Nested Hearts

16/11/2025

What’s fascinating is not just that somatics and polyvagal theory echo Indigenous Knowledge it’s the unexpected places where science is finally catching up.

Here are some lesser-known intersections:

🌿 The nervous system responds to micro-movements, not only big rhythms.
Somatic research shows that tiny, repetitive hand movements, weaving, knot-tying, beading, rolling fibres activate fine motor pathways linked to ventral vagal calm.
Our old people have known this forever weaving pandanus, twining plant fibres, tying fishing nets, carving message sticks, threading shells, mapping stories in sand.
Indigenous fibre arts are not just craft they are regulation, memory and medicine.

🔥 Heat is a vagal regulator.
Warmth on the skin is one of the strongest signals of safety, it lifts vagal tone and softens defensive states.
Indigenous practice has always held this truth...fire ceremony, sun-warmed sand, warm ochre on the body, smoking ceremony and sitting close in story.
Warmth is medicine. Country knows how to settle the nervous system long before science named it.

🌬️The vagus nerve is about 80% sensory, it listens far more than it speaks.
Science shows it carries the body’s stories up to the brain.
Indigenous Knowledge has always known this...wisdom rises from gut, heart, feet and Country, not just from the thinking mind.

🌱 Plants speak directly to the nervous system.
Scent travels straight into the limbic system...the emotional brain without passing through thought.
This is why lemon myrtle, eucalyptus smoke, wattle blossom, native mint, crushed gum leaves, warm resins and flowering plants (and other scented plants) are so regulating.
Our old people have always known that plant kin calm the body before the mind even catches up.

🌊 Water sound tunes the nervous system.
The low, rhythmic frequencies of flowing water sit in the same range as alpha brainwaves...the patterns of calm presence and creative insight.
Our people have always known this...sitting at creeks, rivers, rockholes, billabongs and ocean edges to listen, to cleanse, to let Country regulate the body.
Water changes the brain before the mind even realises it.

👣 Walking on soft terrain changes the whole stress response.
Sand, soil and leaf litter increase proprioceptive input.... the deep-body sense that calms the limbic system and steadies mood.
Our people have always known this...healing happens barefoot, in motion, on earth that yields gently beneath you...dunes, bush tracks, riverbanks, mangroves, desert soils and the soft ground around fire.
Country regulates the body with every step.

✨ These aren’t just beautiful overlaps they’re reminders.

The body remembers.
Country speaks.
And science, slowly, is learning the language our Ancestors never forgot.

12/11/2025

Highly recommend the sensory resources from Kaiko Fidgets Aus, they have some Christmas specials coming up! I have some of these resources in my therapy room and they are great for all ages!! Particularly teens and adults as well! Do you have a child with high anxiety who picks at their skin, or are at risk of self harming, they have all the harm minimisation resources and picky pads to meet the sensory needs of neurodivergent and traumatised kids, teens and adults. Highly recommended!

10/11/2025

With all the changes to early intervention care in Australia, feeling relieved that the amazing Dr Kate Renshaw at Play & Filial Therapy is representing our field in Play Therapy at the Government Inquiry into the Thriving Kids program. Having a voice at the table is so important as Play Therapy is the most developmentally targeted intervention when working with children.

Yesterday Dr Kate Renshaw was invited to give evidence at an upcoming Thriving Kids Inquiry public hearing!

At the hearing she will deliver a short address to the committee and answer questions on behalf of Australian Play Therapists, developmentally vulnerable children and their families, and organisations employing Play Therapists

Dr Kate will give evidence alongside:

University of Melbourne
Western Sydney University
University of Sydney

08/11/2025

Indigenous knowledge has held an embodied understanding of breath, body, relationship and safety for thousands of generations. These teachings recognise that the nervous system is shaped through Country, kinship, story, rhythm and ceremony.

Polyvagal theory is a helpful contemporary tool, but it sits inside a much older Indigenous worldview about how humans regulate, connect and heal.

Healing deepens when:
❤️ Indigenous wisdom leads the way,
❤️ neuroscience walks alongside rather than defines, and
❤️ somatic practice is grounded in culture, Country and relationship - not just the individual body.

06/11/2025

Would you like to know a bit more about the very unique, relational, compassionate and decolonised approach to EMDR that I use in my practice. As an advanced trained Relational Integrative EMDR therapist, fellow practitioner Claudia Wolf has so beautifully described this approach in her blog. As she says "This is not EMDR as performance or perfection. It is EMDR that welcomes your protective parts, your spiritual beliefs, your ancestors, and your humour. There is space for what feels real, not just what can be measured" Read here

If you're a therapist, a curious client, or someone with parts who are feeling wary at the mention of “processing,” you're not alone.I fell even more in love with EMDR therapy when I discovered Relational Integrative (RI) EMDR- a gentle, flexible, and spiritually attuned approach to trauma work ...

04/11/2025

Good morning from me! Sarah at Nested Hearts. I have hit the ground running since coming back to Australia and am feeling very very full!. Im putting in some wellbeing priorities for me and my family. Im finishing early more often these days so I can pick my own kids up from school because life is short and they need me as well. This doesn't always fit for families wanting those prized after school sessions and I do apologise but I realised it was inauthentic of me emphasising boundaries and the importance of self care, family care when I didnt do it myself. Im still not entirely there but I am trying! Right now I am at capacity til at least next year. Email sarah@nestedhearts.com if you are interested in potential January intensives.

