Awake Counselling

Awake Counselling Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Awake Counselling, 410 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Elvis Caus (pronounced Chaush)

🌿 Therapist | Trauma | EMDR
💬 Approved Counsellor (NSW Victim Services) & Victims of Crime
🌻 Supervisor
🔑 Authorised Visitor
📍 Surry Hills (in-person)
🪴 Telehealth

For some, this time of year is full of connection and warmth.For others, it brings anxiety, grief, conflict, or the remi...
23/12/2025

For some, this time of year is full of connection and warmth.

For others, it brings anxiety, grief, conflict, or the reminder of what’s missing - or never felt safe to begin with.

Family time can be nourishing. It can also be overwhelming, triggering, or not available at all.

All of these experiences are valid.

If you’re navigating complicated family dynamics, estrangement, or loneliness, it makes sense that your nervous system might be on high alert - especially around old roles, expectations, or unspoken histories.

You’re allowed to take breaks.
You’re allowed to have boundaries.
You’re allowed to choose kindness toward yourself - even if others don’t understand.

Support can still exist, even when family feels complicated.




❤️

As the year comes to a close, many people notice a quiet heaviness beneath the Christmas lights.The end of a year can fe...
21/12/2025

As the year comes to a close, many people notice a quiet heaviness beneath the Christmas lights.

The end of a year can feel like a small death - the closing of chapters, unfinished hopes, changed relationships, losses carried quietly, jobs that shifted, people we wish were still here.

Even when life looks “fine” from the outside, the body often remembers what the mind tries to move past.

If this season feels tender for you, there is nothing wrong with that.

Grief, exhaustion, relief, gratitude and sadness can all coexist.

This is a time to move gently.
To rest where you can.
To soften expectations.
And to offer yourself the same compassion you so easily extend to others.

You don’t need to be joyful to belong here.



Your goals, habits, and values don’t shape just this year - they shape the next version of you.Tara Brach beautifully ex...
18/12/2025

Your goals, habits, and values don’t shape just this year - they shape the next version of you.

Tara Brach beautifully explores how growth happens in layers, through presence, reflection, and self-kindness.

🔗 https://www.tarabrach.com

Every choice you make - every boundary, every moment of noticing, every tiny course correction - becomes part of your long-term story.

You don’t have to get it perfect.
You just have to keep showing up.

What long-view dream feels quietly important to you this year?

So many people tell me they avoid setting goals because it feels overwhelming or like a setup for disappointment.But goa...
16/12/2025

So many people tell me they avoid setting goals because it feels overwhelming or like a setup for disappointment.

But goals aren’t demands - they’re invitations.

This Ten Percent Happier episode reframes motivation as something that thrives in self-compassion, not self-criticism:

🔗 The Science of Motivation – Ten Percent Happier
https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast

When we stop forcing ourselves and start supporting ourselves, goals become less about outcome and more about meaning.

Which goal in your life needs more gentleness right now?

One of the most powerful practices is a monthly self-check-in. Not to judge, but to understand.Ask yourself:• What’s wor...
14/12/2025

One of the most powerful practices is a monthly self-check-in. Not to judge, but to understand.

Ask yourself:

• What’s working?
• What needs adjusting?
• What’s getting in the way?
• What feels aligned with my values?

The Greater Good Science Center has wonderful research on compassion-based goal setting - a refreshing alternative to the “grind harder” mindset.

🔗 https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/topic/happiness

Your goals evolve because you evolve. Reviewing them mindfully helps you stay connected to what matters most.

If you reviewed your month today, what would you notice?

As solo private practice owners, we don’t always get the office end-of-year celebrations - so we make our own moments of...
12/12/2025

As solo private practice owners, we don’t always get the office end-of-year celebrations - so we make our own moments of connection where we can.

It was such a joy to share lunch with my fellow therapist Luna from RISE Psychology Hub - talking all things EMDR, client wins and challenges, practice reflections, growth edges, and what we’re taking forward into the new year.

These conversations matter - they remind us why we do this work, how much care and thought goes into it, and how important collegial connection is when you’re working independently.

To our fellow solo practitioners - we see you. Sending you good vibes, rest where you can, and hope for the year ahead.

Wishing everyone a gentle holiday period - with care, support, and moments of nourishment along the way.

