That's a wrap! 2025 end-of-year reflection (solo)

[00:00:05] Bronwyn: Hey, mental workers. You're listening to the Mental Work podcast, the podcast for early career psychologists about the practical and personal realities of working in mental health. As always, I'm your host, Dr. Bronwyn Milkins, and today is our last episode of the year, which means it's time for an end of year reflection episode, and it's a solo episode just with me today.

[00:00:26] If you're anything like most clinicians, this time of the year comes with a common feature. It's exhaustion, but maybe there's some successes, and there's usually time spent helping nons, psychologists, friends and family understand why you're exhausted when you just air quote, talk to people.

[00:00:42] In today's episode, I'll be sharing highlights from the podcast, my top episodes from this year, what I'm letting go of in 2026, and what I'm taking with me. I've also got a sneak peek of what's coming up next year on the podcast and what's been happening behind the scenes.

[00:00:59] This year we released 53 episodes, which honestly, when I say it out loud, it feels like a lot and it has been a lot. I've loved recording every single episode for you listeners, and I just wanna thank you, the listener for listening to the podcast, but also thank all the guests who joined the show and trusted the space here that I've created. Guests don't get paid to be on podcasts, they do it out of the love of their heart, and they want to contribute to your knowledge and to help you, so it's really valuable when they do come on the podcast.

[00:01:31] As well, the podcast is entirely self-funded. It does cost about a thousand bucks a year to keep the lights on. It's no biggie, um, but I really love doing the podcast for you, and I love spending a lot of time doing it and doing it willingly, and I think the main reason is because early career psychologists and people who enter the workforce in mental health, they come with huge potential to grow and contribute meaningfully to the community, but at the same time, they're really vulnerable to burnout, poor treatment, and early disillusionment, so I guess wanting to exit the profession even before they're fully registered.

[00:02:07] I firmly believe that these experiences should not be a rite of passage, and Mental Work really exists to support early career mental health workers build sustainable, healthy, enjoyable careers from the get go through these honest conversations that we have on the podcast about the realities of what it's like to practice in this profession.

[00:02:26] So, yeah, it's a, it's a real passion project to me, and I'm glad that you are part of it. I did just wanna give a shout out around that. If you have enjoyed the podcast this year and you do wanna support it, for $5, you can buy me a coffee online, it's a virtual coffee. I don't actually drink coffee, um, in, in real life. It's, uh, I'm one of those people. Um, but you can do that at buymeacoffee.com/mentalwork. I really wanna give a huge thank you to the people who have already bought coffees this year. And that's Molly, Caroline, Sally, Advisory Human, Allison, Bridget, Alicia, Gemma, Steph, Jade, and some lovely anonymous people. Thank you so much. It really does make a big difference.

[00:03:12] Okay, let's talk about my personal highlights. This year was a bit weird professionally, but in a, in a really good way. In March, I closed my solo private practice after four years of running that. It was sad, but it was ultimately the right move because after that I had a six month break from clinical work, no clinical work at all. And during that time I worked full-time in research on a project about trauma and dissociation in young people.

[00:03:39] Honestly, the break changed everything. Before stepping away from clinical work, I felt really awful about my clinical work, to be honest. I felt really ineffective, I didn't feel confident, I felt really unsure, I constantly thought, I'm not helping. I was really questioning myself.

[00:03:56] But in taking the break from clinical work, it gave me a space to breathe, gained some perspective, really reset. And now that I've been seeing clients again for the past two and a half months, I'm feeling much better. It's, um, the confidence has come back. I'm like, oh, I know things. It's really cool and really strange. Um, but really good.

[00:04:18] So I guess like something I learned from that was that seemingly taking a step backwards, like closing my private practice, taking a break from clinical practice was actually the thing that helped me to move forward. So I just wanted to share that with you.

[00:04:34] Let's move on to the podcast highlights. There were so many episodes that I loved recording this year. I wanna give a huge shout out to my longest term collaborator, Marie Vakakis. You will have heard her on the podcast many times this year and over the past few years. She runs her own podcast, the Inside Social Work Podcast, and This Complex Life. Marie and I met on LinkedIn and now she's been on 14 episodes. She's incredibly warm. Valley is led. She's wise, she's grounded. I feel like she compliments me really well. I'm a bit of a, energetic, uh, can't keep still kind of person and she provides a really calm and clarifying offset to me, which I really appreciate.

[00:05:19] Marie has let me stay twice with her in Melbourne this year and it's been awesome. It's been really incredible. She is just wonderful and I'm, I hope you've enjoyed episodes with her on the podcast and we've got lots coming up next year with her as well. It's so nice meeting a good stranger of the internet. Thanks, Marie.

