The Essential Self

The PLUNGE

Into a deeper relationship with yourself, into more space for FELT feeling, into more stillness, into kore movement with your body, into understanding your younger self story, and the subsequent patterns and systems that impact your life experience. Into activating the vision you most deeply desire to feel, share, create… and experience in this one precious life of yours

The Essential Self WHOLE GROWTH Program, is all about cultivating powerful foundational growth and care capacities, about deepening Your SELF relationship.. and about supporting you to become a self assured creator in your life.

If not NOW, when?

Link in BIO

A WHOLE Care Model underpins the approach in all of my offerings.

W.H.O.L.E

- WOMAN-“CENTERED
- Genuinely HOLISTIC
- An ORGANIC, Integrated Therapeutic Approach
- LOVING, Safe Spaces for Growth and Healing
- ESSENTIAL Self Relating

What is PSYCHOTHERAPY?

Psychotherapy is a Holistic Therapeutic space, that focuses on your unique needs and draws from a range of therapies and support practices to facilitate your whole growth, healing and transformation.

Every Psychotherapist brings their own unique set of skills, approaches and practices to the therapeutic space, with Counselling or ‘Talk Therapy’ commonly playing an important role, supported by other therapies and processes to deepen your self understanding and bring support to your holistic needs.

Most Psychotherapists see and honour the WHOLE person, understanding our healing and growth needs more than cognitive process. Put simply, at some point we need to stop ‘talking’ and come into our body, into relationship with our feeling senses, into genuine connection with our somatic experience, with our nervous system’s needs and more, this is where healing truly happens.

MY ROLE

My role as your therapist is to create a warm, safe, trauma informed relational space that deeply values your feeling process and facilitates your deeper connection, reflection and awareness, encouraging your authentic expression, and giving honoured presence and care to your deeper needs an desires. We partner together to make them a priority.

MY APPROACH

An Integrative Psychotherapy space at Essential Self, draws from these Therapies and Approaches;

Person Centered Counselling
Emotion Focused Therapy
Humanistic, Mindfulness Approaches
Creative-Expressive ( Art) Therapy
Cognitive Processes
Woman-centered Coaching
Peer Based Support

To enquire re exploring a Psychotherapy space with me, ask away with any questions via DM, book a free chat or just make it happen with an Online Essential Self Starter Session, link in bio. 🤎

New Winter Womens Care EVENT✨✨

Come join me at ‘NOURISH’ Womens Retreat at Creek+Bay!

I’m transforming this much loved vibrant Seaford space into a nourishing Winter nest for an afternoon in June..for you to BREATHE more deeply, and create focused loving space for your Self Care, Expression and Connection.

Winter is rich time for moving inward, and caring for what is brewing in your beautiful belly

Enjoy 3 hours Nourished and Supported by;

Gentle Breath

Guided Inner Listening

Nurturing Self Massage

Nature Connection

Creative Practice (Self Care Collage)

A whole food Platter and warm Chai

Supportive Women’s Ritual

Sharing and being witnessed by a loving Womens community (no pressure to share)

Sunday June 2nd 3:30-6:30pm
$90

This is an intimate event with only 8 spaces!
DM for more info
Book here or in store ( link posted below)

🤎

Never let’s me down, BIG open spaces, …big and wide enough to out match my big thought energy and pull it up and out of my head, …big enough that it takes my breath away with its expansiveness, ….big enough that Im compelled to plant my feet deeper into the ground, as my BIG ol’ heart cracks open.

Do you have a practice or way to shift your energy? A way to cleanse your mind of the unnecessary and ground yourself back in your beautiful body?

Share the love below 🤎

Free 5 day Immersion! Join me!!!

Cultivating foundational INNER Relational, Self Care Capacities that are fundamental for our holistic Growth and flourishing.

Cultivating;

Foundational Emotional Literacy
A nourished Nervous System
Self Presence/Deeper Listening
Connection to your innate Wisdom and Purpose!

