THRIVING MINDS PODCAST

The podcast episode featured a conversation with Professor Sharon Lawn about mental health systems, lived experience, and the importance of humanising care for individuals with mental health challenges. 
We discuss the need for more person-centered, compassionate approaches in mental health services and the value of incorporating lived experience perspectives into research, policy, and practice. The conversation emphasized the significance of community support, everyday acts of kindness, and treating individuals with dignity beyond their diagnoses to transform mental health care systems.
Sharon covered several key topics:
Personal and Professional Background
Sharon's journey shaped by rural upbringing, family openness about mental health, and early career experiences working with veterans at a psychiatric hospital
Her observational approach to understanding mental health systems and power dynamics
Lived Experience in Mental Health
Definition and importance of lived experience work in valuing individuals' perspectives
How to intentionally use lived experience to create understanding and humanize mental health services
Challenges of incorporating lived experience safely and effectively in professional contexts
Dehumanisation and Systemic Issues
The contrast between seeing people as humans versus focusing solely on diagnoses and symptoms
Problems with impersonal language, labeling, and assumptions in mental health care
How systems deflect responsibility by labeling patients as "non-compliant" or "too complex"
Transforming Mental Health Services
The need for services to reach people in their own spaces rather than requiring them to seek help
Importance of person-centered, proactive approaches versus crisis-driven systems
Value of both formal and informal support systems, including community organizations
Humanisation and Connection
Practical ways to show compassion through everyday acts like using people's names, bringing flowers to hospital visits
The significance of small human connections and being seen
Building community through simple gestures of kindness and acknowledgment
Based on the meeting discussion, Sharon Lawn recommends several specific changes for mental health systems:
Shift from Crisis-Driven to Proactive Care
Services should reach out to people in their own spaces rather than requiring them to seek help
Move away from reactive, crisis-driven approaches to more accessible, preventive care
Humanise and Personalise Services
Use people's names and treat them with dignity and respect
See individuals beyond their labels and diagnoses, recognizing their strengths and skills
Stop using impersonal language and dehumanizing practices
Incorporate Lived Experience
Increase representation of people with lived experience in the workforce
Value and integrate lived experience perspectives into research, policy, and practice at every level
Create safe spaces for people to share their experiences without reducing them to mere "performances"
Respect Autonomy and Rights
Recognize individuals' autonomy and human rights in treatment settings
Stop deflecting responsibility by labeling patients as "non-compliant" or "too complex"
Integrate Formal and Informal Support
Recognize the value of both professional services and community-based organizations run by people with lived experience
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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

Episode #207 marks a moment of deep gratitude and reflection. In this special episode, I look back on the journey that shaped Thriving Minds from the early days of questioning how the brain works, through decades of neuroscience, to the new era we are stepping into together.
This episode explores how early life experiences shape the nervous system, why connection is a biological regulator, and how compassion, presence and daily habits drive real neuroplastic change and where AI and digital technologies will transform how we detect anxiety, personalise support, and understand the social brain, while reminding us that healing will always come from human connection.
We close the episode with the key takeaways from 2025—lessons to carry forward:
Connection is medicine. Our brains regulate each other; synchrony is measurable and essential.
Healing is relational. Being seen, understood and met with compassion changes the brain.
Neuroplasticity is always possible. Small, consistent actions reshape circuits across the lifespan.
ACEs matter, but they are not destiny. With awareness and support, resilience can be built at any age.
Digital life must be redesigned for wellbeing. AI can enhance support—but human presence is irreplaceable.
We are each other’s environment. The communities we build shape the next three generations.
A hopeful, science-grounded blueprint for anyone seeking resilience, clarity and a future built on seeing and supporting one another as we close out 2025.
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2025 has felt like a turning point.
Across this year’s Thriving Minds conversations—from brain health and dementia, to stress, team flow, near-death experiences, and the “neuroscience of two”—one message keeps rising to the surface:
We are only just beginning to understand how powerful we are for each other’s brains.
In this special reflection episode, I explore what we learned in 2025 and where Thriving Minds is heading next, at the intersection of neuroscience, healing, neuroplasticity and community.
We dive into the major shifts reshaping neuroscience today:
 • The move from snapshots to living, dynamic brains, made possible by new imaging and genomic tools.
 • The neuroscience of two (and many) with insights from Dr Joy Hirsch on interbrain synchrony and why being in the same room matters.
 • Bioelectricity, fields and consciousness, inspired by conversations with Dr Bruce Greyson on near-death experiences.
 • A “middle way” that unites rigorous science with lived experience, trauma, recovery and human stories.
We discuss how healing is changing—from a symptom-focused view to a relational, systemic model—where early life experiences shape the nervous system, and being truly seen becomes a biological event that calms and connects the brain.
We revisit practical lessons in neuroplasticity and resilience: small daily actions that build new habits, strategies that strengthen the prefrontal cortex, and a shift from deficits to capacity—especially important in ageing, dementia and mental health.
And we explore the powerful truth revealed again and again this year:
 Community is part of our neurobiology.
 Humans regulate each other. Team flow, synchrony, compassion and presence activate brain networks that cannot be accessed alone or online.
Finally, we look ahead to the future of Thriving Minds:
 bringing connection neuroscience into real-world settings, designing homes, schools and workplaces aligned with what we now know about the brain, and continuing to build a bridge between science and lived experience.
If these ideas resonate, subscribe to the Thriving Minds podcast and join the growing community working toward a more hopeful, brain-wise future.
We change our brains—and each other’s—every day.
 The opportunity for the next decade is to do it consciously, together.
#ConnectionNeuroscience #ThrivingMinds #Neuroscience2026 #BrainHealth #HumanConnection #InterbrainSynchrony #Neuroplasticity #CollectiveIntelligence #CommunityHealing #RelationalNeuroscience
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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