[00:05:37] I also wanted to thank repeat guests who have been on a few episodes this year, and that's Jordan Turner, Matthew Jackson and Claire Trevitt. Um, Claire Trevitt runs the Between Two Psychs podcast, which is just fantastic, and she's released a series just recently on the new competencies for psychologists, the new AHPRA Code of Conduct. So I recommend giving that a go in your podcast, uh, feed. You can find it wherever you get podcasts.

[00:06:01] Each of these guests are brilliant teachers. They're really kind, they're generous humans, and it's so nice to have colleagues who are similarly minded and they really just wanna give back to you guys.

[00:06:13] Let's talk about favorite episodes, because it does feel like choosing a favorite child, but there are some top picks for 2025, and my favorite episode, I'm gonna cheat because it's two episodes, is Journey Through Burnout: Parts One and Two with Matthew Jackson. If you have not listened to these episodes, please go back and listen to them, they're fantastic. I'll pop the links in the show notes, but I really appreciated how honest and vulnerable and thoughtful Matthew was. He really brought a full journey through burnout right in the thick of it where I was like, oh, you know, I'm a bit worried about Matthew, and then he came out the other side and we recorded these episodes with about six months in between and it was, it was really incredible. And I'm really grateful for Matthew shining a light on this important topic, which we often know about. We know that burnout sucks, but we don't hear from people who are in the thick of it.

[00:07:11] I do have some honorable mentions for my favorite episodes this year. The first one is What it's like being a Neurodivergent Therapist. I recorded this with Jordan Turner, who is autistic ADHD. And I'm ADHD, and I thought it was really good. It didn't get the number of listens that I thought it would. It was, it was relatively lower compared to the other episodes, but that's what seems to happen with my favorite episodes. It seems to go a bit down the list for listens, but that's cool.

[00:07:39] And then my other favorite episode was working well with clients who have Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder with Aimee Oliveri. Aimee is so smart. Um, she knows her stuff about PMDD and women's health, and I'm so glad that we're able to get a tidbit of Aimee's knowledge on this PMDD episode. A really important topic that has been overlooked for so long.

[00:08:00] And then my other honorable mention for favorite episodes was one recently released, but the Transference and Counter-transference episode with Claire Trevitt the reason why I loved this episode is because, honestly, I've been trying to record an episode on transference and counter transference for years.

[00:08:15] I just haven't found the right person, and I didn't feel confident enough to do it myself. As a solo, I really wanted somebody, and Claire was perfect. She has psychodynamic training. It was awesome talking with her about this topic, and she gave so much knowledge, again with calmness and clarity.

[00:08:30] So thanks everyone. I would like to invite the podcast editor, Dr. Michael English to come onto the podcast to share his favorites. Michael edits all the episodes. He's wonderful and he's listened to all of them, and I wanted to make sure that we get his opinion about his favorite episode and Top Pick for 2025.

[00:08:49] Michael: Thanks for letting me chime in. I really liked the, the double episode feature with Matthew Jackson as well. I felt like there was a very special couple of episodes and I am very grateful that Matthew came on, not just for the first episode, I mean, the first episode in itself is just incredible. His vulnerability and honesty just really, really struck me. It was the kind of story that I imagine that a lot of people probably have at some stage in their career, and very few people will probably talk about it.

[00:09:20] Um, so thank you very, very much, Matthew, for coming on and sharing that story ends with coming back six months later to give us the good news that he had found a way forward to, uh, in the profession, um, `that made us... were really, really happy to hear that, so thank you.

[00:09:33] My runner's up choice is the listener story by Tess Rutherford so Tess was, in the middle of her masters', clinical masters' program. Um, I really like getting stories or hearing stories from people who are in, really are in the thick of it with a capital T. I, I really just enjoyed Tess's story and I feel like a lot of, people who, a lot of listeners who are in the middle of their master's programs could probably relate to a lot of what Tess was talking about. And Tess was just so articulate. It was hard to believe that she was still a student the way she was talking about her reflections on going through the Master's programs and what her hopes were for the future. So thank you very much, Tess.

[00:10:16] Bronwyn: Thanks so much Michael and yes, obviously agree with the Matthew Jackson. Also agree with Tessa's episode. I love them all. Um, but I have gotten feedback in the past that people have said, can you have a positive story on the podcast, like with a listener story that's positive? And I feel like Tess nailed that, it was a great story. She was very positive, she did even talk about some of the challenges that she had. I remember we talked about perfectionism, imposter syndrome, so it's not like it was absent of challenges, but it was obvious from speaking with Tess that she still had a great passion for the profession and the research and the practice that she was doing. So yeah, we love these listener stories. I think it's awesome.

