How to tell your story when it hurts the most
How to talk about suicide, and what it means to grieve a loss no one else understands. Kim Borrowdale lost her aunt to suicide while working in London. A decade later, a therapist asked her one question that reframed her entire career.
⚠️ Content advisory: this episode discusses suicide & self-harm prevention and grief & loss, which some listeners may find distressing.
If you need support, you're not alone. Help is available:
• Lifeline (24/7 crisis support): 13 11 14 · lifeline.org.au
• GriefLine: 1300 845 745 · griefline.org.au
Suicide grief is categorically different from other loss. There are no answers, no explanations, and the self-blame can be relentless. Kim Borrowdale knows this firsthand. After her aunt died by suicide while she was living in London, everything shifted. She left corporate communications work, returned to Australia, and eventually became Head of Communications at Suicide Prevention Australia, helping shape how communities talk safely about suicide and mental health.
But the turning point came years later, in a therapy session. A counsellor asked her a question that cut to the heart of her whole life's work: "Do you think you do this work because you want others to be heard because you yourself were never heard?" It reframed everything. Now Kim coaches individuals and organisations to tell their stories safely, combining trauma-informed communication with narrative craft. She knows that stories move people when the storyteller feels the weight of what they're sharing and makes themselves vulnerable, not when they perform polished perfection.
If you've lost someone to suicide, or you're wondering how to have a conversation about it, or you're asking yourself why you're drawn to certain work or relationships, this episode holds space for all of it.
🕒 CHAPTERS:
00:00 Did you want them heard because you weren't
02:40 Growing up red-haired in a small beach town
06:18 The curious kid in a sports-obsessed place
08:59 Why she left for Brisbane, then London
14:11 Communications work and what it meant
17:13 The breakup that brought her home
19:01 Her aunt died by suicide
23:08 Working in suicide prevention and safe storytelling
30:05 Moving from freelance to coaching storytellers
35:10 What a therapist's question can do
42:48 Why storytelling matters and how it moves people
46:13 Teaching people to tell their own stories
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📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
Lifeline Australia: https://www.lifeline.org.au
Borodale Communications: https://www.borodalecommunications.com
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ABOUT KINTSUGI HEROES
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Welcome.
We're glad you found your way here.
Kintsugi Heroes was created from a simple belief: every person has a story worth sharing, and sometimes the story we need to hear arrives exactly when we need it most.
Our name comes from the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold. Rather than hiding the cracks, they are honoured as part of the object's history. We believe people are much the same. The experiences that challenge us, break us, shape us, and help us grow are often the very things that connect us to one another.
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We help people tell the stories they need to share so others can discover the story they need to hear.
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