INTEGRATIVE, SOMATIC THERAPY IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA + ONLINE
RETURN TO YOURSELF
Tend to the relationship that matters most.
Individual Therapy
for Deep, Embodied, Inner Work
You’ve adapted to stay safe, loved or valued: over-functioning, people-pleasing, suppressing or disconnecting. These strategies worked but now they are costing you, showing up in your body, your health, your relationships and your sense of self.
Whether life has shaken you through divorce, separation, burnout, loss, illness or another disruption, or old patterns keep surfacing, you’re ready for change; the ways you react in relationships, hold yourself back or feel disconnected from yourself are calling for a different way of being.
Anxiety, grief, anger, fear or other uncomfortable emotions may be rising. They feel familiar because they are. These feelings weren’t created in this moment.. they’ve been shaping your experience and relationships for years.
Patterns repeat in your relationships: conflict, miscommunication, disconnection. Feelings of not being enough, being too much, feeling unseen or unsafe are familiar. You may long for deeper connection but something inside keeps getting in the way.
You are beginning to see that much of who you thought you were was shaped around staying safe, staying loved, staying needed. A constructed way of being built to keep you safe. It worked… until it didn’t.
Now, you want something different. You want to feel safe in yourself, and able to meet life and relationships with authenticity, presence, steadiness, courage and conscious choice, instead of being driven by old protective patterns.
YOU’VE SPENT YEARS HOLDING EVERYTHING TOGETHER..
Now it feels like something inside you is ready to be held.
Maybe you are struggling with:
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The roles, routines, and ways of being that once defined you are in question. You’ve spent years adapting to survive; performing, over-giving, people-pleasing, suppressing or disconnecting, and now it feels like you don’t know who you are. You long to feel connected to yourself, steady and fully present in your own skin.
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Anger, grief, fear, shame, guilt, anxiety, or longing can feel unmanageable, or at the other extreme, distant and numb. You’ve learned to react, shut down, distract yourself, overthink, or intellectualise to cope. But these patterns leave you disconnected from your own experience, and from others. You want to be able to feel the full spectrum of your emotions without collapsing or turning away.
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You long for intimacy and connection, but vulnerability feels risky. You might stay quiet to keep the peace, over-give, or hide your needs. Conflict or endings may have revealed old patterns, not created them, yet they still influence how you relate. You want to stay centred and open, connecting authentically without losing yourself.
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You spend much of your life in your head, analyzing and overthinking. Your body feels separate, and your emotions feel distant. Decisions, boundaries, and your sense of what you truly need can feel unclear. You long to reconnect with your body, listen to its wisdom, and be guided from your inner experience rather than just your thoughts.
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Your body is asking for attention; Maybe you have spent years in survival mode, pushing through stress, suppressing emotions, or staying in fight, flight, or shutdown. This has now taken a toll on your nervous system and your body’s ability to regulate and repair. Maybe burnout, a chronic illness, a repeating health issue or environmental illness have brought things to the surface. You may have tried many approaches, yet sense that the deeper patterns of stress and survival in your body still need care.
Life doesn’t have to keep unfolding in the same patterns.
When we work together, the focus is on building your capacity to meet yourself, others, and your life, differently.
To stay present with emotions like anger, fear or grief without shutting down, reacting or turning away. To recognise and unwind the protective patterns that once kept you safe, but now shape how you relate to yourself and others. And to develop the awareness, steadiness and skills to respond to yourself, and all of life in a way that is embodied, conscious, intentional and authentic, rather than repeating old survival responses.
Over time, my clients cultivate:
A deeper connection to their body, emotions and sensations
A greater sense of steadiness, strength and sovereignty in themselves, even when life or relationships are emotionally charged
The ability to stay present with difficult feelings without becoming overwhelmed or disconnected
More capacity for love, joy and connection
More honest and authentic connections in their relationships because they feel safer to be vulnerable and real
Agency over their relational patterns and the capacity to respond differently
A deeper trust in their ability to meet whatever life brings
My services are available in-person for women in Melbourne, Australia, and online for women and men across AU, CA, US (PST & ET) and NZ, making it convenient for you to access care no matter your situation or location.
