Reclaiming the Woman Who Got Lost Along the Way – An Interview with Michelle Wollaston

What if the moment you choose yourself is the moment everything begins to change?

For Michelle Wollaston, the path to becoming a spiritual advocate wasn’t sudden or dramatic—it was a steady return to her inner truth. Raised in a home surrounded by healing, intuition, and energy work, Michelle always carried spiritual awareness within her. But it was through the challenges of a long-term relationship, career transitions, and the demands of motherhood that she discovered just how powerful reconnection can be.

In this conversation, Michelle shares how learning to listen to your intuition can transform your life, why discomfort is often a sacred signal for growth, and how living with grace and ease is not just possible—it’s your birthright. With grounded wisdom and a deep sense of purpose, she offers gentle strategies for women ready to reclaim their joy, clarity, and energetic alignment. Continue reading or listen in by subscribing for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or YouTube to discover how Michelle Wollaston’s story can help you come home to yourself.

I love hearing stories of awakening to consciousness, mindfulness, and spirituality, and I’d love to listen to a little bit about your upbringing. Did you have some faith or spirituality that was a part of your life as you were growing up, or did that develop later in life?

Michelle Wollaston: It was part of my life from quite early on. When I was around eleven or twelve, my father had a health crisis. I don’t think of it as an “awakening” because, for me, spirituality was always there. But during that time, my dad began searching for alternative ways to heal. He was suffering from intense migraines and neck pain, and conventional medicine wasn’t helping.

That’s when he started exploring acupuncture, meditation, and other alternative approaches. Through that, he connected with practitioners who encouraged him to ground himself, feel into his body, and intuitively explore what might be causing his symptoms. That set him on a path of deep spiritual exploration—he started reading and learning everything he could get his hands on.

How old were you around that time?

Michelle Wollaston: I was probably about eleven or twelve when he first got ill.

I remember him not being well, but back then—this was the late ’70s—you didn’t talk about those things with your kids, especially not at that age. Still, I witnessed the shift. As he got deeper into these modalities, he began working with energy healing and formed friendships with healers and mediums.

So as I grew up, I was surrounded by that world. I saw mediums channeling spirits, participated in rituals, and witnessed all kinds of energetic experiences. It felt normal to me, even though I knew it wasn’t something you’d casually bring up at school. But in my world, it wasn’t strange at all. I absorbed a lot of it just by being around it. It became part of me through osmosis, I guess.

Did you start to sense that you had your intuitive abilities? Did that come up inside of you as a kid?

Michelle Wollaston: I was always told—especially when we were in circle or ritual work, channeling—that I had a lot of energy. I think because I was young, I naturally brought a certain vitality into the space, and that was recognized and utilized.

I was introduced to healing very early on—always in partnership with someone, usually my dad. If we were doing energy work, which today you’d probably call Reiki, though that word wasn’t used much back then, I was there, engaged in it.

Looking back now, I realize how intuitive I was as a child. I think I was probably more intuitive then than I am now, because I didn’t have the mental blocks or the need to rationalize what I was sensing. As we get older, we tend to filter and question everything. But as a child, I just received. I could read a room without even realizing I was doing it.

How did that play out in terms of your career path or life? At what point did you sense, “Okay, I feel called to utilize these gifts to help others”?

Michelle Wollaston: That moment probably came only in the last ten years or so. I reconnected with my spiritual practices after meeting my mentor, which, as often happens in these journeys, happened quite randomly. I had a psychic reading with her, and something shifted. I realized that my current situation no longer served me, and from there, I returned to my spiritual work in a much deeper and more committed way.

As the years passed, I began to feel this strong pull—not just to practice privately, but to share what I was learning and experiencing with others. It’s such an interesting process, and I know many others who work in this field have similar stories. It’s almost like a calling—something beyond you.

I sometimes compare it to people who enter the religious life. You don’t always get to “choose” it; it chooses you. Spirit keeps nudging you in that direction. You find yourself constantly in conversations with people about their crises, offering insights or perspectives, or saying, “Have you thought about it from this angle?” And before you realize it, you’re fully immersed in this work. It becomes what you do.

You’ve written several articles about the process of ending a long relationship and how that helped you rediscover yourself and step into your power. Would you mind walking us through that and helping us understand how that experience was transformative for you?

Michelle Wollaston: Sure. I was in a 27-year relationship. Like most long-term partnerships, we had three children, a mortgage, and just the full-on day-to-day life. Over time, though, it became verbally, emotionally, and physically toxic.

