my journey to Meraki

Welcome to Meraki Mental Health Training!

Meraki has been a vision of mine since 2015, when I first began my journey in the mental health space. I was in my final year of high school and working as a volunteer at my local Headspace centre. I was seeing the severity and impact of mental illness on so many around me, including the most important people in my life, but I was also seeing the positive impact of my volunteer work. This all fuelled my desire to make a real difference in the world of mental health services and advocacy.

Around that same time, I was preparing to enrol in university and start my career in public relations. I could picture it all in my head; working for big companies, attending corporate events, living the life of PR glam that I was seeing everywhere on social media. And yet, not long after I started studying, I realised that this was not the right path for me. My heart was somewhere else.

I decided that I was going to go all in and spend my life being an advocate for mental health and support. I was going to educate communities, encourage those who were struggling to seek support, and shed light on a topic that has been misunderstood for far too long.

Over the last six years, I have had the joy and privilege of working in community engagement roles - educating students, teachers, sporting groups, and other organisations - and gaining extensive experience in mental health training.

It dawned on me that it was time to take a leap of faith and embark on the next stage of my journey. While I was considering my next move, I came across a beautiful Greek word: Meraki. It means: to do something with soul, creativity, or love; the essence of yourself that you put into your work. It fit my future like a glove.

As a society, we have come a long way in recognising the existence and general impact of mental health issues. However, awareness alone simply isn’t enough. We’re in desperate need of quality education and training for mental illness, wellness, and how to support our communities in hard times. We are all susceptible to feeling low, losing focus, and slipping through the cracks.

Meraki Mental Health Training was created out of necessity to fill these gaps.

We’re paving the way for conversations around mental health to be normalised and encouraged. We want to see a world where you talk about how you’re feeling like you talk about what you did today, because really - what’s the difference between a headache and a heartache? 

So, we’re growing the collective capacity for mental wellbeing by equipping, educating and empowering communities. We believe in the ripple effect, and we know that turning everyday people into agents of change is the best way to save lives.  

What started out as a high schooler’s dream has now blossomed into a passion and career, and I am so excited to share my Meraki with you!

Today we are one of Australia’s leading mental health first aid training providers, trusted by hundreds of individuals, organisations, businesses and community groups.

Will you join us in putting mental wellbeing on the table?