I didn’t begin in a beautiful clinic with a waitlist. I began in the Justice Department, in community services, in Aboriginal counselling and in youth work. I sat with people the system had given up on, and I learnt very early that a protocol can't reach a person. Presence can.

Then I studied for seven years. I did a psychology degree, a Graduate Diploma in Psychological Science and a Master of Psychotherapy and Counselling. I learnt the models, the measures and the evidence, and I respect all of it.

But I also learnt to be neutral. To keep my intuition quiet, keep my spirituality at the door and be the helper. And I felt it, the gap between what I was trained to do and what I could feel was possible in the room.

The moment everything changed

I was taking a client deep into a visualisation. Their body was moving, the symbols were coming up from somewhere far below the story, and we reached the root of it together.

When they opened their eyes, they asked me, "What exactly was that?"

I didn't have a name for it yet. It was somatic work meeting the deep unconscious, presenting itself through symbolism and finding the root cause I could feel underneath. That's when I realised I do things differently. And I couldn't go back.