There are moments in life that change us. There is the person we were before, and the person we become after. My journey into counselling and creativity began long before I realised how much I would one day rely on those same strengths myself.
I opened my private counselling practice April 2024. I took on clients in all walks of life, offering initial sessions free, followed by fees of 57% less than what I was entitled to given my credentials. My aim was to meet people where the economy couldn’t. My drive was the lack of mental health support offered in my community and surrounding areas.
Six months into establishing my private practice, I found myself having to turn away families seeking support for their children. I had just begun my Master’s degree in counselling, with one primary focus on children and families, thus working directly with children was not yet within my scope of practice. I offered indirect support, working with mothers to help them build connections with their children. And then Calm Kangaroo was born.
Being an avid reader and indie author myself, I adored books. I donated a handful of children’s books to my local library that focused on feelings. What started as a small gesture shortly became talk of a weekly reading session for children, called Emotional Wellbeing Story-time. Ideas flooded my mind. I worked on a title that was Australian, evoked calm and was educational, and showcased a cute, furry mascot.
Thus, it became, Calm Kangaroo: Curating, Advocating, and Leading Mindfulness, in its mission to Kindle Awareness, Nurture Growth, Amplify Resilience, and Orchestrate Open-minds. It was a message of hope aimed at nurturing the growth of emotional intelligence in primary-school aged children. In September 2024, I published my first two books in the series, one of which I read during my first library story-time.
Calm Kangaroo grew in popularity in my practice. My business was thriving, as were my clients. On 20th February 2025, it all came to a devastating standstill. Before work on that morning, I was violently assaulted by a married couple not unknown to me. My two-and-a-half and four-year-old children were present during this ordeal. My own mother coming to my rescue to tear my assailants off me.
I suffered a concussion, a torn rotator cuff, a sprained hand, and a mild displacement of the C2 vertebrae in my spine that required extensive physiotherapy to manipulate back into position. I developed Post Concussion Syndrome and was treated by a concussion specialist in Sydney, a four-hour drive from home.
I spent five-and-a-half weeks in bed. I couldn’t work. I closed down my practice and became unavailable to my clients. I felt broken; terrified for my safety, for my children’s mental health, for my clients’ wellbeing. We relocated to another town and started again. Court was a long process, but to no prevail; both perpetrators walked without convictions despite two guilty pleas, and prior assault charges. I felt lost and defeated, let down by the justice system.
Worse still, my daughter exhibited behaviour that I had never seen before. She had nightmares and thoughts no five-year-old should have. I grew depressed. I felt helpless in my ability to reassure her. That’s when I turned back to Calm Kangaroo. I still had the ability to help, despite not being able to hold a verbal conversation for long.
I found my old workbook full of stories I had written prior to my traumatic brain injury. I used illustration as therapy; coupled with my own professional help. I found myself again, in creating book after book of gentle stories that focused on emotional wellbeing, resilience, friendships, and more.
I wrote for myself, and for my daughter, feeling that these stories would also resonate with mothers and their children. I created stories that would demonstrate resilience, generational trauma, relationship breakdown, bullying and transformation, on a level that was understood by children.
Writing and illustrating became my recovery; Calm Kangaroo carried me back to who I was before the assault. Gifting me with more resilience, more strength, more determination than I could have imagined. It paved the way for my daughter’s emotional intelligence, for her compassion toward others, and for her own resilience. Something that I am proud to say her teachers notice.
It wasn’t just a book series that carried us through. It was the work we did. Like the work one does in counselling: emotional regulation, self-awareness, grounding, compassion, and the tools for mental wellbeing. But above all was the patience, and the gentleness I had for myself during the healing process.
This is why I encourage women who have lived through trauma to find passion in something; something that gives them space to breathe, feel, process, and keep moving. Healing doesn’t have to be loud or perfect. It can begin quietly, with one small step, one creative act, one moment of honesty with yourself.
If my story shows anything, it’s that you can rise again, even if rising begins with a crawl. You can rebuild, even when you feel broken. And you deserve a life filled with safety, calm, and hope.
Calm Kangaroo carried me home. And I believe every woman can find something that carries her too.
Name: Philippa Bird
Bio: My name is Pippa Bird. I’m 33, a mum of two, and married to a cattle farmer. We live in rural residential NSW, and two years ago I opened my own private counselling practice in my hometown of Cootamundra. Eleven months into that work, my life was shattered by a horrific ordeal that changed everything. Yesterday marked one year since that event, the 20th of February 2025.
