Dr Julie Bajic Smith
Is a psychologist, researcher and workplace wellbeing strategist known for her warm, grounded approach to emotional safety and sustainable practice. With more than 20 years of clinical experience and over a decade working closely with aged care, community services and women in complex roles, Julie brings a rare blend of academic depth, lived experience and deeply human insight.
Julie’s connection to care began long before her professional training. Growing up in a war affected country, learning a new language as a teenager and navigating an education system not built for someone like her shaped her early understanding of resilience, identity and what it means to start again. While studying at university, she worked in disability support, experiences that taught her the emotional labour, patience and presence required in human centred work.
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Her doctorate explored wellbeing in home care workers, and her postdoctoral research focused on supported decision making in dementia. These foundations continue to inform her work today, where she advocates for emotionally safe workplaces, clearer boundaries, and cultures that reduce burnout and genuinely support the people who care for others.
Across her career, Julie has witnessed the quiet courage of those who hold space for others – leaders, carers, practitioners and women balancing multiple roles. She has also lived the realities of burnout and reinvention herself. These experiences shaped her signature approach: practical, compassionate and grounded in the belief that emotional safety is not a luxury – it is a necessity for healthy teams, sustainable leadership and human wellbeing.
In 2011, Julie founded Wise Care to bring evidence based training, leadership development and emotional safety frameworks to aged care providers, community organisations and workplaces across Australia. She has delivered more than 100 workshops on resilience, boundaries, communication and sustainable leadership, equipping professionals to care for themselves as intentionally as they care for others.
Today, Julie is recognised as a transition strategist, supporting individuals and teams through the identity shifts, workplace changes and emotional transitions that define modern work.
Her work spans keynote speaking, consulting, program design and her podcast From Aged Care to Everywhere, where she explores the human side of change with clarity, courage and heart.
At the centre of everything she does is a simple truth:
We matter. Our wellbeing shapes the way we lead, care and connect.
Julie’s mission is to help people stay grounded, connected and whole – one conversation, one team, one transition at a time.
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