Some people come to me who have lived with hard things for a long time. Who feel like maybe there is nothing that can help them. Where a part of them has started to believe that managing their problem is the best they can hope for. But another part of them made the appointment anyway. The part that knows the life you want is worth fighting for. And that's the part I work with.

I've sat with some people at their lowest points. People who've had one hard thing after another. People who haven’t had good role models and have had to teach themselves. People who’ve spent so long adapting, coping, and managing that that they’re not sure who some of them is anymore. And yet, they are so much stronger than they think. The part of them still making the effort, looking for the answer, booking the appointment, the part of them that knows this can’t be it. They can’t see yet just how extraordinary they are. How amazing they are for continuing to keep going, despite everything.

Because what they often can't see yet is it's not them. It's never been them. It's the patterns and situation life has created in them. The ways of thinking, feeling and responding that made complete sense once, and just haven't been updated for the life they're living now. The answer usually isn’t adding more.

Because when the mind is already overloaded, more strategies, more effort, more analysing, more trying to think your way through things often just adds further pressure to an already exhausted system.

What they need is more access to the parts of themselves that lets them feel rested after a rest, that enables you to make decisions without second guessing them, that stops draining energy so you hve more at the end of the day to do things you want to do. They can let their true selves shine without the mask, without the overthinking and without the unwelcome emotions. The part that makes you feel more alive, that makes life feel worth being in.

And so when those patterns start changing? When the part of them that restores finally gets what it needs?

It's better than a movie. It's like they've been seeing in black and white, and then suddenly the world appears in full colour. And when it happens, it feels so natural. Like they always knew there was something missing, and now it’s back its like this is the real them.

That’s what happens. They laugh more easily. They enjoy things more. They stop needing to work so hard internally all the time.

And because they now have more capacity available, problems that once felt overwhelming become manageable. Not because life changed overnight, but because they did.

They can finally see what I saw in them. But not just see it, actually believe it. I've seen it enough times to be certain: there is far more life in people than the noise in their heads lets them believe. 

That's the work I do. Helping people get back underneath the noise, to the part of themselves that's there, waiting.

Sessions in person in Camberwell, Melbourne, and online worldwide.