Alana Trudgeon
Snapshot:
Industry / Sector: Community Services, Health, Not-For-Profits
Education Pathway: University
Mid Coast Connection: Born & Raised on the Mid Coast
The Blurb:
Alana Trudgeon is a volunteer crisis supporter with Lifeline and also worked as administration and wellbeing at Taree Universities Campus, all while studying towards a Bachelor of Counselling. Her work in suicide prevention has grown from a deep passion for mental health and helping people feel heard during their darkest moments.
Alana shares her personal reflections on navigating the intense emotional challenges of Lifeline training, the privilege of holding space for others, and the importance of flexibility in one’s career path. Her story encourages others to explore new directions and find purpose through service.
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Current Role: Crisis supporter for Lifeline (text line), also worked as an admin and wellbeing staff member at TUC, student of counselling.
Career Path: Initially uncertain, discovered passion for suicide prevention through Lifeline training.
Key Skills: Deep empathy, resilience, listening without judgment, holding space in times of crisis.
Challenges Shared: Grappling with normalising discussions around suicide during training, emotional intensity of crisis support.
What She Loves: The privilege of being present for someone in their lowest moments, making people feel heard.
Advice to Younger Self: It’s okay to start at any time and change direction—there’s no set timeline for success.
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“Knowing that it helps so much just to be heard and just have someone there with you... that helps the most.”
“It’s a real privilege and honor to be there with people in their worst moments.”
“There’s no set timeline, and it’s really okay to change your route.”
“Seeing it in action would have helped—just knowing that it’s going to change, and that’s okay.”
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[0:10] Intro
Hi, my name is Hailey. This is the Human Library video series. In this video series, we interview people from the local community and hear their stories.
Today we met with Alana Trudgeon. She's a crisis supporter for Lifeline, and she also works in admin and wellbeing at Taree Universities Campus. Today, Alana told us all about how passion has helped her get through difficult work.
[0:39] What does your professional life look like at the moment?
At the moment, I am studying towards my Bachelor of Counselling, and I'm a volunteer crisis supporter with Lifeline. I also do admin and wellbeing work at Taree Uni.
As a crisis supporter, I work from home on the text line. So if people in crisis need to talk to someone, they can text Lifeline and I'm one of the people who will reply. I'm there listening to their stories, their pain, what's going on for them, and working through any safety procedures that need to be put in place.
[1:30] Could you tell us about a skill that has helped you get to where you are at the moment?
I think using my passion for mental health, and talking to people and helping people feel heard in some of their lowest moments, has helped me a lot in my Lifeline work and training.
[1:54] What does passion mean to you? What does it look like for you?
I think it helps with the drive—because it can be tough work. The stuff you're hearing, it's people at crisis points. So it is tough work, and it's hard to know exactly what to say.
But knowing that it helps so much just to be heard, just to have someone there with you—that helps the most. I think having that passion for helping people feel heard is what gets me through the conversations that can be really difficult.
[2:39] Do you have a specific example where passion has helped you achieve a goal or overcome a challenge?
I think getting through the training for Lifeline was really tough. It’s very intense. Normalizing suicide is really something new—like, we don’t often talk about suicide.
So talking about it so normally, that was really difficult to get through. I honestly didn’t know if I could do the work because of that.
But just knowing how much it really helps to have someone there with you to listen—I think that really got me through that struggle of, "How am I going to do this?"
[3:36] What do you love about the work that you're doing?
I love the fact that it’s a real privilege and honour to be there with people in their worst moments. That I get to be sitting there with them and holding that space for them. It's very rare to get that in society or in life in general—to get that unconditional ear. So it’s a real privilege to be able to do that.
[4:09] What do you think this says about what's important to you?
I'm studying a Bachelor of Counselling at the moment, and I would love to eventually work with Lifeline. So I think having these foundations and these skills is really beneficial for building that career in the future.
[4:37] If you could give your younger self just starting out one piece of advice, what would it be?
I think it’s okay to start at any point and change up what you really want to do. I didn’t know I would go into suicide prevention as a passion of mine, but it just came up when the training came up—and I absolutely loved it. So I think knowing there’s no set timeline and that it’s really okay to change your route.
[5:10] What do you think it would have meant to your younger self to hear this piece of advice?
It would have been really helpful, because when we're in school, we get so much pressure to know exactly what we want to do and exactly what it's going to look like. I think just knowing that it's going to change—and that's okay—would have helped. It probably wouldn’t have taken away the pressure, but seeing it in action would have helped.
Please note: All content is correct at the time of recording.