24/10/2025

Finishing up my week in Timor-Leste with the incredible NABILAN team at The Asia Foundation, such dedicated and heartfelt people doing truly important work with women and children.

It’s been a full and productive week, and I’ve felt so welcomed and supported. Being back in Timor, speaking Tetum again, and reconnecting with old friends has filled me with a deep sense of purpose and a tender feeling of returning to a younger part of myself from 13 years ago, when this journey first began.

As a social worker and play therapist, I’m reminded that play heals. It helps children find safety again, reawaken their curiosity, and remember who they are full of imagination, laughter, and life.

This project will continue to build on child-centred, trauma-responsive, and inclusive practice, grounded in collaboration, curiosity, and playfulness. Halimar halimar halimar, it’s the secret ingredient to life.

I’ll be back in-country next year to keep walking alongside this incredible team.

🤍 Obrigada barak, Timor.

22/10/2025

Three days into a week of visits and workshops across shelters, legal teams, and medical services working on the frontline of violence against children in Timor and I can feel it.

The weight of the stories. The faces of the people telling them. The quiet courage in the rooms where we speak of things no child should ever endure.

I’ve met incredible teams here in Timor-Leste. People showing up every day to hold space for the unimaginable. Children hurt. Girls forced into violent pregnancies they must carry. And through it all, these teams are there, creating safety, offering hope, helping children find pathways to freedom and care. Their strength inspires me deeply.

Alongside that strength, I’ve heard stories of heartbreak of judges ill-informed and blaming the victims, and the incredible lawyers, social workers, and shelter staff who keep pushing back, showing up again and again with very limited resources but endless heart. They continue, fuelled by purpose, integrity, and love for the children they serve.

Tonight, I can’t meet friends. I need to stay in, eat something simple, and just sit with it. This work takes something from us too. The stories linger in our bodies and hearts.

This week I’m meeting my own vicarious trauma. Naming it, feeling it, and choosing to honour its message. It reminds me that empathy has a cost, but also a purpose. I take strength in what I can do, in the small, steady acts of change we each make when we show up with compassion and courage.

So today, I choose kindness for myself.
Rest, stillness, and gentleness, so I can keep showing up with the same love and hope that this work deserves.

💛

20/10/2025

✨ Today marked the first day of my consultation with the incredible program partners of The Asia Foundation’s Nabilan Program. I feel deeply moved and inspired by the courage and compassion of the workers who support children impacted by violence in their shelters every single day — often with so few resources. They all said it’s their heart’s work, and their hope and dedication is truly inspiring. 💛

It was an emotional day, listening to heartbreaking stories, but also stories of hope and healing. I was especially touched to hear how play therapy is helping children begin to open up after years of silence. One story that stayed with me was of a child who hadn’t spoken to anyone for two years, now slowly finding their voice again through the safety of play.

Later, I visited one centre and, despite the lack of resources and the painful experiences these children have endured, I saw smiles and hope as they played music together. 🎶

Together, we began identifying key gaps and priorities for my return next year — laying the groundwork for deeper, more sustainable trauma-responsive, child centered practice across the program.

It feels so good — and humbling — to know that I can contribute in a small way to such vital, life-changing work. 🌏💫

16/10/2025

✨ Returning to Timor-Leste! ✨

Two and a half years ago, I had the absolute privilege of consulting on The Asia Foundation’s Play Therapy Program with the incredible Nabilan Team in Dili, Timor-Leste.

This Saturday, I’ll be flying into Dili to begin a new six-month engagement, consulting on their Violence Against Children Programs with the Nabilan Team — supporting child protection processes and children’s counselling initiatives.

This return is deeply special for me. I lived and worked in Timor from 2010 to 2012, where I helped establish an Arts and Play Space for children with disabilities and co-created storybooks with families in their mother tongue languages. 🌺

It’s also where I met my Portuguese husband — and where I left 3 months pregnant with my now 12-year-old daughter! ❤️

Now, I get to come back to work in an area even closer to my heart — supporting the healing journeys of children through trauma-responsive, play-based approaches. 💛

It’s been 13 years since I left Timor, and I haven’t been back since. I’m beyond excited (and yes, my suitcase is overflowing with therapeutic play and creative resources!).

Hau kontente los ba fila fali Timor-Leste!

16/10/2025

✨ Returning to Timor-Leste! ✨

Two and a half years ago, I had the absolute privilege of consulting on The Asia Foundation’s Play Therapy Program with the incredible Nabilan Team in Dili, Timor-Leste.

This Saturday, I’ll be flying into Dili to begin a new six-month engagement, consulting on their Violence Against Children Programs with the Nabilan Team — supporting child protection processes and children’s counselling initiatives.

This return is deeply special for me. I lived and worked in Timor from 2010 to 2012, where I helped establish an Arts and Play Space for children with disabilities and co-created storybooks with families in their mother tongue languages. 🌺

It’s also where I met my Portuguese husband — and where I left 3 months pregnant with my now 12-year-old daughter! ❤️

Now, I get to come back to work in an area even closer to my heart — supporting the healing journeys of children through trauma-responsive, play-based approaches. 💛

It’s been 13 years since I left Timor, and I haven’t been back since. I’m beyond excited (and yes, my suitcase is overflowing with therapeutic play and creative resources!).

Hau kontente los ba fila fali Timor-Leste!