Questions people ask

Somatic psychotherapy explores the connection between your body, your emotions, your thoughts and your lived experience: alongside conversation we notice sensations and nervous-system responses, which supports self-awareness, embodiment and more choice in how you respond. It isn't a collection of body exercises to help you relax, and it isn't a way of feeling good all the time. It's a way inward: getting to know yourself deeply, learning to listen to your body, your emotions, your needs, and the unconscious beliefs you've built across a lifetime — so you can create new neural pathways, help your biology soften the constant need for protection, and finally inhabit your authentic self.

Embodiment means becoming aware of how thoughts, emotions and experiences are felt and expressed through your body. You may know that you deserve care and still find it difficult to receive it. In somatic psychotherapy we explore that gap gently, noticing what happens in your body and what helps you feel more connected with yourself, so that understanding becomes part of the way you respond, choose and connect in everyday life.

Yes. Early relationships shape how you seek closeness, respond to conflict and protect yourself. We can explore the patterns you recognise around closeness, trust, conflict and separation. An attachment style is a way of understanding those patterns, not a fixed identity or a judgement about you. We can also look at how an attachment wound — fearing rejection, putting others first, withdrawing when connection feels difficult — continues to shape your relationships.

The word trauma comes from the Greek word for “wound”. An emotional wound is the lasting hurt left by an experience or a relationship, and it can affect your sense of safety, your self-worth and your connection with others. We explore what it means for you, and how it affects the way you relate to yourself and to others, without assuming that every difficulty has the same cause.

As awareness grows, you can reconnect with your intuition, your gut feelings and your inner wisdom. We explore them as part of your experience, alongside emotions, memories, values and present circumstances. The aim is to listen with curiosity and build self-trust, rather than assume every strong sensation is an accurate signal of present danger. Your inner wisdom and your authenticity stay at the centre of the work.

Then we start somewhere else. Not everyone can simply connect with their body: for someone who learned early that feeling is dangerous, it can be overwhelming or seem impossible, and disconnecting was often how they survived. We build enough safety and enough resilience first, little by little. You won't be asked to feel something you aren't ready to feel.

People who have lived a lot. Some have been through traumatic experiences in childhood or adulthood — abuse, violence, accidents, things that left a deep mark on the body and on how they relate to themselves. I also work with people who have ADHD or ADD, with people living with PTSD, and with people who have no diagnosis at all but feel that something in their life has stopped working: stuck, repeating the same patterns, still using strategies that were necessary once. The work often includes attachment wounds, self-worth, boundaries, emotional regulation and the difficulties that come with PTSD. You don't need to arrive knowing what you need.

The goal isn't a life where nothing is difficult: that isn't life, and I'd be wary of anyone promising it. What can change is your relationship to what happens to you. As self-knowledge and self-compassion grow, you start trusting your own capacity to get through hard things. It may still hurt, but it doesn't disorganise you the way it used to, because you have more to hold yourself with.

I wouldn't tell you that you have to start therapy. I'd ask, with curiosity, what's stopping you — because behind that fear there's usually a story: fear of feeling, of being judged, of opening something that has been closed a long time. Those reasons deserve to be heard rather than argued with. And you don't have to make an enormous leap. You can start with a question: what would I need in order to feel a little safer taking this first step?

Mostly listening, and both of us getting a sense of pace. I won't assume I know what you need: we talk about what's going on and what you want to work on, and I explain how this work actually goes. We don't go into the hardest material because the clock says it's session one — that's how people leave a first session feeling worse. A good part of that hour goes on finding out what steady feels like in your body, so there's somewhere to return to before we go anywhere difficult.

No. A lot of this work happens without a detailed retelling, and we can work with what shows up in your body now. Trauma means, at its root, a wound: it doesn't heal by being ignored, but it isn't touched just any way either. It's touched slowly, with care, and with respect for your pace. If and when you want to put words to it, that's your choice, not something I need in order to help.

