WILD EARTH COUNSELLING AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

Mind,body,wild.

Hello and welcome!

Welcome and thank you for visiting my site.

I’m a qualified and experienced psychotherapist and mental health counsellor. I provide a warm and welcoming presence, and a safe and confidential space for you to explore whatever is going on for you in your life.

Therapy can help you to feel better by having someone kind, supportive and experienced in mental health listen to your story - without giving advice or telling you what to do. Therapy can help know yourself and others in terms of family or relational dynamics and unconscious behaviours. Therapy is tough, but it can lead to real, profound change - and it is my belief that to to build a better life and a better world, we have to allow change to begin with us.

I offer individual sessions for anxiety, attachment issues, unresolved parental or family, friendship or relationship problems, depression, anger, emotional regulation difficulties. I also specialise in and provide a safe space to work on your own personal growth.

I bring together traditional counselling methods like cognitive behavioural therapy and talk therapy, with body-based work, expressive/emotions work, Core Energetics growth work, mindfulness and Jungian therapy.

I care about social justice and how our mental health is connected with our experiences of power, privilege and oppression. I believe an embodied approach in psychotherapy is helpful in working through intergenerational trauma and in improving our relationships with people, communities and the environment.

I work on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people and the Dharawal people in Sydney, Australia.

Training and Qualifications

Adv Diploma of Integrated Somatic Psychotherapy (10372NAT) - Institute of Body Psychotherapy (4 years) (Core Energetics). https://www.instituteofbodypsychotherapy.com/

Advanced Diploma of Transpersonal Counselling - College Complementary Medicine (2 years)

Diploma of Counselling - Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors

Certificate Eco-Psychology - Pacifica Institute, California, USA

Certificate Acceptance and Commitment (ACT) Therapy - Dr Russ Harris

Certificate of somatic embodiment and regulation strategies - Linda Thai

Internal Family Systems model introduction - Mind Body Institute

Now that you know a bit about me, you can...

• Check out the services page below for a description of body psychotherapy, and transpersonal counselling sessions.

• Contact Lisa to ask a question or make a session booking.

"Our discontents are often rooted in an unmet longing for wildness, mystery and meaningful engagement with the world..a craving for the untamed terrain of the soul."

-Bill Plotkin

PHILOSOPHY

Wild Earth Psychotherapy and Counselling

Services

Counselling and somatic sessions

Body or somatic psychotherapy uses the latest techniques of body orientated trauma resolution and neuroscience to teach people to feel safe in their bodies while exploring thoughts, emotions, and memories.

It is based on the concept that life experiences manifest as chronic tension, armouring and defence patterns in both the body and personality. Bringing awareness to these can help you release patterns of behaviour or emotional conflicts which are unresolved and often repressed. These patterns can keep us recreating similar life situations and relational dynamics and may also create physical ailments or illnesses.

For example, you may intellectually understand that you have anxiety, depression or trauma, but it will be difficult to work on the issue if you are holding, restricting or moving your body in a way that keeps your pain numbed. Or, to avoid intense emotions, you might intellectualise, overthink or numb yourself with alcohol, social media, or overwork.

When you begin the work of body psychotherapy, you will start to feel more grounded, embodied and present, and your nervous system more regulated. You will learn techniques to contain and regulate the level of charge in your body, to self soothe and to notice where you block or hold your energy in your body to limit feeling. You will feel and look more integrated, less rigid, and more present to your life.

Q. What happens in a body psychotherapy session?

Sessions will typically include some talking and bodywork. This could include grounding, stretching and breathing exercises to help you feel more connected to your body and increase your capacity for feeling. It might include trauma release exercises to work with your nervous system and stress response. You might learn methods of expressing emotions directly in a safe supportive environment.

The analytic and counselling part of the therapy will help you understand the why of these unconscious inhibitions in terms of childhood attachment or other experiences as well as techniques to unhook from unhelpful thinking patterns.

Body psychotherapy is a good choice of therapy for people with stress, anxiety, depression, negative thinking, some physical ailments, anger issues, overthinking, relationship issues and trauma related issues.

Pricing and location -

15 minute initial phone consultation - no charge

1 hour in-person session - $110

ZOOM online sessions are also available.

Transpersonal counselling

Transpersonal counselling uses a range of tools to help you explore your inner world, including art and symbol, story and myth, dreams, meditation, rituals, and energetics. I help you explore central questions about your life to help you to navigate your way through transitions, challenges and stressful events. I can help you uncover the different masks you wear in life or the roles you play and how they may help or hinder you from leading an authentic life.

Q. What is transpersonal counselling? See here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/therapy-types/transpersonal-therapy

Q. Why are myths and rituals important for humans? See here:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-rituals-work/

The transpersonal approach is a good choice of therapy for you if you experience anxiety, depression or stress, or if you have a change of life circumstance like a special birthday, marriage, motherhood, divorce, illness, retirement, loss of job or other life transition, or if you are looking for meaning, purpose or direction in your life.

Pricing and location

Initial 15 minute phone consultation - no charge

1 hour in person session - $110

ZOOM online sessions are also available.