Honest.Healing.Necessary.
A speaker and wellness curator for the conversations Malaysian workplaces haven't been having — about motherhood, mental load, emotional intelligence, and what it actually feels like to work.
More than inspiration.
Many speakers move a room. Few leave it different. Sofea's sessions do both — pairing lived experience with practical frameworks audiences can use the next morning.
Lived authority
Sofea doesn't theorise about postpartum depression. She lived it, named it, and built a community of thousands of Malaysian mothers in its wake.
Community-sourced insight
What Malaysian mothers say in private — the voices HR teams rarely hear directly. Sofea brings that data into the room.
Tools, not just tears
Frameworks, checklists, and conversation guides — practical material managers and HR can put to work the moment the session ends.
Built for your audience
Every talk is customised. The same topic delivered to a bank, a hospital, and a university looks and lands differently — by design.
Hi, I'm Sofea.
Before I became a speaker, I was a media professional who loved her work, her independence, and knew exactly who she was.
Then I had my first child. And within weeks of giving birth, surrounded by family, visitors, and a beautiful newborn — I felt completely invisible.
I had postpartum depression. But more than that, I had something nobody warned me about — I had lost myself.
I didn't know it then, but my story is the story of one in five Malaysian mothers. And it's the story of the women sitting in your offices right now — the ones who came back from maternity leave smiling, hitting their KPIs, and quietly disappearing inside.
Today I lead Grow & Glow Mama, a community of thousands of Malaysian mothers. And what I share on stage is what they tell me — but would never tell HR.
Five reasons organisations book Sofea.
This is what event organisers, HR leaders, and ERG chairs say after working with Sofea. The combination is rare — and the reason she keeps getting invited back.
She's lived it
Audiences feel the difference between a speaker who studied a subject and one who survived it. Sofea's authority on postpartum mental health is earned — not borrowed. That truth lands the moment she opens her mouth.
Insights your HR will never hear directly
Sofea leads a community of thousands of Malaysian mothers. What they share with her — about returning to work, hiding postpartum struggles, deciding whether to stay or quit — is exactly what your retention data is missing.
Tools, not just tears
Stories move audiences. Frameworks change behaviour. Sofea designs every session around at least one practical takeaway managers and HR can apply the next morning — checklists, conversation scripts, retention playbooks.
Bilingual & culturally fluent
English or Bahasa Malaysia — and the cultural context that sits between them. Sofea speaks to the realities of Malaysian motherhood: pantang, mother-in-law dynamics, the pressure to be the strong Asian woman who doesn't complain.
Customised — every time
A talk for a bank is not the same as a talk for a hospital. Sofea invests in a prep call before every event, learns your audience and your gaps, and tailors stories, frameworks, and language accordingly.
The work.
Three signature talks. Each adapts to a 30-minute keynote, a 60-minute session, or a half-day workshop — depending on what your audience needs.
What Your Returning Mothers Aren't Telling You
The talk that puts numbers on a quiet crisis. Why high-performing women come back from maternity leave smiling — and quietly disappear inside. Built from the voices of thousands of Malaysian mothers who would never tell HR what they tell each other.
Anchored in lived experience and community data, this session reframes maternal mental health as a retention issue, not a wellness one.
- Five silent signals a returning mum is about to quit
- What Malaysian mothers actually need from their employers
- A framework for a postpartum-friendly workplace
- How peer community can complement EAP
The Hidden Cost of Motherhood
Financial stress is one of the top postpartum mental health triggers — and the most ignored. Drawing from Sofea's work with AKPK and Bank Negara Malaysia, this session explores the intersection of money, motherhood, and mental load in Malaysian households.
A culturally specific session that no other speaker in Malaysia owns.
- Financial stress as a postpartum mental health trigger
- The mental load of the working Malaysian mum
- How workplaces can reduce both — practically
- What financial wellness programmes get wrong about mothers
Matrescence: The Identity Shift No One Warned You About
Becoming a mother is not just a life event — it is an identity rupture. This warm, deeply personal talk introduces audiences to matrescence: the psychological transition into motherhood that few are prepared for and even fewer are supported through.
For mothers, partners, families, and anyone who works with new parents.
- Why becoming a mother feels like losing yourself
- The grief beneath the gratitude
- How community rebuilds identity
- What partners and families can actually do
Beyond the keynote.
For organisations that want more than a one-off talk. Sofea curates ongoing wellness programmes for HR teams — multi-session series on emotional intelligence, the mental load, and navigating hard feelings at work.
The EQ at Work Series
Four 90-minute sessions across a quarter. Naming what you feel · Managing reactivity in meetings · The hidden cost of unspoken emotions · Building team emotional safety.
The Mental Load Workshop
A half-day intensive on the invisible labour your team is carrying — and how to redistribute it. Designed for women's networks, parent ERGs, and DEI initiatives.
Curated Wellness Days
Full-day events curated end-to-end — multiple sessions, reflection time, mindful activities. Sofea designs the agenda, hosts, and brings in collaborators where needed.
Custom Programmes
Six- or twelve-month programmes designed around your organisation's specific challenges. Combine keynotes, workshops, manager training, and ongoing community touchpoints.
Looking for something else? Lunch & learns, panel curation, retreat facilitation — all available.
Request the Curation Menu →Ready when you are.
Every engagement — keynote or curated programme — starts with a fifteen-minute discovery call. So what lands in your organisation is what your team actually needs.