Im opening the doors to our Private Women’s Community Instagram Page until the end of next week, and creating space for daily ‘SELF’ practice, 15-20 minutes of very intentional self focus, connecting more deeply and setting intention around your growth and care.

In this process we’ll nourish our nervous systems, grow and deepen our inner listening skills, create loving, compassionate space for our feelings, and begin to express and understand our needs.

Combining the Superpowers of Meditation , Gentle Breathwork, Emotion Focused Deeper listening and Creative- Expressive Practice, let me guide and support you to explore new ways to relate and Care for yourself that can truly change how you move through life and Growth…

Beginning Mon April 8th, everyday for 5 days, via Instigram, recordings will be available for another week. Follow the link below to request access to our private event page.

How do you want to FEEL?

This is ultimately the most important thing to know and align with in creating what we want for ourselves.

In a culture that’s so externally focused, that has strong ideas about what success actually is.. it’s easy to overlook our emotional needs and desires.

We’re learning more and more these days about how important it is to set our internal compass to how we truly want to feel rather than how things should look on the outside. And the only way to get clear about this is to stop, breathe deep, ask the question.. and listen … for long enough until you hear the answer…

How do I most deeply desire to FEEL?

Let that be your compass, and your clear Intention in this new year ✨

The Essential Self Starter Program, is all about supporting you in setting new clear powerful intention for yourself and your growth … read more here

https://www.essentialself.com.au/essential-self-starter-program

Creative- Expressive Therapy

What is it?

An opportunity for supported personal expression through the use of various creative mediums, to express, explore, open awareness and engage with feeling and SELF

What isn’t it?

It’s not about Art making for Arts sake, and is not a practice that requires any creative talent, it’s more about process than outcomes.

How can it support me?

Oh let me count the ways ✨✨

- Supports expression of feeling states
- Helps us regulate our nervous system
- Opens Self Awareness
- Assists us to understand and care for emotions
- Provides a safe space for exploring needs and desires
- Helps to develop Emotional Literacy
- Assists to gain more clarity and perspective
- Processes Trauma and unconscious feeling experience
- A powerful tool for Visioning and Intention
- Offers insight in choices and situations
- A supportive, easily accessible self care practice
- Activates Creativity
- Develops self presence and mindfulness

And so much more 🙌🏼

Creative-Expressive experiences are woven through ‘The Essential Self’ Psychotherapy Programs.. you can read more about them in the link above or connect with me for a chat to find out more.

Ps. Art Therapy 👆🏼

When I finished this Creative Self Care Expression, I named it, ‘Growing Higher Love’ I was exploring what it might feel like to connect to more loving humans.

My feeling words were;

Lighter
Supported
Optimistic
Connected
Grounded
Valued
Trusting

What is your relationship with your feeling Life?

Are you Emotionally Literate?

- Are you often overwhelmed by feeling?
- Do you work hard to avoid them?
- Can you recognise, name your emotions as they arise?
- Can you place this feeling in your story, do you know what it’s related to?
- Can you sit with this feeling, allow it, observe it, FEEL it , without the need to judge it, control it?
- Can you express this feeling productively?

Our emotions are an intrinsic part of being human. Our feelings, whatever they are, are important informing experiences.. sometimes associated with the moment we are in, sometimes associated with the past, sometimes both.

They inform us about who we are, what we want, what we need, which choices to make, they help us process through the experience of life.

Many of us in western culture have been taught to judge our feelings as either negative or positive, to associate them with being weak or strong, to suppress them and not express them, to fear and avoid them.

This conditioning has separated us from a fundamental pillar of our self care, and our intrinsic self regulating system.

Fear and suppression of feeling creates tension and pressure in the body, and can powerfully impact the functioning of our nervous system and physiology.

Developing an empowered, engaged emotional life, learning how to ‘respond’ and relate to feeling, is a game changer in growth, in how we feel in our dailyness and what we can achieve and create for ourselves.