These experiences may look different, but at the core of each one lies a nervous system oriented towards survival, where unresolved emotions and patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving designed to protect you, live on in the body, shaping how you think, feel and relate.
This work supports you to engage with them directly; not just through insight but through felt experience, so they can begin to shift in your body, allowing you to bring more awareness, resilience and freedom to your emotional, psychological, relational and physical life.
What I specialise in..
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Early experiences can shape how safe we feel in our bodies, relationships, and the world. We can gently support you to somatically process the emotional and nervous system patterns left behind by painful experiences, helping you reconnect with your body, restore a sense of safety, and relate to life with greater steadiness and choice.
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Sudden loss, illness, major life change, or upheaval can shake the foundations of who you thought you were. You may feel grief, shock, fear, confusion, anger and more.. and all of it can leave you feeling unsteady, and unsure of how to move forward. These emotions can be hard to feel, and these experiences can bring old patterns and survival strategies to the surface, asking you to face yourself in ways that are both challenging and transformative. We can help you process what has arisen, rebuild steadiness, and discover how to navigate the next chapter with clarity, presence, and a deeper connection to yourself.
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Relationship Endings - Divorce and Separation
Divorce, separation, or the end of a significant relationship can shake your sense of self and leave you grappling with grief, anger, confusion, feelings of abandonment, betrayal, fear and more. You may notice old patterns of survival, self-protection, or over-adaptation rising to the surface, and wonder who you are without the roles and routines that once defined you. We help you process the emotional impact, understand your part in the patterns, and rebuild a sense of identity, presence and steadiness as you step into life beyond the relationship.
Creating Healthy RelationshipsWhether preparing yourself to start dating, entering a new relationship or deepening an existing partnership, old patterns and triggers can make vulnerability feel risky and connection challenging. We help you unwind those patterns so you have greater capacity for vulnerability and intimacy, and the ability to respond consciously rather than react. You’ll build the capacity to relate honestly and openly, creating relationships that feel real, grounded and aligned with who you truly are.
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Long periods of stress, emotional suppression, and survival-based patterns can keep the nervous system in a constant state of dysregulation. Over time, this can place a significant burden on the body’s ability to recover, heal, detoxify and more.. contributing to burnout and other chronic health challenges. Through embodied, relational work we focus on restoring regulation, helping your body move out of survival mode so it can shift toward greater balance, resilience, and healing.
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Grief is a natural response to love and loss, yet so often it is carried alone or pushed aside. My work invites you to slow down, and meet your grief with presence and compassion. We create room for your sorrow to be fully felt, held and processed through the body, mind and heart, allowing it to soften, move and gradually integrate into the fabric of your life.
MEET MARAYA
So many of the struggles you’re facing today aren’t just in your mind — they’re rooted in what your body is still carrying from the past.
Therapy with me is different. It focuses on your relationship with your body and inner felt experience; how chronic stress, tension and the ways you suppress, overthink, contract, withdraw or override yourself when you feel small, anxious, unsafe or overwhelmed, are held in your body - shaping your emotions, thoughts, beliefs and how you show up in relationships and in life.
At its core, my work is about relationships;
Your relationship to yourself, to others and to life.
How safe & connected you feel in your own body, how you connect with others, how you love, trust and receive, and how you navigate uncertainty, change and challenge.
We explore how your nervous system learned to protect you, how your identity formed around those protections, and how these patterns continue to shape your experiences today.
My approach is relational, embodied, experiential, spiritual, and deeply human. We don’t just talk about the past or what is arising in the present; we work with how it shows up in your body, mind and relationships in real time.
I guide you to slow down, notice, and feel what you’ve learned to avoid, so that you can reconnect with the steadier, truer parts of yourself that are buried, but have always been there.
READY TO GET STARTED?
Come home to the most important person in your life, you.
Change starts now.
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