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“Counselling helped identify thoughts and feelings within that were holding me back. I was struggling with feelings of overwhelm, and counselling helped put things in perspective and allowed me to start seeing myself as a human being who is enough, just as I am. I was able to look at things that had happened in the past with clarity and without judgement and see how they have shaped me today.”
Julia
About Me
Lyndell Weaver
Accredited Counsellor/Therapist
I hold 15 years' experience of supporting people to find stability and direction in the worst of times and to keep growing, both personally and in their relationships. I work in a trauma-informed way and specialise in the following areas:
I provide Covid-safe in-person counselling and therapy when pandemic conditions allow for this. At present I am offering online video and telephone sessions and some in-person sessions in the Inner West of Sydney. Please contact me for venue details.
As a counsellor, I really enjoy getting to know and connecting with people on a deep level. In my one-to-one work, I see my role as building the right therapeutic relationship in which you can safely feel through and reflect on your experiences, make helpful connections and access your inner strengths, wisdom and resources. I've been privileged to accompany a wide array of individuals and families as they face challenges to their mental and emotional health, problems at work or school, parenting and relationship difficulties and helped them come to terms with the impacts of loss and change, adversity or injustice. I've been inspired so many times by how people grow and find their way forward despite what they are up against.
I came to therapeutic counselling and advocacy work after first working as a social researcher in Sydney and Glasgow, Scotland. In these jobs I consulted with different community groups about their experiences of accessing health care, housing and support services. This work taught me a lot about what people really need from helping relationships – respect, empathy and no judgement, clear and jargon-free communication, and resources that are adapted to different cultures and lifestyles. I loved the interviewing involved, where I got to listen deeply to people and help represent their different experiences and views. My consultative work in the area of gender-based violence and its impacts on children and young people, together with my personal experience of supporting a close friend who was dealing with the aftermath of abuse in both her marriage and childhood, led me to re-train as a Counsellor with the aim of making a bigger difference in people’s real life situations.
Through my roles in domestic abuse advocacy, general counselling, trauma counselling, parent counselling and family therapy, I have extensive experience of supporting women, men, children and young people impacted by violence and abuse, separation and co-parenting, childhood trauma and adversity, loss and change. My clients are from diverse socio-economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, spiritual faiths, sexual and gender identities. And I have worked with people in transition to a new sense of self, environment or culture.
Over the years I have learnt so much from clients and developed my specialist knowledge and training in what heals traumatic stress, what works in parenting and how to strengthen family and couple relationships.
I work in an integrative way, combining my original training in person-centred and humanistic therapies with other approaches that are relevant to your specific needs. These include attachment theory, family systems theory, emotion focused therapy, narrative therapy, empathic anger management, creative arts, and somatic or body-based approaches to processing difficult experiences, emotional regulation and trauma recovery. As well as working with your thoughts, emotions and beliefs about the world and other people, we may explore your bodily sensations or 'felt sense' of a problem or situation (an approach known as Focusing) or find physical ways to soothe and regulate your nervous system.
You can read more about my therapeutic approach here
Qualifications and Training
I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Behavioural Sciences (Sociology major, 1994), a Post Graduate Diploma in Counselling (2007) and Individual Accreditation with the British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy (2014). Since moving back to Sydney in 2015, I have Level 4 membership of the Australian Counselling Association and am registered with ARCAP.
In addition, I participate in ongoing training and professional development in a range of issues, therapeutic modalities and parenting approaches to support my clinical practice. My key training has been in person-centred therapy, domestic abuse dynamics & impacts, working with survivors of childhood trauma & abuse, trauma therapy, including yoga for the traumatised body and other somatic therapy approaches to trauma, Focusing, parts of self theory and the Flash Technique & memory reconsolidation. I am also trained in providing online & telephone counselling, emotion coaching parenting (Tuning in to Kids & Tuning in to Teens facilitation) and attachment based parenting (Circle of Security facilitation). In addition I draw on training in person-centred relationship therapy and family systems theory when working with individuals who are facing challenges in their relationships.
I am committed to honing my therapeutic knowledge and skills in order to give my clients the very best.
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