And I think, like so many women—and I say women because I work mostly with women, though I fully acknowledge this can happen to men too—it took me a long time to even admit to myself what was going on. There’s often this deep denial, where you manage and survive instead of truly seeing things.

I disappeared inside that life. I was so focused on surviving, fulfilling obligations, and meeting expectations that my intuitive voice was drowned out. That survival mode completely blocks your ability to hear your inner guidance.

And because I wasn’t shifting on my own, I believe the universe put someone in my path to trigger the shift. That’s often how it happens—the person who delivers the message you finally hear.

For me, that person was Tracy Dimech, a psychic medium—an amazing one. I crossed paths with her unexpectedly and booked a session. From the very first moment, she said, “You’re not speaking your truth. You’re not living in alignment with your highest good.”

What struck me was that she wasn’t connected to my situation. There was no bias. And I knew, deep down, that she was speaking from my higher self. I didn’t question for a second whether she was truly channeling Spirit. I felt it in my body.

That session became a wake-up call. From that moment, I knew I had to begin taking steps. It wasn’t a quick change—far from it. It took me nearly a decade from that conversation to leave. But that moment opened the door. It helped me return to my practice and, more importantly, to listening to myself again.

What was going on during that ten years that got you to the place where you could finally take that next step?

Michelle Wollaston: I think that’s part of the human experience. Even after that lightbulb moment, I still had three teenage children to care for. The humanness of the situation takes over, even when you know what needs to change. I had identified that I was no longer happy, but then came all the questions: What impact will this have on my kids? On me? How will I survive? What will I do?

You end up playing this mental ping-pong game for a long time. And I know women are listening who’ll nod along to that. People later say, “Why didn’t you just leave?” But it’s never that easy. Logistically, emotionally, it isn’t very easy. Unless you’re in immediate physical danger, it can take a long time to reach that tipping point.

For me, I was waiting for the right time. That came when my kids had all finished school, and I felt more confident that they could emotionally support themselves as young adults. That gave me the space to finally prioritize myself.

During the twelve months leading up to my departure, I worked closely with my mentor to create a clear path forward. And then, almost magically, the dream job landed in my lap. It gave me the financial freedom to leap. I left with nothing—no belongings, no concrete plan—just the inner knowing that I had to go.

It took time to return to my practice and reconnect with my intuition. But gradually, I found that I could regulate my frequency again, instead of riding emotional waves that kept knocking me off course. That alignment was key.

I want to honor the magnitude of that process and the resilience it took to follow that call. What would you say to women—or men—who are feeling stuck even after trying everything?

Michelle Wollaston: If you’re in a space where there’s constant noise around you—whether it’s a relationship, a workplace, a friendship—you first need to acknowledge it. That noise is blocking your intuition.

I often talk about the “comfort meter.” At first, your intuition whispers. But if you ignore it, it eventually smacks you with a two-by-four. Its whole purpose is to move you.

The first step is honesty: admitting to yourself that this isn’t working. That you don’t feel safe, satisfied, or supported. That acknowledgment can happen in any area of life, not just romantic relationships. Some people are in loving families but stuck in toxic workplaces, and the emotional toll can be just as intense.

Once you recognize it, the next step is creating quiet so you can hear those intuitive nudges. They’ll show up in many forms—physically, you might feel fatigued, sick, unmotivated, or sleepless. Emotionally, you may cry frequently or feel persistently sad. That doesn’t mean you’re clinically depressed—it means your body is trying to tell you something: “This isn’t right.”

Then there’s the external noise—the people around you, who are also living their own human experience in relationships, that can be your partner projecting their pain. In work settings, it might be a toxic boss or coworker. Add that environmental chaos to everything else, and it’s a lot.

Once you can identify that it’s no longer serving you, the shift begins with boundaries. Just one small boundary. One truth spoken to yourself. That first step is powerful, and it starts to rebuild your strength from the inside out.

What are some examples of speaking the truth to yourself?

Michelle Wollaston: I think the very first truth you need to speak to yourself is this: “I need to move. This is no longer serving me.” And then to name what’s holding you back—fear. It’s always fear.

Fear of what happens to the kids. Fear about finances—fear of the unknown. In my case, it was all of those things. But looking back, everything worked out. Everyone’s happy, and I’m fully capable of supporting myself.

In a workplace situation, that truth might sound like: “I’m afraid to leave this job because what if I can’t find another one?” The ego will always shout louder than your intuition. It wants to keep you safe, even if that means staying stuck. That’s why speaking truth to yourself is so hard when there’s too much noise around you feeding that fear.

