My name is Vanessa Worthington. I am a Psychotherapist and I work with people to resolve psychophysiological trauma.
I am a wife, a mum, an aunty, a sister, a daughter and a friend. I am also a psychotherapist, a counsellor and a mentor. My relationships in my personal life have been the foundation of my professional life. I have spent the last 15 years really engaged with my patterns of behaviour, my thinking, emotional and spiritual life. The impulse to do this originated in a realisation that I didn’t have an inkling of who I was and what I wanted in my life. I was often ill and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. All of this and raising 3 children and working in our family business. My motto was “Life is busy and then you die.” I was so disconnected from myself and over time realized that I had learnt to live according to the needs of those around me. I was shutdown to myself and felt like an empty vessel going through the motions. I started Breathwork which helped me relax more into my body.
I became fascinated in the human experience and craved information. I read every chance I could, attended therapy and workshops in an effort to learn more about myself and the human experience. This evolved into studying to be a Breathwork Practitioner. As I entered into this program I also commenced a two year post-graduate program in Holistic Counselling and Psychotherapy. The module on Trauma and Abuse was especially intriguing to me and introduced me to Somatic Experiencing developed by Peter Levine. I was lucky enough to get one of the final places on the first training in Australia. I have now completed three years of training in Somatic Experiencing and have travelled to North America to complete Advanced training in Touch Therapy for Trauma with Kathy Kain and further training in Developmental Touch Therapy with Kathy Kain and Stephen Terrell. I am deeply passionate about this work and most recently had the honour of attending a Masterclass with Peter Levine. I continue to deepen my understanding of how trauma effects human physiology, emotion, behavior, thought patterns, belief systems and relationships. This knowledge informs how I work and therefore influences the effectiveness of renegotiating trauma with clients.
Over the past 15 years, I have been involved as a participant in Family Constellation work and have completed numerous facilitator trainings over the years. Family Constellations looks at the hidden dynamics in families which can assist in developing an understanding for clients regarding family relationships and patterns that may be carried through generations. This work has been enormously healing for me.
I am forever curious about the moments that shape a person, from the stories of previous generations to the birth experience, to the major stages of development and beyond. I have a great respect for all people and their stories and enjoy the journey with each client.
Qualifications
B.A (Psychology)
Sydney University
Grad. Cert. Training & Development
Southern Cross University
Holistic Counselling & Psychotherapy (post graduate)
Metavision Institute
Cert IV Breathwork Practitioner
Breathwork Trainings
International
Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP)
Somatic Experiencing Australia
Addictions and Somatic Experiencing
Somatic Experiencing Australia
Somatic Experiencing for Kids
Somatic Experiencing Australia
Systemic Constellations
Maria Dolenc
Touch Skills for Trauma
Kathy Kain
Somatic Regulation and Resilience (Touch Therapy for Developmental Trauma)
Kathy Kain and Steve Terrell
Senior First Aid
Member of Psychotherapists and Counsellor Federation of Australia (PACFA)
All trauma is held in both the mind and the body, in ways that we are aware of and in others we may not be aware of. People may only be aware of how things are not going well in their lives. They may struggle with relationships, have little self-esteem, live with addiction, feel chronic sadness or anger. The indicators that things are not quite right in our lives are limitless.
Unfortunately many people ignore the signs for many years until a crisis occurs and life can no longer be managed the way it has been. It is my belief that many people just accept that this is the way life is and that it cannot be changed. We all have the power to change our lives and sometimes we are so entrenched in a way of being that we may need some support and direction on how to do this.
It takes courage to reach out to someone we don’t know to invite them into our lives to support us to make changes in order to create the life we want. It also takes strength and commitment to integrate change into our way of being. However if we really want our lives to be different, this can only be achieved by doing things differently.
Trauma is a word that seems to be quite popular in the field of psychology and in the media at this time. At the end of the day it is a word that describes past wounds that continue to give us pain and limit the way we currently live our lives. These wounds hold us back through fear.
We may have suffered a one-off traumatic event or we may have grown up in an environment that felt unsafe. It may be that all our developmental needs were not met and we have set-up ways of being where we are burdened by beliefs that bind our freedom. We wear masks that hide the truth of who we are.
This can all seem so overwhelming and it is because we know no other way. It is however possible with support, to learn to look at our lives, our beliefs and thoughts from a different perspective, to see the patterns we have set up to manage the way we feel. And at the end of the day, patterns can be broken by firstly becoming aware of them and then catching them when we find ourselves acting them out. We can learn to acknowledge our feelings and to either take care of what we need for ourselves and when appropriate to step into our own power to express what is needed within relationship in a healthy way. This may sound simple, however it can be very challenging for many people.
You may feel or experience any one of the following chronic symptoms:
- depressed mood
- anxiety
- panic attacks
- negative self belief
- shame
- guilt
- overwhelming emotion
- apathy
- addiction
- eating disorders
- illnesses such as chronic headache, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, IBS, thyroid disfunction, autoimmune diseases
- thoughts of self harm or suicide
- dysfunctional relationships
- self sabotaging behaviour
- challenging relationships
- and so on….