The Essential Self Growth and Care Programs are Emotion focused, with the development of emotional literacy at the core of what they offer.

Connect with me for a chat about how they can support YOu and what you want to create.

🤎

Supporting the Supporters✨✨

The Givers, the Carers, the Creators, the Empaths, the Leaders.. who’s minds, bodies, hands, hearts.. LIVES ..are focused on holding space for others, on creating for others, on changing things, on making things/people/life better.

Those of us that do allot, manage allot, FEEL allot, ….that on the surface seem OK to most, that appear to have all their s**z together, and are most commonly perceived to be ‘stronger’, ‘ wiser’ and therefor, not in need, ..Supported.

But more often than not, the truth is;

We are brave, but exhausted,
Inspired, but overwhelmed,
Clever, but over-thinking,
Creative, but really hard on ourselves,
Powerfully Empathic, but also deeply attuned to ALL the the feels, with very sensitive and very vulnerable nervous systems to match.

We’re STRONG yes..

but too often UNSEEN in needs, commonly just surviving inside of an invisibility pattern that leaves us feeling resentful and unsupported, too often holding way TOO MUCH to really be able to make space for our deeper selves, for our WANTS , and maybe even our ‘WHY’

Can you relate?

Are you spinning too many plates in the air, and despite being self aware, attempting to practice self care, super clever, kind, maybe even perceived as ‘successful’ on the surface ..you’re really NOT OK sometimes..and need more support.

Do YOU really need more of yourself for yourself?

Ive always been passionate about supporting the supporters, the ones most of us rely on, the ones, that when truly SUPPORTED, nourished and aligned, make the most powerful impact on the world..

If you’re a YES to this, I feel you,..this story is mine too.

Connect with me for a FREE, loving chat about how you can make you more visible and supported in your needs, how you can bring more care to your nervous system, how you can listen more deeply to you, your feels, your true wants.. how we can co-create a space YOU need for YOU.

www.essentialself.com.au

I’m standing in the womens shelter, inside the base of Uluru, a sacred, ancient, AWE inspiring space, ..where women have gathered for millennia, millennia! …to cook, share stories, care for each other’s children, hold space for each other’s feelings, rest and listen deeply to country.

Women need these spaces, …now more than ever.

Do you have this in your life?

Being here reminded me of the magic of womens groups, and our fundamental need for diverse female community. As a predominantly online space these days, I’m being called once again to create more in-person, deeper connection experiences.

Do you feel it too?

New ways of being, seeing, doing, feeling.

We don’t always get the choice to begin a new growth or healing journey feeling clear and ready.

Whether you start from deep down in the sh*tty belly of things, or you’re feeling inspired, aligned and motivated for change, DECIDING you are the one with the power and love you need to start moving into newness, is the most empowered way to begin, YOU choosing it just feels better.

A growth focus, a new authentic Intention, more support that aligns with your true needs, being willing to take a risk. These are the ingredients for creating new things.

🤎

If NOT NOW, …WHEN?

Explore the possibilities- Link in BIo

The ‘Essential Self Mastery Program’

RECLAIM

Your Deepest Needs and Desires

A Loving, engaged INNER Relationship

Empowered Emotional Awareness

More Visibility in your Life and relationships

A Nourished, Embodied, Self Loving life!

This curated, holistic DEEP DIVE Psychotherapy Program, with an integrated therapeutic approach, focused on supporting growth-focused women to cultivate NEW foundational Inner capacities and awarenesses that catalyse their growth and care in the ways they want most.

Read more about this unique woman centred program, link in BIO

🤎

Let’s be REAL

many of us are pretty busy with the surface stories, with our caring, working, LIVING responsibilities, even playing too ..easily distracted away from ourselves by a myriad of life things…..and if we’re feeling anxious, overwhelmed, sick or weary on top of that, our days can easily blur from one into the next, without any real time to BE in true connection with ourselves.

SURVIVAL.