[00:10:56] Now listener, I'm interested in what were your favorites? You can email me at mentalworkpodcast@gmail.com. Tell me what they were, leave a message. You can also comment on the Spotify, you can leave a message on each episode. I really love to hear which episodes were your favorites, and then we can get more on the same topic or I can get the guest back. It's all up to you what you hear on the podcast.

[00:11:19] Okay. I feel like it's tradition to- in a Reflections episode, to talk about something you're letting go this year and something you're carrying into the new year. So I've got two things, one for each, and let's start off with something I'm letting go of this year.

[00:11:34] This is the year I finally admitted to myself that I cannot do boring professional development. And so I realized that most recently when I did a two day face-to-face professional development workshop. And I knew going into it, I was like, dear God, I hope that this isn't really, really difficult for me to be sitting here for two days.

[00:11:54] And it always just feels like I'm the only one who needs to squirm and move around in the first hour, I know, like ADHD, right? But surely other people, they find it difficult to sit down for eight hours, I dunno, I dunno. Anyway, I've, I've said to myself, look, I just cannot do professional development face-to-face unless it involves a substantial experiential component. So like you're doing role plays, you're doing engagement, you're doing discussions. Otherwise I just tune out and I don't actually get the best learning experience. So yeah, that's me. That's one thing I'm letting go of.

[00:12:27] Next year I'm going to only sign up for professional development that is either online and then I can walk and stand around, or it needs to be face-to-face, but advertise itself as having several activities.

[00:12:41] I did do the supervisor training earlier this year, and that was awesome. It was online, but we also had heaps of discussions and breakout rooms with other participants and yeah, that was five stars.

[00:12:51] What I'm carrying into the new year... one thing I've noticed since returning to client work is that I've become inflexible about a few things, but in a good way, in a protect my energy and prevent burnout kind of way. So one thing that I'm doing is I don't change my calendar or my time slots anymore. I know from working clinically for a few years now that I have a good calendar and time slot arrangement that works well for me and works well for my energy, and I feel like it's important to honor that. You know, some people are, have their energy later in the day, and some people have it earlier in the day. Some people can see five clients in a row, some people can't. And I'm one of those people who can't. My max is three clients in a row and I like seeing clients early in the morning, and I don't like having too many sessions.

[00:13:37] So, I feel like I'm finally accepted that look, if a client wants an appointment at say six o'clock, then I'm not the clinician for them. And that's not anything wrong with me. That's- that there are other clinicians out there who will have that schedule and will be able to meet those needs.

[00:13:55] So this shift that I'm not for everyone has really lightened the load. And I guess a reflection for you, dear listener, is, what's one small practice that helped you this year? And it might be writing down what you wanna bring to supervision. Taking three breaths before a session. Write them down and think about what you wanna take with you into the new year, because I feel like these small shifts really add up over time and can help us build sustainable and enjoyable careers in this, in this difficult space.

[00:14:31] Okay, next section is just observations I've had from doing the podcast this year about the mental health workforce. So interesting insight is that, uh, I started Mental Work in 2021, and this was the first year, 2025 when I declined guests to come on the podcast. Every time before then, if somebody has reached out, I've made it work and I've said yes. Um, but this year was the first time I declined guests.

[00:15:00] And there was a specific reason for that. So I declined several pitches from people wanting to talk about peer-to-peer bullying in workplaces. It's not that, I don't think peer-to-peer bullying is not important. Quite the opposite, I think it's incredibly important. But the stories were really serious. And the risk of the episode, getting back to the bully or causing harm to the guest or creating legal issues or complaints for them or for me, was not a risk that I was willing to carry, and yeah, I had to decline those episodes. I felt like that was the responsible thing to do. And it was a really tough call because a core value of this podcast is honesty, is having those honest conversations, but it's also balanced with the need to be safe and ethical and have- meet, meet those professional standards.

[00:15:50] So what I'm going to do instead is that I'm going to do a solo episode on bullying next year. It's gonna be educational evidence informed. I've looked up a bunch of research about this and qualitative accounts. It's gonna be grounded in what listeners have been emailing me about, but not anybody specifically, just themes and trends that people have been sharing with me. And yeah, I hope that you really like it in 2026, and I hope that it starts a bit of a conversation. I feel just if we can shine a light on this even just a little bit, it can help somebody feel less alone and maybe more connected to actions they can take to alleviate their situation.

