Adelaide Therapeutic Services

15/04/2026

This 👏🏻

10/04/2026

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts about what would be helpful to see in this space? What would you like to know more about?

30/03/2026

We are so excited to share we are now based in Christie’s Beach, co located with the amazing Mind Co 🩷

23/03/2026

It’s a strange moment when as a therapist you finally listen to your own advice.

When you step outside, hands in the soil, and realise….oh wow, I always knew gardening made me feel good but now I actually know why.

The slowing down. The rhythm of pulling weeds, watering, moving your body without pressure.

The way the nervous system quietly exhales when you’re surrounded by living things instead of noise and urgency.

No analysing. No fixing. Just soil, breath, and small moments of care.

Sometimes the body knows long before the mind catches up.

17/03/2026

Come and join me this Friday 🩷

16/03/2026

Some children move through the world wearing an invisible mask.

At school they “cope”. They follow the rules.
They say the right things. Teachers describe them as polite, capable, even easy.

And then they come home…and everything falls apart.

The tears.
The anger.
The shutdown.
The exhaustion of holding it together all day finally spilling out in the place that feels safest.

As a parent, this can be confusing and isolating. You might hear things like, “they are fine at school” or “we don’t see that here”.

But the absence of struggle in public doesn’t mean the struggle isn’t real. Sometimes it just means the child is working incredibly hard to survive the day.

Masking takes energy. It asks children to hide their discomfort, override their instincts, and perform what the world expects of them.

And eventually, that cost has to go somewhere.

Often, it comes home.

I know this not only through my work but through my life.

I have lived the experience of loving a child who masks. Of watching the world see one version of them, while holding the deeper truth of what it takes for them to get through the day.

So if you’re the parent of a child who “holds it together” everywhere else but unravels with you, please hear this:

You are not imagining it.
Your child is not manipulating you.
And the hard moments at home are not a sign you’re doing something wrong.

Very often, they are a sign of safety.

Because home is the place where the mask can finally come off.

11/03/2026

Why as parents can we feel calm and connected one moment and overwhelmed the next…

Every parent has a “window of tolerance” where their nervous system can handle the demands of parenting. When we are inside this window, we can:
~Stay calm during big emotions
~Think clearly
~Respond instead of react
~Hold empathy for their child
~Set boundaries with steadiness

When we are inside our window we may still feel tired, annoyed or stressed but we can stay regulated enough to stay connected.

Moving above the Window ~ Hyperarousal

Sometimes parenting pushes us above the window, into a state of overwhelm. This might look like:
~Snapping or yelling
~Feeling flooded with anger or panic
~Heart racing, body tense
~”I can’t handle this right now”
This is our nervous system moving into fight or flight.

We can often experience this when:
~We are exhausted
~Our child’s behaviour triggers our own childhood memories
~The stress of life piles up

Moving below the Window ~ Hypoarousal

Other times we can drop below the window, into shutdown. This can feel like:
~Numbness or disconnection
~Feeling emotionally flat
~Wanting to withdraw or escape
~”I’ve got nothing left”
This is our nervous system protecting itself through freeze or collapse.

Our children’s nervous systems are deeply connected to our nervous system.

When we are inside their window, we can help bring our children back into regulation. This is sometimes called co-regulation.

But when we are both outside our windows, it can feel like two nervous systems in a storm.

And that doesn’t mean we are failing, it means our nervous system are overloaded.

The goal of parenting is not to stay regulated all the time.

The goal is:
~noticing when we leave our window
~repairing when things go wrong
~gently widening our window over time

Parenting isn’t about perfection, it’s about two nervous systems learning safety together.

03/03/2026

We’ve realised that for some reason our website link via Facebook doesn’t work, so if you are interested in connecting with us please find the link below to website ☺️

Therapy for children & teens. Support for parents. Based in Southern Adelaide. Over a decade of experience.

03/03/2026

I realise I haven’t posted about Elvis for a while now and people often ask about him. He is still here in the background, training is still being worked on but he’s grown with an issue with men…men and caps to be specific, and no matter how many men show him they are safe, he’s still not keen. He’s not a danger to them, he’s just learnt to bark very loudly which isn’t ideal and whether he will ever get past this I am unsure of at this stage. So for now he continues to be a family dog, he meets a few specific clients here and there and spends the rest of the time being doted upon 🐾

01/03/2026

Even when it’s “just the child” in the therapy room…I am holding the whole family in mind.

Because children don’t exist in isolation. Their nervous systems are woven into the nervous systems of the people who love them.

I’m deeply passionate about building safety not only for the child in front of me, but for their entire family system.

Safety for the child to unmask.
Safety for the parent to soften.
Safety for repair to happen at home, not just in my clinic.

When I work with a child, I’m thinking about:
How can this child feel more understood?
How can their parents feel more confident and less alone?
How can this family move from survival mode into connection?

Real change doesn’t happen in a 50-minute session. It happens around dinner tables. In car rides. In the quiet moments after a hard day.

So even if you only see your child walk through my door…I am working for the safety of your whole family.

And weaving parent consults into therapy planning, creates a soft safe place for parents to land to, to find hope, to feel held.

Because when the system feels safe, everyone can breathe.

27/02/2026

At the end of each therapy session, they leave with a small gem.

Not as a reward. Not for “being good”.

But as a ritual.

A tiny, steady reminder that this space is safe. That someone is holding their story. That they showed up, even when it was hard.

Over time, those gems a collection of courage. A pocket-sized reminder of connection.

Because I truly believe that in therapy, it’s often the smallest rituals that build the deepest sense of safety.

16/02/2026

If you’ve worked with me you will know that I ALWAYS go on about safety, not physical safety, but a felt sense of safety.

Children don’t measure safety by logic.
They measure it by their body.

You can tell a child “you’re safe now”
but if their nervous system still expects something scary, their body will stay ready.

Safety is not a thought. It’s a sensation.

When a child has experienced stress, unpredictability, or overwhelm, their brain learns to stay prepared.

So they might:
* control everything
* avoid new things
* cling or push away
* melt down over small changes
* watch adults closely
* struggle to rest even when tired

They are not choosing behaviour. They are following their body signals.

A felt sense of safety grows through repetition, not explanation.

It grows when an adult:
* responds predictably
* notices before correcting
* stays calm when the child cannot
* repairs after mistakes
* keeps showing up

Over time the child’s nervous system learns:
nothing bad happened…and nothing bad happened again…and again.

And one day you see it:
* they play louder
* they explore further
* they recover faster
* they need less control

Not because they were told they’re safe,
but because their body finally believes it.

Safety isn’t seperate from therapy goals, it supports every goal.