Depth Somatic Psychotherapy for Women – An Embodied Approach to Wholeness, Healing and Integration

“Within every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force filled with good instincts, passionate creativity and ageless knowing. Bone by bone, hair by hair, Wild Woman comes back. Through night dreams, through events half understood and half remembered…” Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Welcome to my Counselling & Psychotherapy Practice.

What is Somatic Psychotherapy, you may be wondering? “Somatic” simply means body-oriented. By focusing your awareness on internal sensation, emotion and physical movement, somatic psychotherapy allows you to experience your body in the present moment, because healing happens in the here and now. The word “Psychotherapy” is made up of two parts: ‘psyche’ meaning ‘soul’, and ‘therapy’ meaning, ‘to tend and care for’. So the practice of Somatic Psychotherapy is to tend and care for the body and soul.

As a qualified Counsellor and Psychotherapist with over 20 years experience, I offer the women and non-binary folk I work with the opportunity to turn inward, towards the body and soul and to safely tend to any tensions that are currently present in their life through somatic, symbolic, archetypal, mythopoetic and expressive depth processes. I offer face-to-face sessions in my serene, nature-surround, private counselling studio on Gubbi Gubbi land, on the beautiful Sunshine Coast, Qld.

Just like nature, I firmly believe the women I work with are whole and complete just as they are. All the wisdom we need is right here, right now, inside us, simply waiting to be expressed, embodied and lived through our one precious life. It is my great privilege to witness and guide you on your path to wholeness.

Throughout my career I have been drawn to experiential processes that get to the heart of the matter. That get underneath the chatter of the mind and that touch the places inside we rarely listen to, yet hold great wisdom for our lives. I believe that our psyche and soma (mind and body) are intricately connected to each other, to nature and to the collective. I encourage the women I work with to turn with curiosity towards their inner, most authentic Self, in order to face the inevitable suffering of life and to create meaning from the challenging, but often beautiful, experiences life throws their way.

I value and create safe therapeutic spaces and relationships with women that welcome all of who they are through self-expression, movement, touch and symbolic representation. I welcome the shadow parts; the young, innocent and often wounded parts; the yet-to-be known parts; the oh-so-loving parts; and the wise-ancient-woman parts. I commit to continuously growing alongside you, as we traverse the often times mysterious and mystical path towards a life worth living.

Through my own extensive process of integrating early developmental trauma and attachment disruption, I have followed many pathways to the soul, to the heart and to the body. Some of these include: Jungian Sandplay Therapy, Expressive Therapies, Somatic Experiencing®, Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience, NeuroAffective Touch®, Family Constellations, Yoga and Holotropic Breathwork. From my extensive training and work with clients, and my own personal life experience, I bring a depth and warmth to my clinical practice to support and guide women on their path of self-awakening and growth.

Who Do I Work With?

“The doors to the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door. If you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and water so much you almost can not bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.” Clarissa Pinkola Estés

I work with adult women and non-binary folk. I welcome those who have experienced early developmental trauma (also known as attachment trauma), relationship concerns or breakdown, loss and grief (including disenfranchised grief), extensive stress and burnout, anxiety and/or depression, identity issues, life transitions, adoption/relinquishment trauma, the discovery of neurodiversity, and by default, who may be experiencing blocked creativity and disconnection from their body, nature, Self and Soul Life.

Extensive stress, a busy and chaotic lifestyle, toxic relationships (past or present), climate change and the impact of systemic injustices such as colonisation, racism, neurotypical dominance, patriarchy & homophobia can have a huge impact on our connection to Self and to the collective. Most healing journeys involve a process of grieving what we did not get, identifying and restoring what’s been missing, realignment between mind and body, installing boundaries in places we feel intruded upon, whilst also building our internal and external resources as we connect more deeply to our wisdom, our goodness, our dreams and our longing.

To discover the modalities I use in my clinic with clients, click How I Work.