Sleep Expert Olivia Arezzolo on Therapy, Healing and the Ayahuasca Retreat That Saved Her Life

Listen to the full episode here

Some conversations stay with you long after the recording stops. My conversation with Olivia Arezzolo, one of Australia's most respected sleep experts, was one of them. We came together to talk about sleep, the subject she has built her career on, and we ended up somewhere far more tender: her own story of despair, survival and the radical decision to choose herself, again and again.

This is one of the most honest episodes of Beautiful Inside we have shared. If you only know Olivia as the calm, authoritative voice telling you to put your phone away an hour before bed, I think you will be moved by how much she has lived through to get here.

A lonely childhood and the years that nearly broke her

Olivia's story does not begin with wellness. It begins with pain. She speaks openly about a lonely childhood and family dynamics that shaped a fierce, early independence, the kind of self-reliance that can look like strength but often grows out of survival.

In her teenage years that pain hardened into depression, bullying and eating disorders that eventually saw her hospitalised. She lived through bulimia and anorexia, and there were years where simply getting through the day felt like the whole task.

What I found so powerful was the turning point she describes, the quiet, defiant moment she decided, "I deserve more than this." It is not a dramatic Hollywood scene. It is the inner shift so many of us recognise, the moment you stop waiting to be rescued and start the slow work of rebuilding yourself.

The therapy and healing that rewired her relationship with herself

Recovery, for Olivia, was not a single intervention but a long accumulation of brave choices. She talks candidly about the therapeutic breakthroughs that rewired her relationship with herself, the intensive group therapy, the meditation, and the deep, unglamorous work of facing what she had survived.

This is the part of healing we so rarely show. It is not linear, it is not quick, and it asks you to keep showing up for yourself even when nothing feels fixed yet. Listening to Olivia, you understand that the calm, grounded woman she is today was built one hard, honest session at a time.

The Ayahuasca retreat in Costa Rica that changed everything

The most pivotal chapter of Olivia's journey came through a life-changing Ayahuasca experience at a retreat in Costa Rica. She describes it as the moment that transformed her outlook on love, fear and purpose, a profound reframing of how she wanted to live.

It is important to say this did not come out of nowhere. It came after years of therapy, meditation and inner work, and Olivia is thoughtful about that context. For her, the retreat was less a shortcut and more a culmination, a turning point that crystallised everything she had been working towards.

Turning pain into purpose, and the science of sleep

Out of all of that, Olivia built a career helping other people rest. She is now a sought-after sleep expert, author and wellness advocate, and what strikes me is how her science-backed approach to sleep is inseparable from her own healing. She understands, from the inside, what it is to lie awake with an anxious mind.

We talk about the science of sleep and her devotion to ritual, including the three-hour morning routine she swears by. Her message is consistent and quietly radical: true wellness is built from the inside out, in the small, repeatable choices we make every single day.

If you are in the thick of your own rebuilding, I hope Olivia's story gives you what it gave me, the reminder that choosing yourself is not a one-time decision. It is a practice.

Beautiful Inside by Beauticate is hosted by Sigourney Cantelo, founder of Beauticate, award-winning beauty journalist and former Vogue Australia Beauty Director.

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