But if you can quiet it just enough to say one clear thing—like “No, I’m drawing a line in the sand”—that alone can create momentum.

So now you’ve stepped into a new season of life. And didn’t you write an article about taking a trip on your own for the first time? A kind of solo vacation?

Michelle Wollaston: Not entirely solo—but it was the first time I traveled without my family. It was the year before I separated. About 18 months earlier, my cousin had said, “I want to go to Hawaii—do you want to come?” And at the time, that idea didn’t go down well at home, so it got shelved.

Eventually, I just said yes. And that was huge for me. I would never have done that before. We always traveled as a family, always together. It wouldn’t have been acceptable for me to pack a bag and go off on my own for two weeks.

But by then, my youngest was about 15 or 16, and I finally permitted myself. I packed my suitcase and went to Hawaii for 10 days. That was in 2018, right near the end. After that trip, everything began to fall into place. By March 2019, I had left home.

How did that trip feel? Was it exhilarating? Nerve-wracking? How was it for you?

Michelle Wollaston: It was amazing. We had a beautiful time. And for the first time, I wasn’t in “mum mode.” I didn’t have to organize everyone, manage a schedule, figure out meals, or activities. I just had to take care of myself, and I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.

It was incredibly liberating. And I think it was one of those “comfort steps” I needed—to prove to myself that yes, I can be on my own. And maybe more importantly, that my boys would be fine without me hovering.

They were just like, “Okay, Mum, cool. Have a great time.” And now, years later, when we talk and they’re in their twenties, they’ll say things like, “I don’t know why you stayed as long as you did.”

That’s something I want to touch on, because especially as mothers, we worry so much about the emotional impact on our kids. And rightly so. But sometimes, we forget that our children are not blind. They see what’s happening. They’re wondering too: “Why are you putting up with this? Why are you letting this happen?”

So while we think we’re protecting them by staying, we might be teaching them the wrong message. Instead of showing them how to be self-respecting and empowered, we may unintentionally show them that it’s okay to tolerate things that aren’t right.

It’s a very complicated emotional space to navigate—trying to do what’s best for them, while also doing what’s right for yourself.

When you meet people and they ask, “Michelle, what do you do?”—how do you answer? What do you call yourself?

Michelle Wollaston: I tend to use the term spiritual advocate.

Mainstream language-wise, I might say I’m a coach or mentor, and I’ve always been in that space in some form. I’m a learning and development professional by trade. I’ve spent over 15 years teaching adults in the vocational education sector here in Australia, which means I’m used to educating people, guiding them, and helping them grow.

In this spiritual work, it’s the same foundation—meeting people where they’re at, helping them understand their current experience, and then offering strategies so they can hear themselves more clearly and make aligned decisions.

So, for simplicity’s sake, maybe I’d be called a “life coach.” However, there are numerous jargon-filled labels available, and none of them fully capture it. At the end of the day, I want to support people in a real, meaningful way.

You said you’ve been in learning and development for 15 years—what was the term you used?

Michelle Wollaston: In Australia, we have something called the vocational education sector. It’s where people go if they want to learn a trade after leaving school, like becoming a bricklayer, mechanic, hairdresser, and so on. It’s different from the university system, which is more academic.

I started as an early childhood educator and then transitioned into the training sector, where I taught and mentored other early childhood educators. From there, I stayed in learning and development. So I’m very used to mentoring, training, and supporting people—it’s always been a natural part of what I do.

It’s wonderful to have this conversation with you. I interview a lot of people, but there’s a groundedness about you, Michelle. Like, “I know who I am. I know I’m here to help.” You come across as clear, confident, and articulate. A little no-nonsense, but also deeply compassionate—like, “I’m on your side, and I want to help you move forward.” I feel that in you.

Michelle Wollaston: Thank you. I think we naturally attract people who reflect parts of our lived experience.

I’ve worked with a diverse range of people, but I primarily work with women, especially since my experience is that of a woman myself. That said, I would never turn away a man seeking support. I am aware that my skill set is more attuned to the needs of women navigating similar spaces. And of course, I’m raising three boys, so I live that male dynamic every day too.

However, in recent years, I’ve noticed that most people drawn to me are midlife women. I think there’s something that happens when you reach that 50-ish mark—it’s a moment of “I’m just not doing this anymore.” That lightbulb moment can occur earlier or later, but somewhere in that midlife window, something shifts.

These women often have kids who are no longer babies—maybe in primary school or entering the teenage years. Many have returned to the workforce, so they’re juggling motherhood, partnership, and a career.

