She had five kids to live for and was pregnant with her sixth, but her decade-long gambling addiction had eroded all sense of purpose in her life. She didn’t want to keep existing like this.

Within seconds of inserting the note into the machine, her husband Phil called again, for the 12th time. With "literally every fibre of my being", Kate answered the call.

"Please. Please. Just come home," Phil pleaded.

She didn’t know how. Somehow she made it to her family home in Murrumbateman.

And it was a conversation with her then 12-year-old son Ethan when she arrived home that gave her the tiniest pin-prick of light at the end of a very, very dark tunnel.

"Mum, what's wrong?" Ethan asked, looking directly up into his mum's face.

"I've made a lot of mistakes," she replied.

"But mum, everyone makes mistakes."

It was the sentence Kate needed to hear.

"I suddenly realised how isolated I'd been, and how I was blaming 18-year-old Kate for first putting money into a poker machine," she said.

"I knew nothing about the dangers of the machines when I first sat down behind one, 20 years ago. I thought I was in a safe environment playing a ‘game’. I had no clue it was neurologically as addictive as cocaine."

Kate literally went to the "depths of my very being" to better understand herself. Most importantly, she forgave herself. It took years, but as she better understood her own struggle, she became intensely curious how her story could help others.

She began sharing her story publicly in 2015 in an effort to help other addicted gamblers. In 2016, she founded The Hope Project, "to help all people deal with their life struggles intentionally and develop strategies for resilience".

Her system for living a life of sustainable mental health - AWAKE - is now a course in-demand across workplaces, universities, schools and community groups nationally.

At networking events, she's the one almost always talking to someone in tears.

"As soon as I tell people about The Hope Project, about my story, it's like they have permission to share the fact that, they too, are struggling," Kate said.

"This huge facade they've had up just crumbles, and they speak honestly and with such relief they end up in tears.

"It's not a conscious decision people have to make - when you meet with vulnerability, it allows for vulnerability to show."

It's this need for opening up the conversation around struggle that drives Kate.

"We do pretty much anything and everything to avoid, distract or numb away our experiences, instead of dealing with them constructively," she said.

"I almost paid the ultimate price for being afraid to admit my humanity. I felt so trapped and alone, and so afraid of judgement.

"We just live in this disconnected, facade-clad society that doesn't foster this crucial part of our human experience and we're all suffering as a result.

"An invisible gap opens up between someone who is struggling and the rest of the world because there's a perceived weakness.

"We're meant to be connected and sharing our authentic experiences with one another so that we can collectively learn from them, not be defined by them."

Sitting for a portrait for The Canberra Times, it's obvious Kate's six children adore her. She's calm, quiet and anchored in their presence.

"Of course, I'm especially interested in children and how we educate them on dealing with pain and trauma," she said.

"Teaching children about struggles is essential and the part we dropped the ball on is helping them see that it's an essential part of growth."

The Hope Project is hosting the Australian premiere of documentary Resilience: The Biology of Stress and the Science of Hope at the National Film and Sound Archive on Wednesday, April 11. For further information head to thehopeprojectnow.com

If you are experiencing a personal crisis, you can contact Lifeline 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au