Find Connection & Compassion
Clarity amid a World of Chaos
Psychotherapy & Counselling based in the Southern Suburbs of Brisbane, Australia
Areas of Specialisation
Though I note the below are areas of specialisation, there is one thing common to each one: Coming to know and understand one’s authentic sense of Self through a somatic and dynamic exploration of body, mind, and soul. Together, you and I, shall seek to understand who you are – with connection and compassion, we find clarity amid a world of chaos.
See below for more details on healing from Ambiguous Trauma & Trauma; Professional Burnout & Carer Burnout; Familial & Relational Breakdown; Lost Sense of Self & the Impacts of Mental Illness; as well as Parts Theory of Mind (IFS).
Ambiguous Trauma
This is a hidden form of trauma that originates from repeated developmental experiences of emotional neglect or abandonment and stems from what was missing throughout development or that which has been lost over time.
This form of trauma is ambiguous as it is not what happened, rather it is what did not happen.
Rather than overt abuse or clear incidents of harm, ambiguous trauma is a form of emotional isolation within a time where being seen, heard, understood, accepted, valued, and even delighted in is imperative to one’s sense of identity and belonging; the overwhelming feeling of emotional separation and the felt sense that one does not make sense, that one is ashamedly ‘different’ or ‘wrong’ when acting from an authentic sense of Self.
If you have ever experienced this form of ambiguous suffering I offer a space of co-regulated connection where together we will, after establishing a sense of safety and reciprocity, collaborate in a manner that allows us to explore the elements of your past that may have left you in a state of alarmed aloneness.
With compassion my role shall be to support you in exploring the various nonconscious ways you have learned to cope, including repeated patterns of Self-protection. This exploration will importantly seek to unfold your most authentic Self in care and with courage; I offer space for you to know what it means to be truly seen, heard, understood, accepted, valued, and delighted in.
Together we shall reconnect you with your authentic sense of Self (identity-significance), Others (relationship-communication), and with the World that surrounds you (meaning-purpose).
Trauma
If you are seeking support for the impact of trauma, I offer a space of co-regulated connection where together we will re-establish your internal and external sense of trust and safety.
With compassionate collaboration I will support you in exploring the various nonconscious ways you have learned to cope including repeated patterns of Self-protection.
This exploration will also seek to uncover themes of internal dialogue, and/or beliefs about Self that have developed in response to your trauma.
Further to this, I will support you in building a stronger sense of who you authentically are now with care and compassion; this is a space that acknowledges the impact of your traumatic experiences within the context of your life.
We take the time to make sense of how the past impacts the present and to create a grounded sense of Self with secure authenticity.
Incident(s) of trauma are subjective however may include:
- Overt or covert abuse & neglect,
- Violence including physical assault or sexual assault,
- Moral or spiritual exploitation,
- Relational betrayal, or
- Adverse childhood experiences.
Trauma is often identified within the medical field as:
Professional Burnout
If you are within a position where the demands of your work have begun to impede on your quality of live or your sense of Self, you may be experiencing compassion fatigue. This fatigue may stem from long-term work-related stress, vicarious trauma, or moral distress. No matter the causation of your burnout, I offer a space of co-regulated connection and compassionate collaboration where together we begin to understand and address the roots of this overwhelm.
Such may be an internal journey or a Self-exploration into the various pressures that push you beyond capacity and into spaces of exhaustion or a lack of motivation. Together we may also seek to unpack any parts of you that feeling a denigrated sense of hope, or parts of you that may have noticed changing beliefs about Self, Other, and the World. Within this space I offer compassion-based support that assists you to unravel any past and present situations that have left you without the professional or personal quality of life you desire. We work together in relational collaboration identifying, conceptualising, and ultimately making sense of the different aspects of your role (including relationships with superiors, peers, and/or clients) or of certain situations (including, but not limited to, witnessing or experiencing incidents of trauma or intense suffering, violence, or behaviours that are conflictual to your moral beliefs or assumptions of human nature) occurring within your role that have arisen over time creating heightening levels of stress.
Our work together may include working with concepts of attachment, authenticity, boundaries, power dynamics, and communication patterns; this is a collaboration that co-creates an understanding of who you are in the context of others and learning how to manage the pressures that impede your quality of life, whilst also extending that quality of life in a manner that is more congruent to who you authentically are.
Carer Burnout
If you are a parent, sibling, or primary carer (past or present) of someone with a chronic and significant mental health condition: ASD/ADHD/AuDHD; Developmental trauma/CPTSD; Pathological Demand Avoidance or a Pervasive Drive for Autonomy, Conduct and/or communication disorders; Schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders; and/or the like, I offer compassionate support for you in your role in caring for others.
I provide safe meaningful connection where you are heard openly with non-judgemental validity and acceptance of your subjective experiences; our connection is open for exploration of the impact these experiences have on who you are as a person.
