Chrysalis Counselling & Consultancy

People sometimes think that being a counsellor must be a painful and difficult profession to enter into. In actual fact, I don't find it to be like that at all.

Having worked in education for 25 years I've worked with many children who have had difficulty regulating their emotions and I've met hundreds of parents who feel challenged by the complexity of parenting in a world that seems to get crazier by the minute. This, teamed with all the things I've experienced in my own life: anxiety, stress, burnout, depression, trauma, relationship breakdown and sole parenting are probably what lead me to going back to uni and completing a Masters in Counselling.

Having my own business and supporting others is the most satisfying of vocations. It is as though all that came before in my life has brought me to this point. I bring a mix of my life experience, my work in education and my professional studies to my private practice and am exactly where I feel I am meant to be right now.

I offer a creative and individualised, trauma-informed approach to helping people find solutions to life's challenges. I have a Masters in Counselling and 25 years experience working with children and families. I draw upon a range of therapeutic approaches including acceptance and commitment therapy, play therapy, compassion focused therapy, and narrative approaches incorporating play and arts based practices. I have extensive experience working with children with autism and their families. I am a registered NDIS provider and offer counselling , consultancy and therapeutic art making in the Greater Bendigo area and online.

Life is an endless series of ups and downs; pain, loss, frustration, trauma, disappointment and grief come to visit us all at some point. I'm drawn to working with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as it recognises this and does not set up false promises that life will always be a bed of roses. ACT can show a way to handle difficult thoughts and feelings more effectively so that they have less impact on a person's life as they move in the direction of their values.