[00:16:28] We've got two more sections. I'm gonna do podcast updates now. So one thing I've been doing over the past few weeks has been reviewing my documentation. I kind of haven't done that since starting the podcast in 2021, in depth, like branding, branding kind of stuff. Um, so what I did was I updated the values of the podcast. This was super hard narrowing it down, but I really wanted to share it with you because I wanted to see if it gelled with you and resonated with you, and whether you could see these values coming through in the podcast.

[00:16:59] So I've got four. The first one is honesty. So we speak honestly about the reality of working as a psychologist, even when the topics are uncomfortable. The second value is guidance. We support early career psychologists to navigate the realities of modern practice so they can feel more confident in their work. The third value is diverse voices. I really love featuring a range of voices, including people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, career paths, stages in their respective profession, so that listeners get a really well-rounded understanding of mental health work in Australia today.

[00:17:34] This is probably one of my core values because, you know, typically podcasts, they try and get big name guests, in air quotes, and they really want famous people, and I'm like, yeah, I could probably reach out to a few people and give it a shot, but actually I really value day-to-day voices, people who are in the thick of it, people who are practicing. Quite often you might get therapy podcasts and they have the big name guests, but if they're like 20 years removed from practice or they're supervising students only... you know, they're just not connected to some areas of mental health work. They're connected to other areas, definitely not, dissing their, their practices, but there's just, there's just benefit in diversity and I love hearing from different voices, and I love exposing you to different voices on the podcast.

[00:18:27] The final value of the podcast is collegiality, so we value mental health professionals treating each other well. It's really about being excellent to each other, and I really prioritize empathy, encouragement, kindness, and recognizing that we are all still human and we are all still learning. I really value that in the podcast with supporting each other, and I believe it strengthens our profession and improves the wellbeing of communities we serve.

[00:18:52] It is only if we are good with each other that we can improve outcomes for the community as well. So yeah, I hope that really resonates with you. I also updated the tagline, um, but because I've already prerecorded a few episodes, so next year you won't hear that for a few months. But yeah, I hope you like it as well.

[00:19:09] And the other thing I've updated is, like I mentioned earlier, there has been a new code of conduct for psychologists and I've always been, uh, quite thorough with the ethical principles and upholding them. In the podcast. I've had everything that I do reviewed by a supervisor, like pretty rigorously. Um, and yeah, I just reviewed the podcast against the new AHPRA code of conduct. Not much has changed, guests already receive guidance about confidentiality and professionalism, and I edit out any slip ups.

[00:19:39] But just for your knowledge, I've tightened the advice around client examples. So everything that you hear on the podcast, it's either a composite case, so that means that it's lots of cases put together so that no one is identifiable. It's either fictional or it's generalized statements. So for example, clients tend to do this or people with anxiety tend to do that. So no one individual is singled out. So in doing that, it means that your education and guest to safety is the top priority. And yeah, protecting the public from. I guess revealing private and confidential information, which they would not expect to be shared on a podcast, absolutely. Um, if a real client is used on the podcast, I, I ask guests to get written informed consent.

[00:20:27] Okay, what's next for the podcast in 2026? Well, back in July, I put out a call out for new guests, and I thought maybe three people would reply, and, uh, and instead about 30 people reached out, I was really blown away. So I've been so busy recording episodes this year, um, since about July. And coming up next year, we've got episodes like client retention strategies, conversations about sex in therapy, managing therapeutic endings well, therapist, self-disclosure, working well with Aboriginal mob, and stories from early career psychologists in non-traditional career paths.

[00:21:12] There's heaps more. I'm really excited to share them with you, and I hope that you can keep on listening next year and share it with your mates. Share it with your colleagues. Put it in somebody else's ears, is the best way to get the podcast out there.

[00:21:24] Finally, a call to reflection. What's one thing you're proud of this year? What did you learn about yourself as a mental health worker this year? What are you letting go of in the new year and what are you keeping? And if you wanna share your reflections, email me at mentalwork@gmail.com. If I get a few, I might share some anonymous insights on social media, and then we can spread the education and insights around. But of course, if you just wanna keep it to me personally, feel free to do that too. You're also welcome to comment on social media and the Spotify, and that just lets me know that you're out there.

[00:21:59] Once again, if you've really valued the podcast this year and you enjoy listening, buy me an online coffee at buymeacoffee.com/mentalwork. It does help keep the show going and just alleviates the cost load a little bit.

[00:22:11] Thanks so much for listening, again, I really appreciate you. We did hit 150,000 downloads this year. Wow. Um, and yeah, it only gets that much with you listening, so thanks again.

[00:22:24] That's a wrap. Thanks for listening to Mental Work. I'm Bronwyn Milkins, and we'll be back on the 15th of January, 2026. Catch you then.