About Sarah.
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An avid learner and training-attendee. This list gives some sense of where I’m coming from.
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Organised into chapters. I feel deep gratitude to everyone I have worked with along the way.
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Snippets of life, with a focus on connection outdoors and within.
I am an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker with further professional training in Hakomi: Mindfulness-Based Somatic Psychotherapy and Sensorimotor Art Therapy.
I combine a depth of clinical experience with a soulful orientation; taking a particular interest in listening to body-wisdom and supporting people to connect with their natural healing impulse.
You’ll notice from the website that I just love the natural world and being outdoors. Over my years of clinical practice I have increasingly recognised that our relationship to the natural world is vital in supporting physical and mental health, and so am passionate about finding ways to include nature in therapy.
Creative art is another area of interest. I’m not a particularly skillful artists, but I just find that therapy becomes more powerful when we introduce even a small amount of art-making. Drawing as we talk, using figurines or clay to represent different parts of ourself.
Below you’ll see that I am always learning. I love finding ways to support people to find their most authentic and expansive self.
Combining somatic psychotherapy, creative expression and nature-based practice, with a background of clinical training and experience
Vocational history.
I have worked in community-based and therapeutic services for over 20 years and as a social worker for 15. Here is a brief summary of my career to-date, which gives an idea of my values, experience, and journey to this stage of my vocation.
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During my undergraduate degree I worked in the disability sector, for which I will always be grateful. I learned from the people I worked with about the importance of promoting dignity in a world which can often forget.
While completing my Masters in Social Work I worked with young people experiencing homelessness in Darwin. Part of my role was supporting young mum’s as they moved towards forming a secure home-base. I became very interested in the relationship between one’s physical home security and developing an internal ‘home-base’. Supporting these young women’s attachment/bonding with their children taught me so much about intergenerational dynamics and the conditions necessary to build emotional capacity.
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After graduating, I began as a Research Officer at Menzies School of Health Research in Alice Springs. Our projects promoted cultural-safety and trauma-informed principles within children and family services. From this, came my one and only academic publication.
I began my therapist journey as a school counsellor in Darwin; followed by being a Lead Clinician at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) in Bendigo.
On moving to Melbourne, I held a role as a Senior Clinician at eheadspace; and Allied Health Professional at the headspace centre in Collingwood.
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I began my private practice in 2018. The autonomy of private practice has allowed me to develop, and lean into, my own approach to psychotherapy, including integration of Sensorimotor Art Therapy and Hakomi.
In 2020 I established a group clinic in Northcote, Inside This River: Somatic and Art Therapies.
In 2026 a period of illness interrupted my work, and also helped clarify a new direction. My new practice is the outcome of this change, reflecting a move towards working with my sense of place in Nillumbik (Eltham and surrounds) and as a distillation of many years of training and experience into those practices which I find to be the most inspiring and potent.
Professional training.
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Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Psychology), La Trobe University 2004
Masters of Social Work, Flinders University 2011
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker, Australian Association of Social Workers 2017
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Training
Hakomi Professional Training Level 3, 2024 (Full graduation from 3 year Professional Training)
H.E.A.R.T (Hakomi Embodied and Aware Relationship Training) 12 months, 2023
Hakomi Professional Training Level 2, 2021
Trauma to Dharma Level 1, with Manuela Mischke-Reeds, 2020
‘In and out of character: From protection to connection’ training, with Jules Morgaine. 2019-2020
Hakomi Professional Training Level 1, 2019
Workshops
Alive to the Body’s Intelligence: Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy, with Aladdin Jones 2025 (in the role as assistant)
Meeting the Mapmaker workshop, with Jules Morgaine 2023
Presence of Heart-Mind: The Gift of Hakomi workshop, with Aladdin Jones 2022 (in the role as assistant)
Wisdom of the bodymind workshop, with Aladdin Jones 2022 (in the role as assistant)
Mindfulness Based Experiential Psychotherapy with Couples workshop, with Rob Fisher 2019
Hakomi in the fishbowl: Live sessions with Halko Weiss 2019
Resistance is not a problem: a Hakomi approach to working with defences workshop, with Karen Baikie, 2018
Working with Trauma in the Body workshop, with Jules Morgaine, 2017
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Institute for Sensorimotor Art Therapy, with Cornelia Elbrecht
Certificate of Clay Field Therapy, 2021-22
Certificate of Initiactic Art Therapy, 2016-2020
Healing Trauma with Guided Drawing, 2019
IFS Intuitive Drawing - Foundation, with Ruth Culver 2023
Drawing into Self (IFS), with Ruth Culver 2021
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Habitat Conservation and Management Course, Darebin Creek Management Committee, 2026
The Foundations of Ritual: On Relationship and the Sacred, with Dr Daniel Foor, 2025
The Nature of Hakomi: Mindful Somatic Ecotherapy Intro, with Aladdin Jones and Fran Woodruff 2025
Animist Psychology: Healing Earth, Psyche, and Culture, with Dr Daniel Foor, 2025
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(upcoming) The Living Bridge: Exploring Dreams Through Symbol, Dream Re-entry & Creative Process, MIECAT, Briony Tronson, 20266
The Dream That Tends You: Foundations of Animistic Dreamwork, Centre for Ritual and Reverence, 2026
Dreaming Our Lives Awake: Dream Tending Circle, Soul River, 2026
Experiential
Several dream groups over the years, based on Jungian Psychotherapy, Robert Moss and Transpersonal Psychotherapy approaches respectively.