Thriving Minds Podcast Deep Dive: Building a Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Team Hosted by Professor Selena Bartlett
Expert: Feather Berkower, Author of Off Limits: A Parent’s Guide to Keeping Kids Safe from Sexual Abuse
The top 5 things to keep children safe in the digital age.
Feather challenges the outdated belief that children should be responsible for protecting themselves. Instead, she empowers adults to take charge by building what she calls a “Prevention Team.” This team includes everyone in your child’s world—teachers, coaches, grandparents, babysitters—and sets clear boundaries and safety rules that deter potential offenders before they ever gain access.
It is the small, brave conversations that can make a lifelong difference. From teaching kids the difference between secrets and surprises, to addressing online grooming and exposure to pornography, Feather shows how open, honest, and continuous dialogue is the most powerful protection tool we have.
Top 5 Takeaways for Parents
Adults are responsible, not children, for preventing abuse.
Talk, talk, talk—and don’t stop talking about body safety.
Build your Prevention Team by having explicit boundary conversations with anyone who cares for your child.
Discomfort is protective—feeling awkward now prevents trauma later.
Use practical tools like Off Limits and Feather’s Conversation Starter Cards to begin these vital discussions today.
This episode will leave you informed, empowered, and ready to create a safer world for children—one conversation at a time.
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Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com

Neuroscience now shows us that human connection changes the brain.

Walking high above the forest floor on the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk in Western Australia, I felt what real strength looks like.
The giant tingle trees reach for the light, but their power doesn’t come from standing alone. Under the soil, their roots and fungi form a living web, sharing water, nutrients, and information. Each tree depends on the health of the whole forest.
That is what thriving organisations do too.

Leadership as Connection

After that walk, I gave a presentation at the Optus Stadium to early childhood educators, as part of the Child Australia conference. They reminded me that leadership isn’t about control. It’s about creating the right conditions for others to grow.
They help children learn through safety, play, and connection. They build trust first, then learning follows.
It’s the same in every organisation. When people feel safe, supported, and seen, they do their best work.
Leadership is no different. It’s not about control, it’s about connection. When people feel seen and supported, they bring their best ideas forward. When leaders make space for visibility, empathy, and trust, the whole system begins to flow.
A healthy organisation works like an ecosystem: it doesn’t rely on one strong trunk, but on many connected roots.
Leaders who create these conditions don’t need to push growth, it happens naturally. Like the forest, their teams become alive with creativity and flow.
“Raising children is an art. It’s about creating the conditions that allow them to thrive as their unique selves" 

When people feel seen, their stress circuits quiet down, and the brain’s higher networks — for creativity, empathy, and problem-solving turn on. That’s how safety becomes innovation.

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Creating Conditions for Flow

Walking among those ancient trees reminded me that growth doesn’t come from control. You can’t force a tree to grow, and you can only create the right light, water, and soil.
Leadership works the same way. Our role is to build the conditions where people feel trusted and visible. When they do, they begin to synchronise, share ideas, and thrive together.
This happens in great conversations, in creative teams, and in organisations where leaders listen more than they direct. The result? Collective intelligence. Decisions become faster, ideas flow freely, and people feel energised rather than exhausted. Most importantly people feel free to say where there are problems and why the idea might fail.
Boundaries protect us. But being seen transforms us.
Read Visible: Rewiring Your Brain for Love, Resilience, and the Courage to Be Seen
https://www.amazon.com.au/VISIBLE-Rewiring-Brain-Resilience-Courage/dp/0999099744

Support the show
Subscribe and support the podcast at
https://www.buzzsprout.com/367319/supporters/new
Learn more at www.profselenabartlett.com