With compassionate collaboration I also offer support to you in the process of demystifying behaviours of both neurodiverse and neurotypical children. This process is based in understanding the nuances of the nervous system, the purpose and regulation of emotions, and how to identify feelings as they relate to our innate needs and motivations.
Further to this I will support you in re-connecting with an internal sense of Self. To restore the aspects of your authentic Self that may have been lost over the duration of caring for someone with high needs. This is a space that offers time for Self-expression and for you to re-establish your Self-esteem, whilst also rebuilding the Self-efficacy that so oft becomes disorientated amidst caring for others.
Familial / Relational Breakdown
If you grew up in a home where a lingering of unease infused the spaces, where chaotic or rigid ways of interaction or relating left you feeling emotionally unseen, unheard, and misunderstood, or a home where you felt an ongoing sense of not truly belonging or connecting, or if your family home has left you feeling emotionally lost, confused, or struggling within your current relationships, I support you in understanding how a dysfunctional or disintegrated family home or parent has affected you or is impacting you now as an adult.
I can journey alongside guiding you toward understanding any past or current interpersonal issues. Such may be coming to fathom why at times you non-consciously react the way you do or why others may react the way they do at certain times. This is a making-sense of interpersonal interactions and how they have been impacted by the experiences and influences – including the definable and subliminal expectations – that our culture, society, families, and friends have had on the development of who we are. Explorations will seek to unfold understandings of Self, Other and the World as they relate to any embodied or relational sense of:
- Instability and/or unpredictability.
- Vulnerability and/or inability to trust.
- Social seclusion and/or isolation.
- Disconnection, rejection, and/or abandonment.
- Deficiency and/or deprivation.
- Inferiority and/or ineffectiveness.
- Subjugation and/or sacrifice.
- Impulse and/or inhibition.
- Punitiveness and/or hypercriticalness.
- Recognition and/or approval.
- Entitlement and/or privilege.
- Control, power, and/or competitiveness.
Our work together may include working with concepts of attachment, authenticity, boundaries, power dynamics, family dynamics, and communication patterns; this is a collaboration that co-creates an understanding of who you are in the context of others and learning how to relate in a manner that is more congruent to who you authentically are.
Lost Sense of Self / Impacts of Mental Illness
If you are in a time of overwhelm, confusion, depression, and/or anxiety; if your life is at a point of crisis or disarray due to separation, divorce, death, friendship/relationship breakdown, infertility, pregnancy/parenthood, or if there is an underlying sense of not knowing who you truly are, I welcome you to connect with me to explore notions of Self-concept, Self-efficacy, Self-esteem, and Self-expression.
I can support you in making sense of any crisis or situation that may have left you feeling uncertain in your sense of Self and/or trust in your future. This is an open exploration and an honouring of who you were, who you are, and who you are becoming.
We shall seek to stabilise your sense of self in safety – looking toward an appreciation of virtues, and values alongside your vulnerabilities – making sense of them in the context of your development, identity, and spirituality.
So too our explorations will journey toward a new sense of empowered being that holds that capacity to trust the inherent knowing that is within; this is a restoration of Self in health and wellbeing, in flexibility and resilience no matter what the milieus of life throw your way.
Parts Theory of Mind (IFS)
If you have been working with a team of mental health professionals – psychiatrist’s, psychologist’s, social worker’s, counsellor’s, or coach’s – and have found their modalities are not your “cup of tea”; or perhaps if you have felt a desire to look deeper into some of the aspects of your Self as a relational being, I would love to offer you a connection that looks to explore your suffering in a different manner – through a window of integration: the differentiation and linkage of the various motivational parts within you.
Based on tan understanding that there is an inherent level of multiplicity in the mind (see Dr. Janina Fisher and Dr. Richard Schwartz), together we seek to unfold that which you feel is impacting your health and wellbeing through understanding the unique composition of your body and mind. I will guide you through an exploration of your past as it plays into your present – looking at the parts of you that, over time, have begun to take away from who you feel you truly are.
In this manner we can begin an exploration of compassion that seeks to make sense of the various ways you may have learned to cope with adversity and stress – be those modes of protective avoidance and/or modes of protective anxiousness. These modes or patterns of protection may appear as the implicit urge to put others needs above your own, to never truly say what you want to say, or to avoid conflict no matter the cost; these protective modes may appear as a proclivity toward intense reactions – an overtaking of emotion that seems uncontrollable no matter how much you attempt change; or they may also appear as propensities to feel as though your efforts are never quite good enough, to push yourself far beyond your capacity, to think things through methodically and rationally ensuring there is a reason or solution for each concern, or perhaps you have even noticed that sometimes, when things are extremely overwhelming you tend to shutdown with a sense of dissonance or disassociation…
No matter the proclivity or propensity to protect, we look at these beautiful multifaceted ways you have learned to cope, and we join with them as parts of you that, along the timeline of your life, simply learned to survive in the only way they knew how.
