Fremantle Counselling Services
Somatic psychotherapy and mindfulness-based counselling in Fremantle
I offer somatic psychotherapy and mindfulness-based counselling for anxiety, trauma, relationship challenges and personal growth.
People come to counselling for many different reasons. Sometimes anxiety or stress has become too much to keep carrying alone. Sometimes there are relationship patterns that keep repeating, even when you understand them. At other times people sense that something deeper is possible — more steadiness, more awareness, or more freedom in how they respond to life.
At Uplift Counselling in Fremantle, I offer therapy grounded in the Hakomi Method. This is a gentle, mindfulness-based approach that pays attention not only to thoughts and feelings, but also to what is happening in the body and nervous system.
Our past experiences shape us in many ways. They influence how safe we feel, how we respond under pressure, how we relate to other people, and what we come to expect from life. Often these patterns sit beneath conscious awareness, yet they can have a powerful effect on how we live.
Somatic psychotherapy helps bring awareness to these deeper patterns in a safe and respectful way. Rather than working only at the level of thinking, it makes space for what is being held emotionally and physically as well. This often allows change to happen at a deeper level, not just as insight, but in how a person actually feels and responds.
Some people come looking for practical support with something immediate. Others want to work at more depth with patterns that have been with them for a long time. Either way, the work is collaborative, carefully paced, and shaped around what feels right for you.
Who Comes to This Kind of Therapy
People come to counselling in Fremantle for many different reasons. Some are looking for support with anxiety, relationship difficulties or unresolved experiences from the past.
Others are interested in personal growth and developing greater awareness through mindfulness and psychotherapy.
Somatic therapy can support both.
See Mindfulness and Psychotherapy pages for more information
Issues I Commonly Work With
People seek counselling in Fremantle for many different reasons. Here are some examples of how somatic psychotherapy understands the deeper patterns beneath them.
Anxiety and Chronic Stress
From a somatic perspective, anxiety is not only a thought. It is often a whole-body pattern.
A person may know that something is probably fine, yet still feel tight in the chest, have shallow breath, feel restless, braced, or unable to settle. The whole body is organised around alertness.
In therapy, we work by noticing how that anxiety is showing up in the body. We explore how it is held in the nervous system and what deeper pattern may be underneath it. Often this takes us into issues of safety, control, vulnerability, or long-standing ways of coping.
That is where the work becomes deeper than simply managing symptoms.
Trauma and Difficult Past Experiences
Trauma is often not only what happened to us, but what our system had to do in order to survive it.
Even when the events are long over, the body may still carry the imprint. A person may become overwhelmed, go numb, dissociate, brace, or react strongly in situations that seem small on the surface.
This is why it is often not enough just to understand the story of what happened.
Somatic psychotherapy works with how unresolved experience is still being carried now. In a mindful and careful way, we begin to contact these patterns without pushing the person back into overwhelm.
Over time, the system can begin to learn that the danger is no longer present, and something that has been frozen or unfinished can start to move again.
Relationships patterns & Couples
Relationship difficulties are often shaped by patterns that developed long before the current relationship. These patterns can be worked on individually or as a couple.
We may long for closeness and fear it at the same time. We may withdraw, become reactive, over-accommodate, shut down, or repeat familiar dynamics before we have even had time to think.
Somatic psychotherapy helps slow this process down.
By paying attention to what happens internally in moments of contact, hurt, disappointment, or longing, it becomes easier to see the deeper pattern at work. This can bring compassion, but also more choice.
The work is not only about improving communication. It is about understanding the emotional and embodied organisation underneath the relationship pattern.
Couples counselling focuses on these interaction patterns between partners. This helps each person understand and change the automatic responses shaping the relationship.
Life Transitions and Meaning
Periods of change often bring uncertainty. Relationship changes, career shifts, relocation or loss can unsettle the structures that once gave life a sense of stability.
Counselling provides space to reflect on these transitions and make sense of what is unfolding. Through mindfulness and careful exploration of experience, people often find greater clarity about what matters to them and how they want to move forward.
Difficult transitions can become opportunities for growth and re-orientation.
Personal Growth and Mindfulness
Not all psychotherapy is about symptom relief.
Sometimes people come because they want to understand why they live the way they do. They may sense that certain beliefs, reactions, or ways of organising themselves have been shaping their lives for a long time. They may function well on the surface, yet still feel constrained, divided within themselves, or not fully able to live from a deeper truth.