I know women are powerfully resourceful too, (thanks conditioning) we manage to find mucho creative ways to grab stolen moments here and there with ourselves, maybe we’re even clever enough to squeeze in something regular to plug back ‘IN’

But how much REAL time do we really give to grow, nourish and care for our SELF relationship?

How much time/space do we give to caring for our deeper feelings, needs and desires? And ..how much better would our relationships be if we could do that?

How much real time do we give to our individual expression, and doing, exploring what makes us feel alive?

How much time do we create to let our minds be quiet enough, so we can truly hear ourselves?

🤎

Most of us, know the answer to these pointed questions.
I know many of you feel the impulse to be in deeper union with YOU, …but struggle in that focus, struggle to create space for the most important relationship you have.

You’re not alone, and even with awareness and desire, this is HARD stuff. Prioritising her SELF relationship, is a commonly profound challenge for Women for so many reasons (thanks again conditioning) …and yet it’s only from a truly embodied, nourished connection with SELF and her REAL feels, needs, wants, wisdom.. RICHES✨, ….that we can truly create a self loved, thriving life. 🌱

If this story resonates for you, I invite you to click on the link in the bio and read more about ‘The Essential Self’ Programs, which have been intently designed to step you through this growth and care journey..

Pls don’t hesitate to connect w any Q’s

Jodie 🤎

New Growth and Care foundations START HERE!

If you’re a growth-focused Woman, needing more support and clarity in her holistic growth, or you’re just ready to create space for YOU and your wants and needs, this short starter program is a perfect ground to cultivate NEW rich beginnings..

The ‘Essential Self Starter Program’

Creating a powerfully supported space for
your Reconnection, that sets NEW clear, loving intention for your Growth, Care and Expansion. ✨


Inclusions -

A 1.5 hr 1:1 Psychotherapy 'Connection' Session

Guided Presence Practice

Guided Emotion Focused, Creative- Expressive Processes

Access to Private Online Womens 'Essential Self' Community, including ongoing NO Cost Supportive therapeutic experiences.

Reclaim your Essential Self for YOU 🤎

Follow the link in Bio for more info about what we can explore, support and create together!

🤎

Setting NEW Powerful INTENTiON!

Most things I attempt to do these days begin with me taking a moment to breathe into my body, to check in more deeply with where I’m at, and set an INTENTION.

It’s like setting an internal compass really.. one that, in my experience, LIFE responds to.

Magical thinking? The truth is, this simple practice teaches us to listen more deeply, to cultivate emotional awareness and help us define our true needs, to CHOOSE more actively HOW we want to journey, and which direction we truly want to move in. We can then move forward with more clarity about what to align with and give our energy to.

There was ALLOT of stopping, dropping and listening more deeply in the process of creating these new offerings and a new loving container for me and YOU to grow in.

And as with all intentions it’s supportive to make them as conscious as possible, write them down, create a vision, share them with someone.. especially the bigger ones!

So I’m sharing!!!

My INTENTION for

‘The Essential Self’

- The 3 P’s - Powerful, Progressive, Productive Growth experiences for Women that genuinely change how they FEEL and live

- To help Women feel SEEN Acknowledged, Valued, Self Assured and Loved for WHO they truly are.

- To support Growth Focused Women to live Embodied, Expressed, Self Loving Lives

- To become more VISIBLE in my work .. so I can share more of my heart, skills, expertise, leadership and talents!

- To create a Loving Uplifting Growth Community Container, that catalyses each other’s expression, needs and desires.

- To Make a lasting impact in Womens Emotional Literacy, Self Connection and Leadership.

- To experience nourishing, supportive, joyful, co-creative, mutually abundant biz partnerships!

- A powerful exchange of Value between my clients and moi’, resulting in personal financial REWARD for 20+ years of passionate, dedicated work!

- To Feel supported, alive, at ease, energised and encouraged as my business grows.

