About Tracey Anthony

It was 1984 and the new student was a skinny 12 year old Greek Australian girl sat in the classroom with the suffocating Guam humidity adding to the culture shock of the new school & new country.

With open louvres, the local girls could walk past & see the new girl, taunting her with violent threats.

She was scared, she was constantly trying to make herself feel safe. Bullied in a way she had never experienced.

There was no support from the teachers and with no friends, she shut down and went into protection mode.

Three years later, they relocated to Key West Florida and did it all again in a new class, new school, new country.

She was unheard, unseen, disconnected from everything. Displaced and feeling safer to play small.

She learnt it was better to stay quiet, lay low, for her survival.

That student was me.

In my late teens to 20s, I found myself back in Perth, more disconnected, with no strong friendship ties. Feeling lost thus floated through the next decade. The only thing I was sure about was wanting to help young people.

In my 30s, as a new teacher, I recognised teens were lacking tools and strategies to help them face adolescent challenges.

I was awarded Australian Teacher of the Year 2009 for my ability to build relationships which enabled me to help students, families and communities thrive.

I became passionate about preventative strategies and created a program which saw me awarded the Norm Hyde Award (WA) 2010 for setting up Speaking Club - an interactive safe space for students to connect across social and cultural boundaries. The club is still running to this day.

In my 40s, I gravitated towards reflective practices for myself. The more I cultivated self-awareness, the more I was able to unfold into who I really was. Nurturing the troubled teen within me was truly liberating.

The benefits were so profound for me that these practices integrated into my teaching ethos - seeing my students benefit from the same self enquiry confirmed in me the importance of this offering.

Skills as a teacher developed from this lived experience and it allows me to hold space for your teen and young adult. I deeply understand the need to be seen and heard and to feel safe and connected.

I was nicknamed Trackydak when I was a young adult. It made me laugh but I warmed to it immediately as it was a representation of who I was. It resonated with me because I always felt at home in that state of mind. Skateboarding with friends, being a tomboy.

Feeling comfortable in my own skin and relaxed meant the world to me because I never felt that way a lot of the time in my teens and my childhood.

When I’m in that trackydak pocket, I feel like me and naturally gravitate to those who make me feel seen.

I am comfortable and relaxed and playful and me.