My guest this week is Tully Johns, a Melbourne based health coach who spent close to fifteen years working as a zookeeper before turning to helping people. For most of three decades, Tully carried the effects of childhood sexual abuse without a name for it, showing up instead as depression, anxiety, and eventually a PTSD diagnosis. It was only in his forties, after his brother came forward with his own memories and pursued a case against their father, that Tully began to understand what he himself had survived.
In this conversation, Tully shares what it was like to process decades of trauma later in life, the stretch of days he could not get out of bed that became his turning point, and the small, unglamorous practices that slowly rebuilt his life from the ground up. He and Ash talk about connection, letting people in, and what it means to parent well after having none of that modelled for you. This is a tender and deeply honest conversation about healing on your own timeline and choosing, every day, not to be defined by what happened to you.
Trigger Warning: This episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse, please listen with care. Support services have been included in the episode show notes.
Episode chapters:
00:00 Introducing Tully Johns
06:33 The Photo: Hiding Behind the Smile
07:00 Discovering the Abuse: A Four Year Old's Burden
14:11 His Brother's Case and the Public Fallout
18:13 Forty Years to Process What Happened
26:03 Finding Escape and Purpose Through Animals
32:05 The Catabasis: Hitting a Wall as a Stay at Home Dad
36:17 The Fake Smile That Started the Rebuild
38:16 One Word Journaling and Small Daily Wins
40:58 Movement as Medicine
45:57 Self Compassion Alongside Discipline
49:06 Reparenting the Four Year Old Within
53:01 Why Connection Changes Everything
01:00:40 Three Non-Negotiables for a Happy, Authentic Life
Connect with Tully using the links below:
Support Services
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