NEW Growth and Care Foundations start HERE

The new web space has finally landed Beauties! Ready for YOU to Explore new Powerful Possibilities✨✨

Excited and yep a tad wobbly too, putting a new baby out there is BIG…especially one that’s been growing for sooo Long. (please be gentle🙏🏻)

So much more to share, but as always don’t hesitate to connect with any questions, feels and observations.

Happy Exploring! 🤎

www.essentialself.com.au

The Essential Self

Your SELF beyond Roles, Belief, Expectation


Your deeper personal Story, your Feeling life, your true Nature and Expression, your innate Wisdom, your profound inherent Worth.

….and so much more.

Cultivating an actively engaged relationship with this Authentic, Essential YOU is where real, empowered self embodiment is found.

She is the missing ingredient in genuine holistic growth and sustainable self care, and the only ground from which we can create a thriving actualised life that is an expression of who we truly are.

Introducing

‘The Essential Self’

Not just a new business brand, but a whole new beginning;

A NEW powerful focus, on supporting Women in the reclamation of their Essential SELF Relationship, and on the cultivation of innate foundational Growth and Care Capacities that powerfully change how they Feel, Relate, Create, Love and Live.

NEW curated Woman-Centered Growth and Care Programes that are the culmination and expression of 2+ decades supporting Women through Healing, Growth and Transformation; in diverse Psychotherapy, Counselling, Coaching, Energetic, Creative- Expressive and Facilitation Spaces, along with extensive personal and professional growth and study, and the latest sociological research- ALL informing these new offerings that I’m genuinely proud to be bringing to the table for women.

I’m honestly not sad at all to be letting go of Lilac Tree, instead I just feel really clear, and profoundly grateful for all the sweet riches that container has brought to my feet; incredible experiences with countless brave and inspiring women, life long friendships, exciting collaborations and growth, growth, growth of all kinds. All of which has powerfully changed who I am and HOW I am in the world.

I can’t wait to share more about my new offerings, including a new web space in the coming days, stay tuned.

So much love,

Jodie 🤎

NEGATIVE INNER NARRATIVES

What’s your Negative Nelly flavour? 🌈

The ‘Perfectionist’ - “Its not good enough, Im not good enough, Im not ready yet, I don’t know how”

The ‘Hard Arse’ - “Push through the pain, Suck it up, Get over it, Stop complaining, Just keep going, Im such an idiot/Im so stupid etc “

The ‘Get them before they get me’ - “I dont trust you/them, I don’t trust this, you better not f**k with me, I can only rely on me “

The ‘Better not let my guard down’ - “What if this happens, I better make sure, I bet this will go wrong, its not safe because…”

The ‘I can’t because’ - “Because this happened to me, because he/she has it easier than me, because I don’t have, because I’m not… “

The ‘Im not worthy’ - “Others have it harder than me, I can’t make waves, Others will get upset with me, Its selfish”

Just to name a few👆🏼

I mean Im sure most of us can relate to having heard one or all of these inner stories at one point or another.. But for some, these negative inner narratives are a constant that stop them in their tracks everyday and can impact their capacity for growth, nourishment and joy. 🌻

The truth is negative thoughts like this are often expressions of a deeper issue that needs our attention, such as

- ANXIETY a sick/ overwhelmed nervous system
- An un-FELT or un-resolved emotion
- An old OUTDATED story or belief
- Trauma.. in all it forms.
- Other more complex MH conditions

And for most who experience strong NEG Inner Narratives often it’s never enough to simply say, “just change your thinking” 🙃

YES a dominant Inner Critic needs to be called out for us to move toward change..absolutely, but a deeper understanding of why we may have developed these inner narratives is super important too.

