How I Pivoted My Career Twice

From the outside, my career can look quite linear.

Behavioural science → psychotherapy → business owner → mentor.

But the reality is that my path has been shaped by two major career pivots — both driven by the same realisation: I couldn’t keep working in environments that felt inefficient, toxic, or misaligned with the kind of impact I wanted to have.

Those moments of discomfort ultimately pushed me to create work that is more ethical, holistic, and aligned with my values.

My First Career Pivot After My Behavioural Science Degree

In 2017, after completing my Behavioural Science degree, I stepped into the workforce expecting to begin a meaningful career helping people.

Like many graduates, I believed traditional employment would provide the experience, structure, and mentorship I needed.

Instead, I quickly realised the environment was not what I had hoped for.

The systems were often inefficient and restrictive, making it difficult to deliver the kind of thoughtful, human-centred support that initially drew me to the field. At times the culture felt toxic, unprofessional, and ethically uncomfortable, and I began to see how these environments could impact both practitioners and clients.

I found myself feeling increasingly frustrated.

Not because I didn’t love the work — but because I cared deeply about doing it well.

I remember thinking: this can’t be the only way this work can exist.

That moment sparked my first pivot.

Instead of continuing down a path that felt misaligned, I created The Meet Up Collective — a first of its kind educational wellbeing program that met the needs of thousands of students across Australia through holistic mentoring, tuition and homeschooling.

It was the first time I experienced what it felt like to build something from the ground up that truly reflected my values.

And it planted the seed that maybe I didn’t have to fit into existing systems — maybe I could create better ones.

My Second Pivot After Becoming a Psychotherapist

A few years later, after completing my Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy, I entered employment again with renewed optimism.

I hoped that this time I would find an environment where I could practise in a way that aligned with my training, values, and the deeper needs of clients.

But I soon encountered many of the same challenges.

Workplaces that were overly rigid and inefficient, cultures that sometimes felt unprofessional or unsupportive, and systems that limited how practitioners could respond to clients’ complex and individual needs.

As a behavioural scientist and therapist, I believe people deserve care that is thoughtful, adaptable, and holistic.

Yet many environments made this difficult to achieve.

Once again, I felt that familiar sense that something needed to change.

I didn’t just want to help people — I wanted to work in a way that allowed me to fully show up as the practitioner I had trained to become.

So I pivoted again.

Building My Own Practice and Businesses

This second pivot led me to build my own psychotherapy practice, and eventually two businesses in the wellbeing space.

Creating my own work allowed me to:

• Work with aligned clients who genuinely want growth and change

• Integrate behavioural science and psychotherapy in a way that feels authentic

• Support clients holistically, rather than through rigid frameworks

• Create the flexibility and autonomy that traditional roles often lacked

• Build a work life that feels sustainable and values-driven

For the first time, I felt that my work environment matched the values that brought me into this field in the first place.

What Career Pivots Really Mean

At the time, both pivots felt scary.

There was uncertainty, financial risk, and a lot of learning involved in building something new.

But looking back, those moments were not failures.

They were signals.

Signals that something in my environment wasn’t aligned with my values, my ethics, or the kind of impact I wanted to create.

And rather than ignoring that feeling, I chose to listen to it.

Today, those pivots have shaped the work I do supporting high-striving individuals who are navigating similar crossroads in their careers.

Because sometimes the feeling that something isn’t right isn’t a sign that you’re on the wrong path.

Sometimes it’s simply the beginning of your next pivot.