Somatic psychotherapy can be powerful here because it brings these deeper organising patterns into awareness in an embodied way. Working from a place of mindfulness can help enormously with this.
A person may begin to see, for example, that they automatically minimise their own needs, tighten around vulnerability, hold back their strength, or organise themselves around pleasing, control, or self-protection. These patterns are often so familiar they can feel like they are just the way we are, when in fact they are learned adaptations.
When they are experienced mindfully and in a felt way, rather than only talked about, there can be a much deeper recognition of how they have shaped a person’s life.
That recognition can be profound. Not because it gives a dramatic insight, but because it allows something old and deeply organised to be met directly.
From there, people often begin to feel less confined by old conditioning. There can be more inner freedom, more aliveness, and a stronger sense of living from what is real rather than from what has merely been adapted to.
How Somatic Psychotherapy Works
Somatic psychotherapy is based on the understanding that our lives are shaped not only by what we think, but also by what our body and nervous system have learned through experience.
Many reactions happen very quickly and automatically. You may notice anxiety in certain situations, a tendency to withdraw in relationships, a habit of staying overly self-controlled, or emotional reactions that seem stronger than the situation itself.
Often these responses made sense at an earlier time in life. They may have been ways of coping, protecting yourself, or adapting to difficult circumstances.
The Hakomi Method works by bringing mindful awareness to these patterns as they appear in the present moment.
Rather than only talking about them from a distance, we pay attention to how they show up in thoughts, emotions, body sensations, impulses and beliefs. This allows the deeper organising patterns underneath experience to become clearer.
When this happens in a space of safety and careful attention, people often begin to experience themselves differently. The nervous system can begin to come out of old protective patterns, and with time there can be more flexibility, regulation and choice.
The aim is not to force change. It is to create the conditions in which change can happen more deeply and more naturally.
What Happens in a Counselling Session?
Beginning therapy can feel like a big step, and it is very common to be unsure what to expect.
Sessions are conversational, collaborative and grounded in what feels manageable for you. We begin by talking about what has brought you to counselling, what you are struggling with, and what you would like support with.
Because the work is mindfulness-based, there are often moments where we slow things down and pay attention to what is happening in the present moment.
That might include noticing emotions, thoughts, body sensations, impulses, or the way a certain issue is being experienced as we talk about it.
From this place of awareness it often becomes easier to:
- understand emotional reactions more clearly
- regulate the nervous system
- explore underlying beliefs and patterns
- respond differently to difficult situations
Some sessions focus more on practical support and present-day challenges. Others go further into long-standing patterns or unresolved past experiences.
My aim is to create a space where you can explore honestly, at a pace that feels safe enough, and where deeper change can gradually take hold.
Is This Approach a Good Fit?
This approach often suits people who want more than just strategies, and who are interested in understanding themselves at a deeper level.
You might find this approach helpful if:
- anxiety or emotional reactions feel automatic
- you are curious about mindfulness or body-based approaches
- you want to develop greater emotional awareness and regulation
- you’re interested in personal growth as well as addressing specific challenges
- you’ve already reflected on your patterns but they still repeat themselves
You don’t need any prior experience with mindfulness or meditation. Sessions are paced carefully and adapted to your comfort and needs.
If you’re unsure whether this approach would be a good fit, you’re welcome to arrange a brief introductory phone call.
FAQ: Common Questions About Counselling
Do I need to know how to meditate?
No. Mindfulness in therapy is simply about learning to notice what is happening in your present experience with curiosity and without judgement.
It does not require any previous meditation practice.
How do Medicare rebates work?
If you receive a Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP, you may be eligible for Medicare rebates for sessions with me.
Your GP can discuss whether this is appropriate for your situation and provide a referral if needed.
Is online counselling available?
Yes. Sessions can be held via video for people who are unable to attend in person. Online counselling can be helpful for those with living too far from Fremantle to attend in person.
Counselling in Fremantle
Uplift Counselling is conveniently based in the heart of Fremantle. Easily accessible from the Fremantle train station and by car. On site parking is available.
I work with people in Fremantle and across the wider Perth area.
Arrange a First Session
If you would like to begin counselling, you are welcome to book a session or arrange a brief introductory phone call.
You can also read more about mindfulness-based therapy and somatic psychotherapy if you would like to get a better feel for the approach.