This issue needs a genuine HOLISTIC approach, it needs more self awareness, it needs our curious compassionate interest in our deeper story, it needs Emotion focused Care and Understanding, it needs soul food and physical/ Mental health/self care, it needs nervous system nourishment and sometimes if chronic, it requires wider psychological assessment and sometimes Medicinal support. Common approaches like CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapies) can help, along with other Cognitive therapies for some…but in my experience they’re commonly never enough just on their own, for sustainable healing and change. 🌳

Fundamentally, MOSTLY, constant Neg thought patterns need our knowing, that we are much more than our thoughts. ✨

It needs our awareness that often (frustratingly) what we think and believe more NEGATIVELY about ourself/others/life is mostly UNTRUE….Yep I said it.. an intensely negative mind is simply an expression, but not necessarily TRUTH. What we know to be really true, often resides much more deeply than our thoughts. 🙌🏻

(Now watch your NEG mind attack that idea!🙉 )

Our thoughts inform us yes, just like our emotions but sometimes they are outdated, unbalanced or misguided and do not serve our true and current needs and desires.✨

What ever your Negative Nelly flavour, it’s never too late to work toward new, more loving, more nourishing, more supportive ways of Thinking, and ultimately BEING in life. ✨

Jodie 💛

Moving from living within SURVIVAL patterns and behaviours, into new THRIViNG ways of being,

into new ways of thinking, doing and seeing that support our personal nourishment, peace and genuine fulfilment, is an important and powerful SHIFT in our personal growth and healing.

Commonly that shift begins with recognising how our survival functioning (and the beliefs that underpin it) no longer serve our needs and desires , even if it did at a point in our lives where it felt like we had no other choice (or awareness).

This is a pivotal awakening in our growth, and self Compassion is key, along with a willingness to trust and embrace the vulnerability that comes with laying down the swords that once protected us. As much as we need to unlearn old responses and behaviours, we need also be open to explore and embody new ways to BE in our lives, so as to create and have a new experience.

✨

So much freedom in surrender and ownership of our deeper feeling experience.

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy...the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”
Brene Brown

Rockwell Kent - Late Afternoon, Monhegan Island.

Some of the most important choices in our self care can result in feelings of loss and grief, loss of well worn ways of being, emotional patterns and even relationships that have been large in your life. Honouring these feelings is important, remembering the empty space you’re creating will ultimately be reclaimed for your nourishment, needs, and desires.

Sometimes the right decisions feel so wrong and hurt so much. So how do you know if it was, or is, the right decision? That comes down to a combination of: a see understanding of your self through self-regulation and self-awareness, advice and counsel from trusted people like a therapist, and hope & faith.

It’s never easy and it may take time to feel good about your decision but I promise you will get there. Give yourself time to mourn and feel your feelings. Suppressing and ignoring won’t help- it will only make things worse!

“Our capacity for embodied pleasure depends on our ability to receive, which is like a muscle that can atrophy if it’s been habitually contracted. A learned sense of unworthiness can act as a barrier against our well-being, keeping us from opening to the beauty that’s all around us. Whether it’s our ability to receive positive feedback and support, or to expect things to work out in our favour, we may be distrustful of goodness even when it stands on our doorstep. But this doesn’t have to be a permanent condition. With practice, we can learn how to welcome beauty and receive pleasure wholeheartedly.”

Toko-pa Turner, Belonging (belongingbook.com)

Artwork by Andreas Lei (andreaslie.com)

“There is a wild woman under our skin who wants nothing more than to dance until her feet are sore, sing her beautiful grief into the rafters, and offer the bottomless cup of her creativity as a way of life. And if you are able to sing from the very wound that you’ve worked so hard to hide, not only will it give meaning to your own story, but it becomes a corroborative voice for others with a similar wounding.”

~ Toko-pa Turner, “Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home”
🎨 Lucy Campbell, “Celestial Bodies”
🐅 🐅 🐅

Finding breathing space may be more challenging for many of us right now, but with the stress dial turned up like it is at present it’s imperative we find an intentional moment to unplug from thought, technology stimulation, negative media, and even our feels, ...and just BREATHE.. for at least a couple of minutes.

If you can get out into nature or put your feet on the ground somewhere even better, as natural spaces and sounds help calm our nervous system.

Focus simply on your breath until you feel even a slight shift in your energy. Rinse and repeat daily 🧡

Where is your breathing space?