, something clicked. His disbelief wasn’t about alcohol — it was about the quiet pressure we all feel to play along...

In this episode, I'm tackling one of the biggest fears holding therapists back from building sustainable online practices: the terror of being "too salesy." If you've ever frozen at the end of a webinar, mumbled through your offer, or avoided pitching your program altogether because you're worried about pressuring people who've already been through so much — this epis...

After losing her teenage son Ethan to T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, psychologist Kimberly Stevens faced the unthinkable — and chose to transform her grief into something that would help thousands of others. In this conversation, Kimberly shares the story behind Kids Connecting Parents , an app she created to help bereaved parents find local, peer-based connection and support when professio...

For 230 episodes, I've referenced my "kitchen floor moment" without telling you the full story. After interviewing psychologist Kimberly Stevens about transforming her grief into purpose, I realized: if I'm asking therapists to be brave enough to step outside broken systems, I need to be brave enough to tell you why it matters so much to me. This is the story of my suicide atte...

In this episode, I'm sitting down with Professor Nick Titov—a giant in digital mental health and founder of MindSpot, Australia's leading digital psychology service that has reached over 250,000 Australians. If you've ever wondered whether therapy has to look the way it's always looked, this conversation will shake up everything you thought you knew. Nick isn't just innova...

In this episode, I’m sitting down with the bold, brilliant, and whip-smart Laura Lee - a psychologist, sexologist, coach, and the founder of Blue Space Psychology - to dive into what it actually takes to talk about sex online as a regulated health professional. Laura’s work lives at the intersection of mental health, sex, and relationships. And let’s just say, that combo can light up the AHPRA ris...

In this episode, I’m sitting down with Alice Ayliffe and Elise Cassidy — two incredible therapists and Incubator graduates — to explore what it really looks like to move beyond the 1:1 model and create programs that change lives. If you’ve ever wondered, Where do I even start? Will anyone want what I create? What if I get it wrong? — this conversation is for you. Alice is an occupational therapist...

In this episode, I'm sitting down with Dr. Sam Casey, founder of the Play Prescription Method, to explore one of the most common challenges therapists face: having an encyclopedia of knowledge but feeling completely stuck when it comes to packaging it into something teachable. If you've ever felt paralysed by your own expertise, this conversation is for you. Sam had a PhD, extensive rese...

In this episode, I’m breaking down one of the most frustrating realities therapists face when trying to build online programs: traditional business advice simply doesn’t work for us. You’ve probably felt it — you join a business webinar or invest in a coaching program, and halfway through you realise: this doesn’t fit. The strategies feel pushy, unsafe, or completely out of alignment with your cli...

In this episode, I’m talking about one of the most painful myths therapists buy into: the belief that your only options are to keep grinding in 1:1 sessions until you collapse, or burn your practice down and walk away completely. Maybe you’ve felt it too — cancelling family dinners because of client demand, fantasising about a “normal” 9–5 job, or even Googling “alternative careers for therapists”...

In this episode, I'm talking about the invisible wall that stops most therapists from turning their brilliant program ideas into actual programs. You know the one - you've got this amazing concept that could genuinely help people, but every time you sit down to build it, you just... stare at the screen. Most therapists think this gap exists because they don't know enough or aren&apo...