And more often now, they’re also starting to support aging parents. So suddenly, they’re not just mothers and partners—they’re also daughters and caregivers. It adds another emotional and logistical layer to an already whole life.

And I’ll be honest—I don’t think any of us manage that space well. Nor do I believe we should have to. This unrealistic expectation that women can juggle it all perfectly is something society has placed on us. It’s not natural—it’s learned. And because we’re feminine energy, we naturally nurture. We don’t pause to say, “No.”

So the women who come to me are often stuck in this tangled web of responsibilities, and they just need help figuring out how to stop spinning one plate. Just one. So they can breathe again. Recalibrate. Remember who they are.

By the time you reach 45 or 50, life has become very complex. And it’s okay to admit that.

You have a resource on your website called Self-Reconnection: Gentle Strategies for Women Who Feel Like They’ve Disappeared. You used the word disappeared earlier, saying you felt like you had disappeared inside your relationship. What are some signs that we might be disappearing from our own lives? What would that look like?

Michelle Wollaston: I think often, the first signs are emotional. You feel flat. Drained. Exhausted. You walk through the door after work, and it’s just too much—dinner needs to be made, the day hasn’t stopped, and the overwhelm feels relentless.

There’s this sense that you can’t get your head above water. You feel disconnected from your own body—maybe you’re experiencing aches and pains that go beyond normal fatigue. Your whole system feels run down. You’re likely operating from survival mode—just pushing through, managing what’s in front of you, coping rather than living.

And you might not even recognize that’s what you’re doing, because it’s become normalized. There’s a cultural expectation that you’ll hold it all together—that you’ll be the smiling, polished version of yourself, like the “Stepford wife.” Hair done, face on—but underneath? There’s a boiling cauldron of chaos. And no one sees it.

Those are the signs. They’re all around you, but you may not be seeing them for what they are.

That’s why I keep coming back to the comfort meter. When something feels off—physically, emotionally, energetically-that’s your soul whispering. And if you ignore it, it starts shouting. Life isn’t meant to be one long discomfort. It’s meant to be joyful. It’s meant to be a learning experience, not a traumatic one.

So when things feel off, that’s your signal. Pause. Ask: Why? It shouldn’t be like this.

What does it feel like to reappear—to reconnect with ourselves? For those who feel like they’ve disappeared right now, could you cast a little vision of what it could look like on the other side?

Michelle Wollaston: You start to feel balanced. It may show up in small, subtle ways, such as sleeping better. You’re not struggling to get out of bed in the morning, and you’re not collapsing into it at night. There’s a shift.

You start putting yourself first, even in small decisions. You might say, “No, I’m not doing that load of washing—I’m going for a walk.” Or “I’m not cooking tonight—we’re ordering takeout.” It’s those tiny acts of self-prioritization that begin to rebuild your sense of autonomy.

As you do that, you begin to raise your internal vibrational frequency. And when that happens, things genuinely start to feel easier. Some of the emotional and energetic turmoil you’ve been experiencing starts to lift because you’re finally hearing the message the universe has been trying to send you.

That’s how energy works. When you recognize the lesson, it doesn’t need to scream at you anymore. You’re no longer resisting—you’re aligning.

You’ll often hear the words grace and ease. That’s something my mentor taught me: You are meant to live a life of grace and ease. And as you begin to embody that, that’s exactly what begins to unfold. Things become easier.

What does that mean—grace and ease?

Michelle Wollaston: I think it means you’re finally in a place where everything you need begins to arrive without struggle. And that’s how I feel now. I no longer have to fight or push to create the financial stability or abundance I want. I don’t live in a space of “Will I have enough?”—whether it’s money or time. I know I will. I feel abundant in many ways.

Now, if something starts to feel difficult—like really difficult, for even a couple of weeks—that’s my sign. It’s not for me. I need to set it down and try something else. You become far more in tune with what flows and what doesn’t. That inner knowing keeps you from getting tangled in messiness because you catch it early. You feel the resistance and let it go before it grows.

How do you know the difference between “I need to persevere through this challenge” versus “This isn’t for me”? How can we tell the difference?

Michelle Wollaston: It’s that comfort meter again. When you’re pushing hard against something that isn’t aligned, the noise only gets louder.

Let’s say you’re in a job that’s become toxic—not necessarily because of people, but simply because the role no longer lights you up. You may find yourself calling in sick more often, struggling to get out of bed, showing up late, or dreading work.

