about nova — the mindtonic
I've sat where you are now
But I was too stubborn to ask for help
Executive Wellbeing & Performance Coaching. Former global finance executive.
The person who learned the hard way, there are some things you can't spreadsheet your way through.
Nova works primarily with two groups: high-achieving executives and professionals experiencing burnout, and carers managing the dual pressure of a demanding career alongside a family member’s chronic health needs.
Sessions are available in-person at East Melbourne and online across Australia.
THE CAREER
Built for high performance
Survived on cortisol and caffeine
For most of my adult life, I measured myself based on performance.
A finance career spanning investment banking in London to senior executive roles in Australia — treasury dealer, investor relations, equity analyst, global companies.
I was good at it. I was reliable, analytical and the problem solver. I knew how to read balance sheets and make rich people richer. I knew how to keep moving.
What I didn’t know was that I had habitually built a life around proving something. To my parents, who had sacrificed everything so I could have opportunities they never had. To my industry, where credibility was currency. To myself, because stopping would feel like redundancy (without the big payout).
“I wasn’t falling apart. I was just becoming average at everything, being a mother, colleague, friend and partner. For someone whose identity was built on performance, it felt like failure.”
THE REAL WHY
Life handed me something I couldn't diarise
People assume I changed careers to mindset and hypnotherapy because I burned out at work. That’s part of it. But the real reason is harder and more human than that.
Several things happened in close succession. My mother passed away. Being left with no surviving parents went the identity that was making them proud.
Then came a diagnosis of not one but two chronic health conditions for someone I love, the kind that hits you hard out of nowhere. When the medical specialists advise your loved one will need medication for life and recommend you stay healthy in case you are a matching organ doner changes everything quietly and permanently without an invite.
I found myself sitting in hospital waiting rooms on work days, on Board calls, holding everything together in public, tears streaming down on the drive home.
I’d have platinum membership if I received frequent flyer points for every hospital visit, whilst pretending everything was fine.
Managing a career. Managing a family. Managing the fear of a future you cannot put in your calendar. Managing Director of nothing.
Finally a silly bike accident resulting with concussion forcing six weeks of physical stillness on a brain that hadn’t rested for many years. And yet, whilst bed bound, I still dialled into every work call and answered every email.
That is not burnout but something heavier. I didn’t know how to ask for help because it’s never been how I operated. I was always the one helping others.
“I found myself sitting in hospital waiting rooms on work days, on Board calls, holding everything together in public, tears streaming down on the drive home.”
THE CHANGE
When forced to stop I found something unexpected
The often say things come in “threes”. This was the third awful event.
Six weeks of enforced rest due to my accident finally forced me to stop. Not by choice but by need to recover.
Initially, it felt mentally uncomfortable and foreign. However, in those moments of quiet, I had an opportunity to reflect.
At first, my thoughts were “how do I get back to where I was as soon as possible?”. It then turned to “why was I doing all this and was it really worth it?” especially if I need to remain healthy as a potential organ doner.
That inquiry led me, unexpectedly, to hypnotherapy. I came to it as a sceptic. I had an economics degree. a professional accounting qualification and a long career in finance. I had assumed hypnotists made people cluck like chickens and embarrassed them on stage. What changed my mind was a conversation with a top gastroenterologist who used hypnotherapy with her patients managing IBS, and who had the peer-reviewed research to back it up. My analytical brain needed that. Once I had it, I went deep.
I trained extensively through the Australian Academy of Hypnosis and with some of the most respected practitioners working today, including Melissa Tiers (New York), whose work on the neuroscience of habit and pain fundamentally shaped how I understand and practise this work. I continue to invest in ongoing professional development with some of the current leading international hypnotherapists.
I created The MindTonic because I wanted to offer what I had needed and couldn’t find: someone who understood the feeling of high performance and the cost of living inside it for too long.
WHO I WORK WITH
Two kinds of exhausted
Tailored integrative change work
My clients tend to fall into two groups — and sometimes they are the same person.
The first is the high-achieving professional whose pressure is largely self-generated: the executive, the entrepreneur, the career-driven person for whom performance is identity. They function well in public. They are the last person anyone would guess is struggling. They have tried the strategies, the apps, the exercise, the time management and none of it touches the thing underneath.
The second is the carer. The person simultaneously managing a demanding career and an ageing parent’s needs, or a child’s complex diagnosis, or both. The person who has become so capable at holding everything together that nobody, including them, has stopped to ask what it is costing mentally, physically and emotionally. The person who never chose this pressure; it arrived, and they simply absorbed it, because that’s what you do.
Both are exhausted. Both have lost contact with who they are outside of what they’re managing. And for both, the change that actually shifts something happens not at the surface, not with better conscious thoughts or different thinking, but at the level where the habituated pattern was formed. That is the work I do.
WHAT CLIENTS SAY
“As I didn’t have to talk about painful things. This helped me because I didn’t have to worry about being judged in any way.”
Ex-British Army Officer
“Initially skeptical of the effectiveness of such sessions, I was so pleased by the significant impact after just one session.”
Company Director
“It was great working with Nova! I haven’t been this pain free in a very long time!”
Entreprenuer
TRAINING & CREDENTIALS
The work behind the work
I have invested heavily in training because I believe that clinical credibility is not optional, it is the foundation of trust. And trust is everything in this work.
Advanced Diploma Clinical Hypnotherapy
Australian Academy of Hypnosis – including traditional hypnosis and mesmerism under Rick Collingwood.
Integrative Hypnosis Training with Melissa Tiers
New York – neuroscience of habit change and chronic pain; one of the most respected voices in contemporary hypnotherapy.
Ongoing Professional Development
Continuing education with leading international hypnotherapy practitioners, evidence-informed practice only.
Corporate Background
Investment banking London, investor relations Australia. I’ve experienced the environment, pressure and expectations. View career history in LinkedIn.
Group Facilitation
Mindset and wellness in-person workshops with up to 60 attendees across Victoria.
East Melbourne Clinic & Online
In-person sessions East Melbourne. Online sessions across Australia and internationally.
If something here
feels familiar
That recognition is worth the call. A 15 minute conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Executives & Carers. East Melbounre & Online. No obligation