Who Is Tessa Alexa Stanford?
Tessa Alexa Stanford is a boldly imperfect human on a mission to untangle from the Mental Health Industrial Complex and reimagine how we care for humans and the people who care for them. A writer, speaker, and adventurer with a bit of sass and a lot of heart, she’s been deep in the game of social care and transformation for over 15 years. Founder of the Institute for Open-Hearted Psychology and Unspoken Global, Tessa believes in love, creativity, and humanity’s ability to transform True-Self Suppression into unapologetic expression. She’s here to help you break free, reclaim your power, and live open-heartedly—no yoga poses required.
“We are the artist, the mess and the masterpiece.”
— Tessa Alexa Stanford
Tessa Alexa Stanford
True-Self Expression Mentor | Speaker | Facilitator
Founder of the Institute for Open-Hearted Psychology and Unspoken Global
Tessa left her decade-long career in the Social Welfare Sector in 2016 when she became increasingly disillusioned with our systems of care and modern psychological approaches to mental health and overall wellbeing.
During her career, Tessa attained her First Class Honours in Psychology and specialised in Holistic Wellbeing Interventions, Trauma Assessments and Staff Development.
Tessa completed additional study in Nutritional Medicine, Emotional-Regulation and The Neurobiology of Complex and Developmental Trauma, and had worked with various disadvantaged populations (within fields of Child Protection, Early Intervention Mental Health, Domestic Violence, Alternative Education and with Asylum Seekers and Refugees).
After undertaking an adventure of a lifetime to seek deeper answers, Tessa liberated her unique True Self Expression and created a philosophy (Open-Hearted Psychology) that supports others to do the same.
Tessa has since founded the Institute for Open-Hearted Psychology where she now works creatively and therapeutically at the nexus of psychology, embodied love and social transformation to support her clients with Open-Hearted Living, Leadership and Legacy.
Tessa's most recent innovation is her grassroots social movement and early-intervention mental health initiative, Unspoken. Unspoken celebrates courageous story-telling to cultivate courageous communities.
After successful pilot events, Tessa is working to train ambassadors to facilitate these events regionally and expand the project’s reach.
Unspoken ultimately aims to create genuine social change by helping to break intergenerational patterns of shame and suppression, and by bringing more heart, compassion and understanding to the world in uncertain and fearful times.
At heart, Tessa is a small town Country Queensland girl who always wears her heart on her sleeve, has always had big dreams, and who will always believe that real and revolutionary change is possible on this planet if we each take creative responsibility for our own grand adventure of life.
