A few years ago, Margo Ward sat in on one of the schools programs run by the children’s mental health organisation she co-founded, KidsXpress, that helps transform the lives of children impacted by adversity through trauma-informed expressive music, art, dance or play therapy.
“One of the kids, a little refugee girl Rosie* who had physical scars from the torture she had experienced, said, ‘Why did you start KidsXpress?’” Margo recalls. “And I said to her, ‘It’s because children many, many years ago told me they needed a place where they could belong and where they could feel safe.’ And she very quietly came over and held my hand and said, ‘I have the same feeling.’”
Today, as KidsXpress celebrates its 20th anniversary, it is recognised as a pioneer in expressive therapy in Australia, with international recognition and national accreditation.
Child-directed expressive therapy, KidsXpress works with children through participatory sessions involving various artforms selected by the child – be they music, dance, painting, building or sand play. Initially seen as fringe, KidsXpress is now recommended as an early intervention service by 97 per cent of associated medical referrers; while a 2025 independent evaluation of the KidsXpress school partnership program by the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre showed integrated expressive therapy and trauma-informed practice led to statistically significant improvements in children’s wellbeing, alongside improved school attendance and increased educator confidence in supporting students with behavioural and emotional needs.
Expressive therapy empowers kids to express themselves without boundaries or need for words.
Twenty years down the track, KidsXpress annually helps more than 2900 kids just like Rosie through its centres in NSW’s Macquarie Park and Tumut (Snowy Valleys, funded in part by The Tony Foundation), its school-based programs across eight primary schools in Western Sydney and the Illawarra; and community partnerships including the Medicare Mental Health Centre in Canterbury, with a staggering 91.7% of children who attended KidsXpress programs identifying positive change in themselves.
But the beginning of this unique and life-changing organisation goes back many years earlier. Somewhat incongruously, Contiki played a role in KidsXpress’ origin story, as it was on a Contiki camping tour of Europe that Margo first became friends with Paul Hines, in 1998, when the pair sat together on a bus between France and Italy.
“We formed a really beautiful friendship, a lot of our values aligned,” says Margo, with Paul adding: “We just had that immediate emotional connection.”
They remained close friends and it was a few years later during a visit to Sydney to catch up with Paul and others from the tour that KidsXpress came into being.
It had been a busy few years for them both. Paul had continued to grow his career with GSA Insurance Brokers, where he was the owner and CEO (today he is executive chair); while Margo, a trained nurse and teacher, worked in expressive therapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London; before moving to Sydney Children’s Hospital working in children’s oncology and palliative care, again incorporating expressive therapy to ease the children’s physical and mental pain; then shifting into suicide prevention for young people and adults. It was a commendable, selfless career, but one that was leaving Margo feeling powerless.
“I’d taken Paul to Tropicana Café in Darlinghurst and we sat there as old friends do, talking about life, and Paul put his hands over mine and said, ‘Do you think what you’re doing today, suicide prevention, is going to change the life of a child tomorrow?’ And I said, ‘No I don’t’ – at that point I was at the bottom of the cliff trying to stop people ending their lives – ‘but I think I know what will’.”
When Margo Ward and Paul Hines launched KidsXpress, “I knew it was the right thing to do because my clients – the children – showed me, they knew it would work,” says Margo (pictured with Paul).
Margo went on to detail a vision she had been building for 13 years, inspired by the children she had worked with at various workplaces, all suffering trauma for different reasons yet all sharing similar dreams and knowledge of what helped, what worked.
“Paul sat there listening to me describe what we called ‘the silver sanctuary’, this vision of a silver castle full of therapists who would sing and dance and throw paint and all these beautiful things. Because working in suicide prevention adults would say, ‘It all started in childhood’,” Margo says, pointing out half of all adult mental health conditions start before age 14.
“I still have the email Paul sent me the next day saying, ‘Don’t give up your day job just yet, but we’re going to make this happen. Put your business plan together’.”
Paul had known Margo long enough to believe her theory behind the silver sanctuary – what would become KidsXpress – had merit, despite there being no data available at the time. But did she have what it took to lead it?
A multi award-winning businessman with decades of experience in the insurance industry, Paul decided to put Margo and her business plan to the test, bringing her into GSA and having her sell her vision to the team. The pair would ultimately invite doctors, businesspeople, psychologists, and parents who had lost their children to illness to share insights, continually testing the concept.
“I was sold on the importance – as a boarding school kid I needed something like KidsXpress, a good percentage of the population needs something like KidsXpress – what had to be sold to me was Margo’s capacity to do it, to have the drive and determination to see it through, because a lot of good ideas die at the formative stages,” Paul says.
When her then-employer wouldn’t agree to Margo going part-time to enable her to spend more time building KidsXpress, Margo recalls Paul saying, “’OK, resign then. If you really believe in your mission, you’ll support it.’ Then he very kindly said he’d match my wage for a year, give me access to a pool car and a desk at GSA. That was in August 2005. Paul took a massive risk because at the time the evidence wasn’t there. It is now.”
Through expressive therapy and education, KidsXpress helps children process trauma and build resilience.
One year later, on June 6 2006, the first child walked through the doors of KidsXpress, the contemporary embodiment of Margo’s silver sanctuary. Under Paul’s mentorship, Margo has slowly but convincingly evolved from therapist to businesswoman and business leader, thanks too to the expert guidance of John Hewson, founding chair who remained with KidsXpress for 19 years, stepping aside in 2024, with Paul stepping up from deputy chair in 2025.
Alberts philanthropic arm, The Tony Foundation, which aims to improve life outcomes for young Australian’s through music, first joined forces with KidsXpress in 2017 – drawn to its use of music and the arts to help children express themselves, heal from past trauma and adversity, and improve their life trajectory.
When considering two decades of business together, Paul brushes aside Margo’s gratitude for the considerable risk he took supporting her and her vision 20 years ago.
“When I reflect on the journey, it’s the poignant moments of seeing the way our [therapists] deal with these kids who have such beautiful hearts but are so troubled, helping them express themselves through beautiful music and art. That’s when you know you’re onto something.”
*not her real name