Individual dreamwork with therapists over the years - Transpersonal and Soulcentric.
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The Soul's Great Adventure, Michael Meade, 2026
Your True Calling: Essential Teachings of Yoga to Find Your Path in the World, Stephen Cope, 2025
Bad Trip Integration: Understanding Bad Trips & Working with Psychedelic Casualties, Wild Mind Institute, 2025
Right Use of Power- 8 week Core Training, with Right Use of Power Institute, 2023
Principles and Ethics of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Melbourne Shiatsu College 2021
Models of the Mind 1 year reading group - Melbourne Psychoanalytic Institute, 2017
Internal Family Systems: Introductory Course, with Bonnie Weiss 2016
Internal Family Systems: Advanced Skills, with Bonnie Weiss 2016
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Group Supervision Training Workshop, with Michelle Bihary Health, Australian Association of Social Workers, 2024
Clinical Supervision Training - Bouverie Centre, 2018
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I love to learn from people I admire. Below are key mentors from recent years who have shaped me:
I maintain First Aid, WWCC and Police Check requirements
A personal journey of connection
To get a little sense of who you’d be sitting with
Seedpods of childhood
As a child we spent a lot of time outdoors, appreciating the beauty in natural spaces. I was encouraged to be curious about everything. An avid tree-climber, feeling trees spoke to me through my feet, telling me which path to take through their branches. The Murray River mouth is a particularly evocative place for me. Some writings on these seedpods and basket.
Travelling close to the earth
My 20s were filled with bike tours and camping; always on the move. I loved the intimacy of bike-riding, never far from the passing fragrances and weather. This rather eager photo was taken in Morocco. Deserts have a particular pull; their vastness and star-filled skies.
Wild and majestic NT
I have been drawn back to the NT time and time again. Bike riding through the West Macdonald Ranges; completing my first Social Work placement at the Alice Springs hospital; later completing my Social Work Masters and early career in Darwin. I learned basket weaving and how to 4WD. Life was filled with tropical waterfalls, crocodile-filled rivers, wild flowers and sleeping in a swag under the stars.
The internal landscape
From 2017-2024 I undertook several multi-year, intensive psychotherapy trainings. Connection and journeying shifted from the external landscape to the deep within. Each training took a focus on learning through direct experience - Everything I offer is something I have thrown myself into first. Recent training has shifted towards animist traditions, and our connection with the more-than-human world.
A sense of place
In 2023 I moved to Nillumbik, where I have settled into having a greater sense of place (the next adventure). Materials for this weaving/assemblage (photo) were collected in and around my beloved garden. Some writings on weaving and conversations with natural materials here. As this local landscape holds me, I am curious to keep exploring how I can offer care in return.
At home here, and there
Home is both a place to settle-in to, and securely jump-off from. After 10 years of relative consistency in Melbourne, I feel the call of the desert again. Above is a scene from Mungo National Park. Stunning. I am excited to weave between in-person sessions celebrating the beauty of Nillumbik; and online sessions from the road.