You probably can't tell from a website, and that's normal. Write to me with a sentence about what brings you here, or book a first session: that one is mostly me listening, and its purpose is working that out. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so and point you elsewhere.

It depends on what you're carrying and how long it's been there. Some people notice a shift within a few months, usually where there's a single event their system hasn't finished processing. Developmental trauma is longer work. After a few sessions I'll give you an honest read rather than a number invented on day one.

No. Medicare rebates under a Mental Health Care Plan apply to registered psychologists and some other providers. I'm a PACFA Registered Clinical Counsellor and Somatic Psychotherapist, which is a different registration, so Medicare doesn't apply to my sessions. Private health extras and WorkCover often do. It's worth checking both.

Many extras policies do, but it depends on your fund and your specific policy. Call the number on the back of your card and ask two things: whether your extras cover counselling or psychotherapy with a PACFA Registered Clinical Counsellor and Somatic Psychotherapist, and how much you're covered for per session and per year. Where your fund covers it, I'll send you an invoice after the session and you claim it back from them directly.

If your injury happened at work — psychological or physical — WorkCover Queensland may fund your sessions. Approval is their decision, not mine, and I can't promise an outcome. You book that first appointment through the online portal and pay for it yourself when you book, while WorkCover is still deciding; you claim that one back from WorkCover directly. Once I have their approval in writing, I invoice WorkCover directly for the sessions after it, using your claim number, so you only have to focus on the work.

Individual sessions are $190 for 60 minutes and $250 for 90. Couples sessions are $250 for 60 minutes and $290 for 90. There are no packages and no lock-in: you book one session at a time.

Yes. Spanish is my first language and I offer full sessions in it. This matters more than it sounds: for many people the earliest memories are stored in the language they formed in, and translating them into a second language flattens something. You can also move between English and Spanish freely, session by session or within a session.

Yes. I see clients across Australia and internationally by video. Somatic work translates over video better than most people expect, because what we're tracking is happening in your body rather than in the room.

Rarely, and always with your consent: I only use it to help you regulate when you become very dysregulated. Many sessions involve no physical contact at all: you stay clothed, you stay in your chair, and we pay attention to sensation, breath and posture. What never happens is massage, manipulation, or any treatment of your body.

• Physical contact is an invitation. When it's useful, it can help your nervous system find the ground and release something that stayed stuck.
• Consent is required. Nothing happens without your explicit permission, and we talk about any touch before trying it.
• It stays outside your clothing. If touch is ever introduced it is gentle, respectful, and always external to your clothing.
• Self-touch is common. You may be invited to place your own hand over your heart, or elsewhere, to help your system find its own sense of safety.
• You can say no at any point, without explaining, and nothing about the work changes.

Things come up, and I'd always rather move a session than have you push through one you can't be present for. So tell me as early as you can. If you cancel with less than 48 hours' notice, the fee is 50% of the session. With less than 24 hours' notice, or if you don't arrive, it's 80%. That hour is held for you and can't be filled at short notice, which is the whole reason for the policy.

• Session fees are settled at least three hours before we meet, so our time stays on the work.
• If a balance is still outstanding on the day — a late cancellation, or a payment that didn't go through — it's processed using the card held securely on file, which you authorise when you complete your intake form.
• If payment has to be handled during the session, that time comes out of the hour and a card surcharge is added.
• Cash isn't accepted.
• If you're unwell, we move the session online rather than meeting in person.
• If I'm unwell, we move it online too.
• Most therapy practices have policies about missed appointments or last-minute cancellations. This isn't just about rules: therapists don't have a set salary. Unlike medical doctors, they are paid only for the sessions they actually hold, and they typically reserve that hour for you alone.
• If they charge for a missed session it isn't a penalty; it's paying for the time that was set aside for you. Some therapists offer flexibility when you cancel with enough notice, but even then they usually can't fill the spot at short notice.