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As a part of the Morning Lazziness sequence highlighting empowering girls who’re making a exceptional influence with their concepts, I had the pleasure of interviewing Elizabeth Bancroft.
Elizabeth (Liz) Bancroft is a Scientific & Counselling Psychologist, EMDR-Accredited Practitioner, and Founding father of Hope Affirm Thrive, Australia and the world’s first neurodivergent-affirming psychological help program for girls navigating IVF. With over 14 years of medical expertise in trauma-informed care and lived expertise as a late-diagnosed autistic girl who endured 6 years of infertility therapy, Liz bridges the crucial hole between fertility medication and psychological well being.
Her signature program, Your Roadmap By IVF, integrates neuroscience, trauma remedy, and sensible advocacy instruments to assist girls regulate their nervous methods, course of grief, and self-advocate by means of the IVF course of. Designed with neurodivergent brains in thoughts, this system affords visible construction, sensory regulation methods, and evidence-based emotional resilience constructing, as a result of psychological security isn’t non-obligatory for reproductive wellbeing.
Liz’s work has been featured on Australian ABC Information, ABC Radio Nationwide, and in publications like IVF Babble and Reframing Autism. She’s offered on the EMDR Affiliation of Australia, Neurodiversity Affirming Remedy Convention, and Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand conferences, advocating for systemic reform to fund psychological take care of IVF sufferers. She’s additionally main a nationwide Change.org petition to deliver Medicare-funded psychological well being help to fertility therapy.
Combining medical rigor with refreshingly trustworthy humor, Liz’s method proves that even within the hardest moments, therapeutic might be hopeful, human, and deeply empowering. By her work, she’s creating the help system she desperately wanted and guaranteeing nobody has to navigate this journey feeling damaged by the system meant to assist them.
On this interview, she reveals the mindset shifts, daring strikes, and classes that helped her flip concepts into impactful on-line companies.
What impressed your leap into entrepreneurship, and what private experiences sparked the concept behind your present enterprise?
Hope Affirm Thrive was born from necessity. After years supporting trauma survivors and navigating IVF myself as a late-diagnosed autistic girl, I witnessed firsthand how unprepared the system was for neurodivergent sufferers. I constructed this system I desperately wanted, one which marries medical rigor with real empathy and real-world practicality.
What core downside does your online business clear up, notably for girls or underserved communities—and the way does your method stand out in as we speak’s aggressive area?
We help girls navigating IVF who really feel remoted, overwhelmed, and invisible, particularly neurodivergent girls. Hope Affirm Thrive bridges the chasm between fertility medication and psychological well being utilizing trauma-informed, evidence-based instruments which might be each affirming and accessible. It’s not simply teaching, it’s psychological infrastructure for survival.
What have been a few of the hardest obstacles you confronted early in your journey as a girl entrepreneur, and the way did you navigate by means of them?
Bootstrapping a psychological well being startup with out investor backing meant constructing slowly and deliberately. I discovered to reframe setbacks as knowledge, not defeat, and to prioritize sustainable development over viral moments. There’s profound energy in constructing one thing moral as a substitute of extractive.
When the going will get powerful, what retains you grounded and motivated to maintain pushing ahead?
My purchasers. Watching them shift from despair to self-advocacy jogs my memory why this work exists. That, and a well-timed Mary Avenue Bakery donut, by no means underestimate strategic pleasure.
What every day habits or non-negotiable routines show you how to keep centered, creatively energized, and balanced as a founder?
Morning cuddles with my son whereas he’s nonetheless sleeping (sure, we’re nonetheless co-sleeping), noise-canceling headphones for deep work, and unapologetic night binges of actuality TV to decompress after medical days. Creativity wants construction, however survival wants responsible pleasures.
What’s been the best development lever for buying new purchasers or increasing your buyer base?
Radical transparency. Sharing the messy center, burnout, hope, humor, failure, resonates way over curated perfection. Vulnerability builds belief, and belief builds neighborhood. Folks don’t need a guru; they need a information who’s been within the trenches.
What branding or advertising and marketing resolution had the most important influence in elevating your online business and constructing belief along with your viewers?
Proudly owning my full voice. The second I ended writing like a “correct psychologist” and began talking like a human who’s lived it, every little thing modified. Folks crave experience wrapped in empathy, not jargon disguised as authority.
How do you personally outline success—not simply as a enterprise proprietor, however as a girl residing a purpose-driven life?
Success is constructing one thing that outlasts my exhaustion. It’s listening to “I lastly really feel understood” from somebody who’s been gaslit by methods meant to assist them. That’s the type of influence that transcends metrics.
Are you able to share a mistake or misstep that taught you a lesson you continue to carry with you as we speak?
Early on, I over-gave, emotionally, temporally, energetically, till I almost broke. I’ve since discovered that sustainable influence requires fierce boundaries. You’ll be able to’t pour from an empty cup, and also you undoubtedly can’t pour from a dysregulated nervous system.
What’s your finest recommendation for girls simply beginning out—particularly first-time entrepreneurs feeling overwhelmed or not sure of their subsequent steps?
Begin earlier than you’re prepared. You don’t want the total blueprint, simply the following step and the willingness to course-correct with self-compassion. Progress isn’t linear, and perfection is simply procrastination in a prettier bundle.
How do you method danger and innovation, particularly when breaking new floor in a male-dominated or fast-changing trade?
I’m a solo practitioner, so my “staff” is me, myself, and my very affected person nervous system. That stated, the tradition I create inside my enterprise displays how I need purchasers to really feel, seen, secure, and free to be messy whereas therapeutic.
Should you lead a staff, how do you foster a tradition of belief, inclusivity, collaboration, and development?
We lead with curiosity over assumption. Neurodivergent-affirming tradition means honoring flexibility, sensory wants, and psychological security. Folks produce their finest work after they can present up authentically, not simply professionally.
What are the highest 5 mindset shifts or private practices that helped you overcome self-doubt and develop your confidence as a girl entrepreneur?
- Self-doubt doesn’t imply cease, it means stretch.
- Relaxation is strategic, not indulgent.
- You might be each exhausted and extraordinary.
- Suggestions isn’t failure, it’s calibration.
- Construct for legacy, not applause.
Should you may spark a world motion by means of your work, what wouldn’t it be—and why is that mission significant to you?
That trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming fertility care turns into a human proper, not a privilege. Entry to compassionate psychological help throughout IVF shouldn’t rely on postcode or revenue, reproductive justice calls for we middle dignity, autonomy, and emotional security for all.
What’s a quote, philosophy, or guiding perception that shapes the way you lead, create, and reside each day?
“Maintain hope for others till they will maintain it themselves.” It’s each my medical basis and my entrepreneurial north star, reminding me that transformation occurs in relationship, not isolation.
The place can our viewers join with you, discover your work, or comply with your entrepreneurial journey on-line?
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