Meet Elyse
Hello. My name is Elyse and I am a passionate holistic counsellor and psychotherapist here to support people in living their unique version of a meaningful and fulfilling life. People thrive when they have a sense of orientation, embrace both their inner and outer worlds, and feel they have the resources to manage the varying and unpredictable nature of life. The world can be loud with a plethora of external demands and advice, however being able to tune inwards and work with what is present, results in challenges being better understood and consciously navigated from a more integrated position.
You may find some seasons of life easy to flow with, or feel lost, overwhelmed, or disconnected during other phases. Maybe you have never really felt you have known who it is you truly are and what it is you stand for and desire in life. I believe that there is more than one way to do things, and that it is never ‘too late’, so my role is to support you in connecting to and integrating what is transpiring within so you can access and grow into your fullest potential, moving towards living a life that aligns with your truest and most authentic self.
Philosophy
I bring together modern psychology with expansive, experiential, and transcendent aspects of the human experience. I help people cultivate a greater awareness of both themselves and their challenges by exploring thoughts, feelings, behavioural patterns, and somatic based wisdom. From this place of increased clarity and connection to self, more conscious, self aligned, and empowered decisions can be made, resulting in fulfilling and purpose driven experiences.
While I have training and experience in many therapeutic modalities and strategies, there is no one single approach for all, hence why I adopt a responsive, fluid, and yet robust method of working with what is present in the moment for each person, offering a uniquely personalised, deeply healing, and potent therapeutic approach.
Whilst the direction of work is always client lead, following their cues and accompanying them in their particular journey, when working with specific challenges, my main basis in viewing healing and growth is that the medicine lies within the difficulty itself. Rather than trying to avoid or push the problems away, we can gently and collaboratively turn towards the ‘obstacle’ to see what is there trying to be expressed. In working with what is actually happening, be it body symptoms, relationship conflicts, dreams, reoccurring themes, or events around you, the key to better managing it, working through it, and integrating the experience, is found within the struggle itself.
This is a very radical concept for western thinking, and indeed opposite to the mainstream allopathic approach where treatment can be based on masking or trying to stop symptoms, or bringing about the opposite effect of the difficulty. However, when anxiety or depressive like symptoms are expanded upon for example, it can be discovered that these characteristics are there for a purpose and with a conscious ‘taking up’ of this energy, deep and nourishing healing and transformation can occur.
Just like in nature around us, there is a higher intelligence far more complex than our human brain can begin to contemplate, so instead of trying to cognitively ‘out smart’ the process of our inner essence, we work with it instead. This way of approaching obstacles, and life in general, offers a perspective that life is in constant communication with us, with challenges being ‘on the way’ rather than in the way, providing opportunities for growth and self discovery.
By working with ourselves and others with this radically compassionate, curious, and multifaceted view, living a life to your fullest growth and potential is on offer whilst harnessing life’s inevitable ups and downs. Allowing the space to listen and unfold what is here for you, be it during your own inner work or when working with another, is an empowering life tool. Feeling equipped and resourced enough to be able to sit with, and venture through the fullness of life in an aligned and embodied way, really is the epitome of true freedom.
Background
Elyse has a Masters Degree in Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy, with a particular interest in working with the full-spectrum of humans and life itself. She is a registered member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia, the countries peak professional registration body for tertiary-qualified counsellors and psychotherapists, and is eager to normalise proactive emotional and mental wellbeing.
Elyse’s collaborative therapeutic approach is primarily person-centred, attachment-focused, and trauma-informed, with a truly holistic frame of view. Which essentially means you can expect a deeply compassionate, attuned, and transpersonal experience. Her life-long curiosity in human behaviour, holistic health, and personal transformation combined with her background working as an adult speech pathologist within medical settings brings together a unique mix of both interpersonal and clinical skills. Living, playing, and working at this awe-inspiring intersection where the tangible meets the metaphysical aspects of the human experience, offers a rich and expansive merging of two worlds, and beyond.