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About Linda
Welcome to Brisbane, Australia - coffee in hand, chocolate close by, Netflix on standby or a book close at hand, and a Manx cat named Sylvan keeping watch.
I’m a mum to three incredible adults - Joshua, Chloe and Nicholas - and Mimi (Nanna) to one very loved granddaughter, Rose.
Family is my why every single day. I wanted my kids to grow up in a different story - one where love and safety weren’t earned by perfection, but felt in the bones. That meant breaking the patterns that had lived in my family for generations.
These days, I feel like I've become a Professional Brain Untangler - because that’s literally what it took to reclaim my life. I now teach globally through accredited CPtsd recovery courses and a certification program that helps others do the same - build the brain’s capacity for connection, integration and real freedom as I genuinely want no one else to suffer as long as I did without any answers.
Toxic Stress
When my health and happiness kept falling apart, I needed answers.
Doctors ran tests, psychologists gave labels or outright dismissed me as doing better than 98% of their other patients so I'll be just fine, and I tried every personal-development trick in the book. But nothing stuck.
I developed and taught My Authentic Self which helped me to connect with who I am, as opposed to who I had to be growing up in my family, and gave me the ability to keep taking one next step into my future.
During this time I also suffered from severe anxiety and panic attacks that resembled mini seizures, and no one had answers. I had other health challenges that also didn't have answers, and it was so frustrating.
What I didn’t know back then was that toxic stress had been living rent-free in my brain and body for decades - shaping every reaction, every health crash, every “why can’t I just hold it together?” moment and each decision I made in my life.
Toxic stress happens when the brain’s stress systems stay in overdrive for too long - without enough safety, care, or connection to bring things back to calm.
When that happens, the brain adapts to survive and the body begins to carry the cost. Complex Ptsd is the brain doing its best to protect you long after the danger has passed.
And like so many others, I had no idea that’s what was running my life.
The Breaking Point
From the outside, I had everything together - three beautiful kids, a business, a home, and a smile that said “I’m fine.” Inside, I was running on fumes.
Trauma doesn’t care how strong you are; it cares how much your brain can carry. I grew up in a home marked by physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, psychological abuse, emotional neglect and the silent chaos of generations who never got to heal.
By my late 30s, my health began to implode significantly. Where once my periods were regular, they became disregular and heavy. This culminated in a hysterectomy mid 40's after trying all the other usual recommendations. Migraines that morphine couldn’t touch.. Anxiety that had me questioning why can't I just get it together like any other adult?
I swore I’d break the pattern - but instead, through medical mismanagement plus being overdosed on medication for labels that weren't the truth, my brain broke.
Two and a half years bedridden, unable to walk, talk, bathe or feed myself. I went from running a family to needing a full-time carer - and no one could tell me why.
The truth? My brain was waving a white flag. Years of unprocessed trauma had overloaded every system. My survival brain had taken full control, and it was shutting the body down to protect what was left.
Recovery with one Next Step
The turning point came when I realised there was language for what had happened to me in my childhood, and what my intergenerational family had handed down. Trauma. Complex Trauma. Childhood Developmental Trauma.
I studied. A lot. First Counselling, then Trauma Coaching, then the neuroscience of childhood developmental trauma. The neuroscience put together all the pieces of why My Authentic Self worked AND gave me the insights I need to start to develop ways to help the brain recover from Childhood Developmental Trauma and the Intergenerational Trauma.
As I learned to re-engage my Prefrontal Cortex - the logic and regulation centre of the brain - I began to reconnect my brain from the inside out. The anxiety receded, and stopped in time. My body stopped living on emergency power. I could think again. Feel again. Parent again.
That journey became the foundation for what is now NeuroSynqt™ - a trauma-trained, brain-based, experiential approach to recovery. It’s not about “regulating the nervous system.”
It’s about re-connecting the brain pathways so that integration - and eventually peace - becomes possible.
Breakthrough
May 2023 - the month I finally exhaled. After decades of study, growth, grief and persistence, my brain integrated. I no longer lived in survival.
The first few months were surreal. Colours looked brighter. Music felt richer. I could hold joy without it flipping into exhaustion or shutdown.
For the first time since childhood, I felt safe inside my own body.
There were tears - relief, grief, gratitude - all mixed into one long, soul-deep sigh. After a lifetime of working to be okay, I finally was.
But Wait, There’s More
Just when I thought the recovery story was finished, my brain handed me another chapter.
After integration, I began noticing new patterns - brain fog, fatigue, bursts of working followed by crashes. It wasn’t trauma anymore. It was something else. For 3 years I'd been trying to get into see an ADHD specialist with no success. In the July of 2024 a friend told me about a fantastic ADHD specialist in our area. I got in.
In November 2024, I was diagnosed with ADHD - the part of my neurodivergence that had been buried under survival for years. I had been diagnosed with ASD 9 years prior, but the specialist said there was no point in me going for further testing as I managed my life well. That extra testing could have saved me another brain meltdown. It's taken nearly 1 whle year to regain capacity, again.
And Then, More was Revealed
I've researched, and discovered, Autonomic Shutdown. I've discussed it with my specialist and am currently working towards teaching the brain I'm safe to move. It's a complex process as the part of the brain that's remained stuck on survival mode is deep in the brain. However, I am winning the battle, slowly, but surely.
Today: Living, Leading, and Loving Fully
Today, I live CPtsd-free, ASD/ADHD aware, and deeply grateful for the brain that once tried to save me in all the wrong ways.
Life is rich and imperfect - full of laughter, long drives, late-night creative bursts, and spontaneous “Mimi adventures” with Rose. I still have chocolate in one hand and coffee in the other - some things are sacred.
But mostly, I have capacity. To write. To teach. To build global education for others who don’t have 17 years to wait for the system to catch up.
You don’t have to wait either. You can learn the science of your own brain, take your one next step, and begin the same journey - from surviving, to integrating, to thriving.
Because trust me - there is more.
More life. More peace. More joy.
And I’m here for all of it.
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