The idea for this project began with a group of old friends who are all therapists, in an annual workshop where, since 2002, we have gathered from the far corners of Australia to learn and extend our abilities as therapists. This year Peter shared that his son was reading The Barefoot Investor and this inevitably sent the conversation on an expansive route, where simple, common sense ideas hang out. We spoke about the Barefoot Doctors project in china where farmers received minimal basic medical and paramedical training in an effort to address the inequity between urban and rural health care. The parallels to deficiencies in mental health care were obvious and so the idea of teaching Barefoot Therapists was born.