About two minutes into our conversation which has already featured a few chuckles, it is clear she is also refreshingly candid.

“I don’t sugar-coat much, that’s probably why people, they either like me or they may not,” she said.

But it is a quality that has ensured Karyn’s success in her field.

The director of Perfectly Imperfect Consulting leads culturally safe, non-clinical healing work across the NT.

From remote trauma recovery programs and prison workshops to hosting the Unbreakable Voices Rise Up NT podcast with friend and co-host Chelsea Rennie, Karyn is not afraid to delve into the gritty issues of violence and mental health.

And at the centre of her work is her own personal journey with mental health, trauma and loss.

“You have to understand first-hand lived experience,” the founder of Waterlily Healing Indigenous Corporation said.

“Great if you got to add a degree with that but I want people lived experience working for my organisation.

“Because at the end of the day, you can read all the books you want, study as much as you want, but unless you’ve lived it, you have no idea what it feels like.”

‘It took me three years to fight every day to stay alive’

Karyn’s life has not been an easy one.

Growing up in domestic violence as a child, it was a pattern that continued in her later relationships causing her to live in a place of “fight and flight”.

It has caused her to be diagnosed with a range of conditions including complex PTSD and clinical depression.

For 15 years, she was given the antidepressant benzodiazepine (benzos) like “tic tacs” before being told they were really addictive and she had to come off them immediately with no support.

For the next three years, Karyn was plagued with suicidal thoughts and whole body shakes and suffered a mental health breakdown in 2015.

Despite several referrals with health services, she struggled to get proper help.

“It took me three years to fight every day to stay alive and come off those drugs myself,” the mum of two said.

“To the point where I’m just on an antidepressant now but I’d love to one day come off that.”

In 2017, Karyn was told the news that her nephew had suicided.

Deciding to leave her government job, the Warlpiri, Eastern Arrernte, and Djaru woman said: “I thought I just want to get into different work that’s more meaningful for me.”

Working to share her story and help others be heard

Karyn started volunteering at suicide pop up stands and eventually started working at a youth detention centre

After about a year, realising she loved working with the youth but struggled with the system, she left to start teaching mental health first aid courses and started making plans to create a non clinical community led safe space.

She also started Perfectly Imperfect Consulting providing similar support and delivering programs in community.

In doing this, Karyn, aged 52, noticed the more Western programs struggled to land in rural Indigenous communities where English was not people’s first language.

“That’s when I started developing my own programs more.

“It’s all around narrative therapy, activity based, visual learning, not so much in the Western way, with sitting in a classroom and death by PowerPoint.”

On top of her work and being a mum, Karyn also hosts a podcast Unbreakable Voices Rise Up NT with her friend Chelsea Rennie.

The podcast was launched after Chelsea’s friend died in an alleged domestic violence incident earlier this year.

With the aim of giving people a platform to talk about their experiences with domestic violence and mental health, they hope to help break cycles of violence and intergenerational trauma.

“I want to give other people a platform to talk about their experiences, but not only victims, also perpetrators.

“Because I believe hurt people hurt people. Obviously their actions have come from somewhere

“That’s when we decided to do this podcast, give everybody a platform, male, female, black, white. We don’t care what colour you are, even perpetrators, as long as they’re accountable for what they’ve done and they’ve put things into place to make change.

“It’s not about laying blame.

“It’s just about accountability. And how do we change this? How do we change the cycle?”

‘How do we make change?’

Throughout all her work, it is Karyn’s lived experience which has made an impact on health professionals and clients alike.

Karyn has won seven awards in the Territory for her work, winning across all five categories at the Northern Territory LiFE Awards for suicide prevention in April this year.

While she said any awards helped promote her work and attract funding, which is very difficult to secure, her biggest hope was that people’s stories were heard.

“It’s lovely to have these awards, but I’m just doing what I have lived experience in and what I think may help other people.

“I just hope and pray that we are heard.

“The whole goal of it all is, how do we make change?”

With the NT having the highest rates of suicide and domestic violence nationally, Karyn said having access to non-clinical community led safe spaces should be across the board and yet many workers are struggling to get funding.

Describing her life as a bit of “rollercoaster”, she said: “I just do what I do and try and make even if it’s a bit of change every day.

“I do it also for me because it helps me to help others with my mental health.

“And I think anybody can do this if they’ve got the time and passion and if they’re willing to be broke,” she added laughing.

Territorians urged to nominate leading mental health advocates

Despite the high level of mental health leadership happening in the Northern Territory like Karyn’s work, very few have been recognised at a national level.

This year, for the 10th anniversary of the Australian Mental Health Prize, Territorians are being urged to put forward leading mental health advocates for nomination.

Particularly as there is yet to be a winner of the award from the NT.

Adjunct professor Sophie Scott, chair of the Australian Mental Health Prize Advisory Group said the anniversary was a chance to reflect on the past and look to where the sector needs to go next.

“It’s a chance to recognise the individuals and community leaders who are making a real difference, often with little fanfare and limited support,” she said.

The awards which are founded by UNSW Sydney honour Australians who have made “outstanding contributions” to mental health across four categories.

These include Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, Lived Experience, Professional, and Community Hero.

Nominations for the 2025 Australian Mental Health Prize are now open and close on 23 July, 2025.