Heart On My Sleeve

When pain is invisible, so is the understanding. In this raw and heartfelt conversation, Michaela Overman sits down with her best friend Emily.

Emily’s pain didn’t show up on scans — until it did. One of just 20 people globally with both cyclical Cushing’s and acromegaly, she shares the years of “it’s all in your head,” the friendships stretched thin, the surgery that changed everything, and what healing really looks like after.

Th...

Leadership is often measured by targets and strategy - but the real story is human. In this Heart On My Sleeve episode, KPMG Australia’s National Managing Partner for People & Inclusion Dorothy Hisgrove opens up about the moments that reshaped her leadership: grief, self-reflection, and the courage to prioritise both results and wellbeing. We explore the gendered expectations on women leaders, how psychological safety unlocks h...

Mitch sits down with lifelong friend Ash Thomsen for a raw, generous account of her son Bodhi’s birth - and the identity shift that followed. Ash shares how a gruelling 36-hour labour, medical complications, and postpartum anxiety/depression culminated in PTSD, and how she found her way back through support, medication, CBT, and especially EMDR - the trauma therapy that helped turn a terrifying event into a tolerable memory.

They t...

Interior designer Anna Carin joins host Michaela Overman for a tender, honest conversation about living with both beauty and pain at the same time. Raised on a Swedish farm and now three decades in Australia, Anna shares how a single incident of childhood sexual abuse (content note) shaped her relationship with shame, intimacy, control, and creativity —and how her lifelong “pursuit of beauty” became both refuge and expression.

She ...

In this deeply personal episode of Heart on My Sleeve, Luke Cook sits down with neuro-transformational coach and keynote speaker Nerissa Trindade to explore the heartbreak that doesn't come with a funeral but still requires mourning - separation and divorce from those we thought we'd be with forever.

Both hosts share their parallel journeys through relationship breakdown, discussing the power of surrendering not as defea...

This week on the Heart on My Sleeve podcast, Mitch Wallis sits down with NSW MP Adam Crouch for a raw and deeply moving conversation about love, loss, and resilience.

After losing his wife Jill—an oncology nurse who cared for others while bravely fighting her own battle with cancer—Adam shares the realities of grief, the weight of supporting a partner through terminal illness, and the importance of community, vulnerability, and hon...

In this episode, Michaela Overman sits down with Gavin Fingelson - former professional baseball player, father of two, and CEO of Feel the Magic.

Gavin shares his journey of navigating deep personal loss from a young age, the lessons baseball taught him about failure and resilience, and how vulnerability and communication became his anchors.

From growing up in South Africa to representing Australia on the world stage, Gavin reflect...

When lawyer and mum Sarah Susak was told she had a rare - and deadly - cancer just a year after the birth of her “miracle baby,” her world cracked. In this uncompromising conversation, she takes us through surgery, grief, and the path of spiritual rebirth that followed. Sarah shares how Vedic meditation, ancestral wisdom, and radical acceptance helped her heal more than her body - they healed her identity. This episode is a testame...

In one of our most raw and powerful episodes to date, I sit down with my dear friend Zoe Marshall - TV presenter, author, manifester, podcast host, and mental health advocate - for an unfiltered conversation about her journey through Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Together, we peel back the layers of what it's really like to live with intrusive thoughts, compulsions, and the mental gymnastics of emetophobia (fear of vomit)...

Dani Lombard - PR powerhouse, unapologetic truth-teller, and lifelong “friend collector” - joins psychologist and HOMS clinical director Michaela Overman for her first-ever podcast appearance. But this isn’t about publicity. It’s about pulling the curtain back.

In this raw and revealing conversation, Dani shares the story she’s never told publicly - her decades-long journey with anxiety, panic attacks, and the shame she carried behi...

What happens when the mask you've worn your whole life finally falls off?

In this moving episode of The Heart On My Sleeve Podcast, host Lainie Cassidy sits down with Aisling Smith – internationally recognised neurodiversity consultant, Stevie Award winner, and Trainer of the Year – for a raw, vulnerable conversation about living, parenting, and thriving as a late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD woman.

From growing up in rural Ireland un...

What happens when your body breaks... but it's your soul that needs healing?

In this raw and powerful conversation, Tess Brouwer shares the story behind her life-altering spinal cord injury that forced her to stop running from pain, from grief, from herself. Tess, a mental fitness trainer and co-founder of Awake Academy, opens up about the unspoken traumas she buried for decades - from childhood instability to losing her teenage...

At 17 weeks pregnant with triplets, Ashleigh Conwell’s life changed forever when her husband Matt passed away suddenly during the height of the pandemic. In this raw and profoundly moving conversation with host Luke Cook, Ashleigh opens up about the identity shift that followed, the brutal reality of solo parenting through grief, and the quiet resilience it takes to keep showing up.

From collapsing on the pavement in shock to rising...

If you’ve ever struggled to slow down, to feel proud, or to say “I’m enough,” this episode is a must-listen.We often see the hustle. The 3am alarms. The shredded physique. The front covers and product launches. But what we rarely see is the cost behind the curtain. In this raw and revealing episode, Heart On My Sleeve Clinical Director Michaela Overman sits down with celebrity trainer and gym owner Jono Castano to explore the emoti...

In episode 53, Mitch Wallis speaks to Dr Tony Mastroianni, a psychiatrist with over 30 years' experience in clinical practice. Tony specialises in the treatment of ADHD and schizophrenia, and is the founder of the Focalength Method™, a holistic approach to treatment that takes a 360 view of a person in order to help them get well, and stay well.

This episode covers:

• Moving medicine away from diagnosis towards a holis...

In episode 52, Mitch Wallis speaks to Maddy MacRae, a comedy creator who exploded onto the scene during lockdown with her hilarious and relatable skits about sex, dating and everything in-between. We go deep and explore previously untouched topics such as her mental health journey, her sexuality and the reality of life online.

This episode covers:

• rising quickly to online success but struggling internally
• her experience...

In episode 51, Mitch Wallis speaks to Gaj, a highly sought-after performance coach recognized for his effective leadership training techniques and passion for helping clients reach higher potential. For over 20 years, Gaj has worked with leading organizations and individuals to enhance productivity, maximize performance, and accelerate growth. As a Registered psychologist, Gaj leans on his psychology training to deliver the most ef...

Sonny Jane is a multi-neurodivergent, queer, and disabled public speaker, advocate, and author with a strong social media presence. Sonny was diagnosed as a child and grew up only hearing a deficit narrative about their neurodivergence. Since then, they have gone on to build an audience of over 100,000 people online, have written ‘The Neurodivergent Friendly Workbook of DBT Skills’, and works with organisations all over Australia t...

This episode comes with a trigger warning of domestic violence.

In episode 49, Mitch Wallis speaks to Jacinta Dubojski who is the creator and founder of Just Another GIRL, an initiative designed to inspire and empower students by arming them with the tools to navigate difficult situations; such as bullying, and domestic violence, both of which are experiences that she's survived. Jacinta is a big believer in sharing storie...