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image: Rebecca Westcott, Bush Heritage

About

Words for Change joins the dots between social neuroscience, cognitive linguistics, strategic communication and systems ecology to create the science and practice of language-driven change. Our work is grounded in decades of cross-sector experience and strengthened by interdisciplinary expertise.

 

We regard connection, compassion and curiosity as essential conditions for individual and community wellbeing and resilience. These values ground our practice and guide the change we seek to make.

 

We provide training, mentoring, research, strategy and content creation services. Our work helps changemakers apply evidence-based, practical language tools to shift thinking, deepen engagement and generate meaningful impact and systems change.

Dr Trudi Ryan,
Principal, Words for Change

I’m a language-driven change strategist and interdisciplinary science communicator with over 30 years’ experience working at the interface of social and ecological systems. I hold a B.Sc (Hons) and PhD in ecology, a Master’s in linguistics, and postgraduate qualifications in both behavioural neurobiology and marketing communication.

 

Drawing on this experience, I’ve developed training and capacity-building programs in language-driven change, providing changemakers with tools to frame and reframe issues, activate values and communicate in ways that change hearts, minds and actions. My approach is grounded in science, shaped by systems thinking and oriented towards positive, practical outcomes.

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I’m continually learning and evolving my practice, integrating new insights and tools to better support changemakers navigating complex social and ecological systems. I’m especially interested in applying ecolinguistics—an emerging field that explores the relationships between language, culture, ecology, narrative and systems change. I am also deeply engaged with social neuroscience and its potential to transform change communications, recognising that human interconnectedness underpins dialogue, empathy and collective action. Additionally, I’m developing novel approaches in computational linguistics and AI tools to uncover subtle motivational signals encoded in values-in-speech to open new pathways for strategy, storytelling and impact.

  • Director of the Country Universities Centre (Ovens-Murray)

  • Member of the Foundation for Rural and Regional Renewal (FRRR) Expertise Pool.

  • Accredited Professional Editor (IPEd)

  • Coach in the Schwartz Values System

  • Extensive training in prompt engineering in Generative AI Large Language Models ​

  • Member of several professional associations:​​

    • The International Ecolinguistics Association

    • International Cognitive Linguistics Association

    • The Association for Researching and Applying Metaphor

© Words for Change 2025

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