I have been supporting people through personal healing and growth for twenty-six years and have been in private practice since 2015. I enjoy and have experience working with women, men, couples and families and draw on a few therapeutic approaches, modalities and understandings to heal emotional wounds including: somatic psycho-therapy, trauma-informed practice, attachment theory, family constellation work, mindfulness and Emotional Focused Therapy. I have also completed Radical Exposure Tapping®, Level I (Deactivating the Buttons) with Laurie MacKinnon.

I have experience supporting people navigate the impacts of the following experiences: sexual assault and sexual abuse, trauma, childhood trauma, depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, infidelity, grief, loss and death, boundaries, self-esteem and self-care and communication.

I am also a Registered NDIS Provider (National Disability Insurance Scheme) and can offer individual therapy.

Our intimate partner can act as the greatest mirror for our hidden insecurities and wounding as well as our deepest capacity to love another.

So, if you have found yourself on this page, then you are ready to experience yourself and your intimate other in a very different way. Repairing the relationship has begun…..

My therapeutic approach to couple’s therapy is informed by two of the greatest couple’s therapists; Sue Johnson, who developed Emotional Focussed Therapy (EFT) for Couple’s and Ether Perel.And I have a particular interest in helping couples navigate the tumultuous aftermath of an infidelity!

Emotional Focussed Therapy is based on attachment theory and uses attachment and connection to create therapeutic transformation. EFT attempts to find new solutions to old problems and relationship distress is seen as a coping strategy. The approach explores stuck interactional patterns, emotional unavailability and insecure attachment, to reveal how each person protects themselves in the relationship. The therapist supports each person to move beyond their secondary emotions of anger, frustration, helplessness and despair, towards their primary emotions such as sadness, disappointment, fear and longing, where unmet attachment needs live. It requires each person to be with the vulnerability of the other.

Esther Perel’s amazing wisdom on intimacy, desire, sex, eros and infidelity speaks to the complexity of our capacity to love and be loved. Her work empathically enables people to take responsibility for the hurts caused to the other as well as each person’s exiled desires.

Couple’s therapy is a process. It takes time, commitment and above all, courage to touch into our own shadow side and own it completely. But, in the true spirit for connection and love, it’s truly worth it!

The Process

I provide an initial free 20 minute telephone consultation prior to booking any session. During this consultation, it is important that I speak with each person, either separately or together.Both people attend the initial therapy session together, followed by an individual session for each person. During the individual session, all information that the person discloses is confidential, unless it’s important information for relationship transformation. All subsequent sessions are held together.

What is Family Constellations?

Family Constellations is a therapeutic approach developed by Bert Hellinger- a Gestalt and Systems Therapist. It is a psycho-dynamic, somatic and spiritual approach to resolving current problems by looking into family systems and ancestral lines.

In Family Constellations, current problems are perceived as stemming back to emotional and physical entanglements, exclusions (secrets), disordering of responsibilities (e.g. a child carrying a parent emotionally) and traumas. These get passed on unconsciously and energetically from previous generations of the family, even if those who are affected currently are unaware of the original event or trauma in the past.

Family Constellations requires us to put aside our own experience of the world and assume an attitude of ‘not knowing’ and to enter the experience of the constellation with openness, curiosity and without judgements.

How it works.

In Family Constellations, the facilitator creates an open space for whatever needs to come out to come out. It uses a somatic approach and favors a whole body sensing and feeling experience over thinking and analysing, to uncover hidden dynamics of the unconscious mind and soul.

The facilitator will ask you to briefly describe an issue that is impacting you the most right now. The clearer you are about the issue, the deeper the constellation will go. The facilitator will then ask you to give some information about your current family, family of origin (parents) and both maternal and paternal grandparents. You will be asked about any major traumas in you family line such as death, divorce, migration, war, pregnancy loss and abuse. From the information you have given, the facilitator usually decides who will be represented in your constellation.

In private individual sessions you will be asked to choose objects or pieces of felt material provided by the facilitator to represent yourself, your family members and current issues. You will then be asked to place the pieces of felt material on the floor, placing every one of your family members in relationship to yourself. The facilitator will then ask you to step onto each piece of felt material, which represent yourself and your family, and ask you what you feel in your body. You will experience various sensations. The facilitator will also step onto each piece. Based on both your responses, the family constellation will unfold. Therefore the facilitator will both guide the process as well as represent various people in your family.

You will then view your constellation unfold through this process.

It’s brief therapy

Family Constellations is brief, solution focused therapy therefore usually two or three sessions are enough. Family Constellation work takes you to the core of an issue, therefore rapidly resolves long held difficulties. If you are someone who has tried various healing therapies but still find that you are holding on to things, then Family Constellations might be key to you finally letting it all go.

Private Yoga for healing trauma is individual sessions that create a safe space for people to explore yoga for self-healing and empowerment. To get started with private yoga, first you need to book in for an Initial Assessment Session.

In this 90-minute session we will talk about your needs and goals for the private sessions. These sessions are also informed by somatic-psychotherapy. Working at your pace, we will have a brief discussion on the following:

-the Window of Tolerance

-fears and hopes about connecting to your body

-exploring body signals and body sensations

-polyvagal mapping -exploring somatic (body) resources such as grounding, containing and centering

A personlised program will then be developed based on what is discussed. A variety of yoga techniques will be considered such as yoga postures, yoga-nidra, breathing techniques and meditation practices. We may also work on crafting a personalised intention for you that will guide your healing journey. Private classes are also available for anyone wanting to deepen their yoga practice in a personalized environment.