About Carla
Life is an adventure waiting to be explored
Sometimes the adventure is amazing. There are the highest highs where anything and everything seems possible. I live for those moments, trying to create and savour as many of them as I can.
However, like all true adventures, there are crushing lows, when all seems lost and all I want to do is pull the duvet over my head and hide. I also want to eat chocolate, but that’s something I’m giving up (which is a whole other story).
The thing is, I’ve never been me before, so like all true explorers, I’m making it up as I go along.
This is a window into my world, a place for me to share the highs and the lows of what it means to be navigating my way through.
I’m so glad you’re here - welcome!
My Story
1971 - A child of the 70s born in England. My parents are expecting a boy, to be named Carl. The rest, as they say, is HER-story!
1974 A brother added to the mix
1981- parents split and life is a bit messy for a while.
1985 - A could-be model for playmobile haircuts. I get my first job in a jeans’ store.
1987 - Out of the blue, I become a Christian. My mum says it's marginally better than my being on drugs!
1993 - Meet Andrew and fall madly in love.
1995 - Ring a ding ding.
1996 - Graduate with an BA (Hons) in Theology. Begin working as a youth worker for 22 different churches across numerous denominations
1999 - Don’t see Tom Jones at the MGM Grand. This significant (!) event shapes the rest of my life. See my Tom Jones page.
2002 - Spend 7 months backpacking around South East Asia. I wear the same clothes in all my photos!
2002/3 - Spend 12 months circumnavigating Australia in an old camper van. Spend 3 months in NZ and 2 months in USA before returning to the UK, broke but happy.
2004/5 - Train as a primary school teacher in London in order to emigrate to Australia. Excel at teaching art (not)! Have my first experience with depression.
2007 - Emigrate to Adelaide, Australia and become citizens five years later. Still refuse to say whom I barrack for in the cricket.
2009 - Tom Jones comes to Adelaide! Manage to score front row seats. Oh, the synergy! (See Tom Jones page for further explanation)
2014 - Martin Seligman, the ‘founder’ of positive psychology comes to Adelaide, and I set my heart on working at the to-be-established Wellbeing & Resilience Centre at SAHMRI. This is the day I am offered the role of Education Lead.
2015 - Graduating with a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology (High Distinction, don't you know!).
2016 - After burning out at SAHMRI, Andrew and I start Mindful Edge and I join the team at TAFESA to teach the National Diploma of Positive Psychology and Wellbeing.
2017 - A bucket list holiday: seven days white-water rafting through the Grand Canyon followed by a full solar eclipse, an Olympic bob-sleigh, and Mt Rushmore. Tom Jones would be proud!
2018 - After a rollercoaster ride with Mindful Edge, we are offered contracts with the Positive Education Institute at Geelong Grammar School, the world leaders in Positive Education. Heart is broken to leave Adelaide, but it’s too good an opportunity.
2019 - Qantas pyjamas baby! Flying all over the world delivering training and consulting with schools. Frequent flyer points are high, everyone gets pyjamas for Christmas, and I’m doing what I do best!
2020 - WTF?! We are both made redundant the same week we buy our first house in Australia. Everything is in lockdown, we can’t get work, the internal and external borders are closed so we can’t get back to our support networks. We don’t breathe out for three months. And yet… we have the best parties (for two), do up our house, walk for miles, and create some fantastic memories.
2022/2023 - We spend eighteen months processing the trauma of the last two years by walking, spending time with loved ones, and having some fun. Two months in a motorhome touring Scotland, hiking 177 miles along the border of England and Wales, ski-ing in the Black Forest and cruising the Caribbean.
2024 - I launch my podcast, The Playful Rebellion
2053?