We often think change is a single leap - but real transformation is quieter and more cumulative.A beautiful insight from...
11/12/2025

We often think change is a single leap - but real transformation is quieter and more cumulative.

A beautiful insight from Hidden Brain challenges this idea: we become who we are through repeated small choices, not dramatic reinventions.

🔗 Hidden Brain – You 2.0: Becoming You
https://hiddenbrain.org

As an EMDR and trauma-informed therapist, I see this daily: small moments of awareness turn into patterns, patterns become habits, habits become new pathways.

Your goals come alive in the becoming - not the finishing.

What’s one small shift you’ve made recently that you’re proud of?

Purpose isn’t something we stumble into. It’s something we notice, shape, and return to again and again.This brilliant p...
09/12/2025

Purpose isn’t something we stumble into. It’s something we notice, shape, and return to again and again.

This brilliant podcast episode explores how purpose is connected to small, meaningful steps rather than grand life plans:

🔗 How to Find Your Purpose – The Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos
https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the-happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos/how-to-find-your-purpose

Clients often tell me that the moment they start aligning actions with their values - even quietly - something shifts. A sense of momentum, clarity, and self-trust emerges.

Purpose doesn’t have to be loud. It can be a whisper that we choose to follow.

What’s one tiny values-aligned step you could take this week?

Grateful to now be a Full Member of the EMDR Association of Australia (EMDRAA).This reflects completion of EMDR Basic Tr...
09/12/2025

Grateful to now be a Full Member of the EMDR Association of Australia (EMDRAA).

This reflects completion of EMDR Basic Training and ongoing commitment to safe, ethical, trauma-informed practice. EMDR continues to be a powerful part of the work I do with people navigating trauma, attachment wounds, and nervous system dysregulation.

The next step on this path is working toward EMDRAA Accredited Practitioner, with continued supervision, learning, and clinical reflection along the way.

Always learning. Always deepening.

Always gently walking alongside the people I work with.

Every year - and really, every season of our life - our goals shift. Not because we fail, but because we grow.I use thes...
07/12/2025

Every year - and really, every season of our life - our goals shift. Not because we fail, but because we grow.

I use these 9 areas as a gentle framework with clients and in my own life:

1. Values
2. Financial
3. Career
4. Intellectual
5. Family
6. Social
7. Spiritual
8. Fitness
9. Good Habits

This isn’t about perfection. It’s about orientation - turning toward the life you want, even if only by a few degrees at a time.

The real joy is in the journey - the tiny shifts, the self-awareness, and the moments you notice yourself doing something a little differently than you did last month.

Which of these areas feels most alive for you right now?

05/12/2025

Lately in sessions, so many people have been rediscovering the power of the body - how softening, unclenching and slowing down can shift our entire nervous system.

I’ve put together a short set of posts talking through 5 of my favourite somatic reminders:

✨ Unclench your jaw
✨ Soften your belly
✨ Drop your shoulders
✨ Plant your feet
✨ Soften your gaze

These aren’t ‘small things’.

They’re nervous system cues that tell your body you’re safe enough to pause, regulate and reconnect.

And in line with the therapy goals we set earlier this year - building sustainable habits, strengthening emotional regulation and cultivating self-awareness - these practices can genuinely help you feel more grounded day to day.

Which one do you think your body needs most today?

When we’re stressed or overwhelmed, our eyes narrow and focus sharply - a survival response wired into our system.Soften...
04/12/2025

When we’re stressed or overwhelmed, our eyes narrow and focus sharply - a survival response wired into our system.

Softening your gaze widens your visual field, which gently nudges your nervous system out of threat mode and into a more regulated state.

This is a simple but powerful way to create space, openness, and emotional ease.

In therapy, widening your view mirrors what we also practise internally - expanding your perspective, noticing glimmers, and reconnecting with what matters.

Try it: 👀

Let your eyes relax.
Look around the room without moving your head.
Notice colours, shapes, light.

Just this softening can bring your system back into balance.

What do you notice when your gaze softens?

Address

410 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW
2010

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 7pm
Tuesday 8am - 7pm
Wednesday 8am - 7pm
Thursday 8am - 7pm
Friday 8am - 12pm

Telephone

+61449191883

Website

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