
Take It From Us with Kent Johns
Take It From Us is the voice of lived experience. In this podcast, you'll hear real people share honest stories about mental health, addiction, trauma and recovery - straight from their own journeys.
They'll tell you what actually worked, what didn't, and what they wish they'd known sooner.
Host Kent Johns is a former broadcaster-turned-health-coach who believes everyone has a story to tell if people take the time to really listen.
So settle in, you're going to hear some stories. Take it from us - and from them.
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If you need support, click here for helpful links, phone numbers and resources:
https://ember.org.nz/resources/in-a-crisis/
Podcasting since 2025 • 9 episodes
Take It From Us with Kent Johns
Latest Episodes
Wellbeing champion Tim Mehrtens: Why I'm grateful for even the worst things that happened to me
Tim Mehrtens is passionate about helping people thrive - but that passion was born from his darkest moments. After experiencing severe trauma in 2012, Tim spiralled into PTSD and multiple suicide attempts, before facing the brutal reality that ...
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34:42

Kayla Schwalger: How Samoan culture became my mental health medicine
Growing up between two worlds, Kayla Schwalger felt disconnected from her Samoan heritage while trying to succeed in New Zealand - a struggle many second-generation Pacific Islanders know well. Moving to Samoa at 14 helped, but it a...
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29:30

Tui Taurua: How I used traditional Māori healing to get off countless psychiatric medications
Tui Taurua calls herself a "mental health warrior" - and after her journey, she's earned that title. From 1977 to 2001, she spent over two decades cycling in and out of psychiatric hospitals, hearing voices that doctors called "hall...
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36:09

Chris Ranui-Molloy: Recovering from addiction using drama therapy
Chris Ranui-Molloy's journey from a declining Bay of Plenty logging town to founding Recovery Street is a story of transformation through the most unlikely medium - theatre. Growing up wit...
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38:08

Rhonda Hāpi-Smith: Surviving 20 years as a female prison officer
Rhonda Hāpi-Smith describes her career as a female prison officer in New Zealand as "wonderful, devastating, fantastic and heartbreaking" - and those contradictions tell the whole story. For 20 years, she walked among dangerous crim...
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37:15

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