And if that’s still not enough to get your attention, the universe will turn up the volume. Maybe you start having conflicts with a colleague, or your projects constantly fall apart no matter how hard you try. It becomes a string of obstacles—delays, burnout, breakdowns.

Eventually, something gives. Often, it’s your health. That’s the first domino for most people. You start getting colds, feeling chronically run-down, or dealing with deeper pain. And if you still don’t pivot, your body or your spirit will force you to. The universe has a way of shaking us awake when we don’t respond to the gentle nudges.

You work with people one-on-one, and I know you draw from several modalities—not just traditional coaching. Could you walk us through the tools you use and how you weave them into your sessions?

Michelle Wollaston: A couple of years ago, I felt drawn to learn astrology—initially just out of curiosity. But over time, I realized it’s one of the most powerful diagnostic tools we have. We often underestimate its depth.

The very first thing I ask when someone comes to work with me is for their birth data—date, time, and location. I create their natal chart, paying particular attention to a few key elements.

I start with the North and South Nodes. These speak to your karmic story—what you’ve brought into this life, and where your soul is meant to go. Then I look at Chiron, the asteroid known as the “wounded healer.” That points to the deep wounds you’re here to heal.

Another layer I use is the progressed moon. Most people are familiar with the moon’s cycle over a single month, but it also follows a 29.5-year life cycle. Each person is born under a specific moon phase—new moon, first quarter, full, etc.—and that phase unfolds across your life in 3.5-year increments.

For example, I was born under a new moon, and back in 2018, when I was ending my relationship and releasing a job, I was in a balsamic moon phase. That’s the final phase before a new moon—the phase of release. Within that three-and-a-half-year window, I let go of so much: my marriage, my job, and I even lost my mother. It was a powerful shedding.

Now, I’ve entered my new moon phase again—planting seeds for the next chapter. When clients come to me and I map their position in that cycle, it’s often a lightbulb moment. Suddenly, the chaos makes sense. The exhaustion has context.

Beyond astrology, I’ll sometimes use oracle or tarot cards when guided. But the heart of my work is intuition.

When I sit with someone, I connect with my higher self and my spirit guides—and they connect with theirs. There’s a conversation happening in spirit, and I become the channel for what that person needs to hear.

And to be honest, once the session ends—unless it’s recorded—I couldn’t tell you everything I said because I’m not speaking from memory. I’m speaking from alignment. The words just come. I should have recorded it. I always say to them, “If you want to record this, go right ahead—because I won’t remember a word afterward.”

Tell us more about your book, Embrace Spirituality and Enhance Your Human Experience. What inspired it, and what can readers expect?

Michelle Wollaston: I decided to write the book in 2020, just as we were coming out of COVID. We’d all been in lockdown, spending a lot of time online, trying to stay connected. I was taking all sorts of courses—mostly for my interest—and I started noticing a pattern. So many people were diving into spiritual teachings and programs, but they weren’t ready. They didn’t have the foundational understanding needed to fully integrate what they were learning.

You can’t begin by talking to someone about vibration or frequency if they don’t even know what those terms mean. You have to start with the baby steps.

So I went back to my roots in education. I thought there needs to be a learner’s guide for spirituality. Something that explains the basics—what the jargon means, what the principles are, how it all works. That’s why I wrote the book.

Embrace Spirituality and Enhance Your Human Experience is both a beginner-friendly guide and a journaling tool. Each chapter walks you through a concept—like universal laws, energy work, or the Hermetic principles—and then invites you to reflect. There are exercises and journaling prompts throughout that help readers personalize what they’ve just learned.

By the time they reach the end, they not only understand spiritual language more clearly, but they’ve also hopefully gained deeper insight into their patterns—why certain things trigger them, or why they keep bumping into resistance. It provides them with a solid foundation, enabling them to make more informed and empowered decisions about their spiritual journey. Whether that’s working with a psychic, studying astrology, or exploring tarot, they’ll know what resonates and what to look for. It’s meant to be a gentle, grounded introduction because there is so much out there.

You work with people, not just in Australia—I assume you’re available to work with clients worldwide?

Michelle Wollaston: Yes, absolutely. I work internationally. You can connect with me through my website at MichelleWollaston.com, and I’m also on Facebook and Instagram. All of my social links will be in the show notes.

You can also find my book on Amazon. And if you feel called to reach out, whether it’s to ask a question or explore the possibility of working together, I’d be honored to connect.

Wonderful, Michelle. Thank you for sharing your story and your wisdom. So many powerful truths today. I truly appreciate all that you’re doing in the world—thank you.

Michelle Wollaston: Thank you, David, for having me.