Hi! I'm Shan Withnell and I help heart-centred female entrepreneurs (40+) ditch self-doubt, show up
I help you quickly uncover and heal the primary cause(s) of your self doubt, uncertainty and overwhelm. Once you have clarity and confidence and can plan and prioritise the important things in your business and life, I will support you through the inevitable challenges that always arise shortly after a big life upgrade. I guide you to tap into your intuition and connect with your body, so you can stay level-headed under pressure and handle day-to-day life with ease. I am an Advanced Rapid Transformational Therapy, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Soul Coach. I am an experienced practitioner with 30 years practicing many modalities including remedial massage and intuitive healing.
08/11/2025
Yesterday I had the privilege of chatting with Natsha Berta on her podcast, all about "How to identify and change limiting beliefs to live a life you dream of".
You can listen to it by clicking the link. I hope you enjoy it!
Yesterday I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Natasha Berta, where we talked about "How to identify and change limiting beliefs to live a life you dream of".
November birthdays were celebrated this morning with my beach ladies. So lovely to gather together over a coffee, laughter, lots of talking, sharing the love ❤️
05/11/2025
I swapped my desk for a park bench today.
Laptop open, sitting in the shade with a cool breeze and the sounds of birds and rustling trees all around.
There’s something about working outside that clears the mental clutter.
Ideas land more easily. Creativity flows.
It’s a reminder that when we make space to reconnect — with ourselves and with the natural world — we can still get things done, just at a gentler, more natural pace.
04/11/2025
Sometimes the bravest thing is to start over.
For many years, Em lived outside of herself.
Not literally. But if you'd asked her how it felt to move through her days, she would have described it exactly like that: frantic, disconnected, like watching herself from above rather than actually being in her own body.
The anxiety was constant. The negative voice in her head was louder. And when opportunities came her way - good ones, the kind that recognized her talents and leadership - she couldn't quite believe she deserved them.
By April this year, Em knew something had to change. She was juggling motherhood, navigating a separation, managing strained family relationships, and trying to show up for her passion: parasurfing. But she was running on empty.
Her general wellbeing? A 3 out of 10. Her ability to stay calm? Also a 3.
"I basically had to strip everything away and start again," she says now. "Literally everything. After 43 years of bad and negative habits, I needed to rebuild the foundation."
It's not the kind of thing you announce at a dinner party. It's vulnerable. It's raw. It's the kind of work that requires you to look at the parts of yourself you've been running from your whole life.
But Em did it anyway.
Something started to change about halfway through her program with me.
"I feel so much more in my body now," she told me recently. "Less frantic. That out-of-body feeling, it's become far less. I'm feeling grounded and more connected."
The external world started to shift too.
When the opportunity came to captain the Australian ParaSurfing Team, the old Em might have doubted herself. She might have thought, "I'm not really ready for this."
But the new Em? The one who'd been doing the deep work of rebuilding her foundation?
She felt no doubt at all.
"I didn't go into 'F***!' energy," she laughs. (That's her term for that defensive, reactive state we all know too well.) "I'm ready for the criticism. You're never going to make 100% of people happy 100% of the time. But I want to stay in a space where I'll take it as constructive feedback."
When you change the relationship with yourself, everything else starts to shift.
Em noticed it with her kids first. "I'm more mindful of leading by example now," she says. "When there is anger, it's stern words with an explanation that backs it up—instead of throwing my hands in the air because everything feels too hard."
She noticed it in her relationship with her partner. After 23 years of letting small irritations build up, she could finally mention what was bothering her "in a jovial way, without making a big deal of it." She could speak her truth, stay unattached to the outcome, and move on.
By October, Em's metrics told a story:
• General wellbeing: 7 out of 10
• Ability to stay calm: 6 out of 10
• Self-doubt: falling away "piece by piece"
• Confidence: rising steadily
• Leadership: accepted and owned
But the real transformation wasn't in the numbers. It was in how she described herself:
"I'm catching the thoughts before they start spiraling. This is allowing more space for me to start rebuilding my sense of self and creating positive bias - as opposed to the negative feedback I would always be telling myself."
At the end of October, Em flew to Oceanside, California, to lead the Australian ParaSurfing Team - with the strongest contingent of females in a long time.
She's not going as the woman who felt frantic and disconnected.
She's going as the woman who stripped everything back and rebuilt herself from the foundation up.
She's going as someone who knows her worth.
She's going as a captain, in every sense of the word. (And she just won!)
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit you need to start over. Sometimes the most powerful leadership begins with leading yourself home.
What foundation are you ready to rebuild?
03/11/2025
STOP forcing yourself to "believe" affirmations your brain secretly calls BS on.
You don't need better "I ams". You need better, " How did I's?"
When you flip an affirmation into a question, your brain doesn't resist it.
It searches for the answer!
That's where the magic starts.
Because you can't bully your subconscious into believing something it doesn't yet see.
But you can invite it to get curious.
And curiosity is the portal to possibity.
So next time you write, "I am confident", try this instead:
"I wonder how I made confidence feel natural today?"
Different energy. Different results.
Share this with a friend who's creating new habits!
21/10/2025
A few weeks ago I did a workshop with and on the first day I won a prize - which arrived today!
It's fun - and useful! All those Zoom calls with a cup of tea, coffee or water sitting on my desk, easy targets for spilling on the keyboard.
Now I've got the perfect thing.
Thank you Kate! I love it.
And by posting this here, they'll donate a healthy lunch to a child who's doing it tough through Eat Up Australia. How good is that!
I'm very happy to be a
Thanks again.
16/10/2025
Throwing in what was left of my nuts and seeds, adding a splash of maple syrup, cinnamon, a pinch of salt and a big spoonful of coconut oil, I was already drooling in anticipation of how amazing my toasted muesli was going to taste. After cooling, I tossed in some dried cranberries.
Then the tasting.
YUM.
A hint of sweetness, the tartness of cranberries, the toasted pecans – oh wow!
It’s the best batch I’ve ever made.
There’s such deep satisfaction in making muesli from scratch. You know it’s going to nourish the people you love (yourself included). The ingredients are fresh and good quality. It costs less than a fancy bag from the health food shop. It’s tailored to your taste - crunchy, slightly overdone, not overly sweet. And the house smells divine.
And I realised: this is exactly what it’s like when a woman stops outsourcing her nourishment - physical, emotional, or spiritual - and starts consciously creating a life that actually feeds her.
You know what? Working with clients inside my programs feels remarkably similar to that muesli-making process.
When someone first comes to me, they often arrive with a jumble of ingredients - bits of knowledge they’ve picked up here and there, half-finished attempts at change, a sprinkle of motivation mixed with doubt.
My job isn’t to hand them a pre-packaged solution off the shelf. It’s to help them take what they already have, add what’s been missing, and toast it all together until it becomes something nourishing, sustainable and uniquely theirs.
Just like my muesli, your life doesn’t need to be mass-produced or pre-packaged to be delicious.
You get to choose the ingredients. You get to trust your instincts. You get to experiment, tweak, and taste along the way.
That’s the energy we work with inside my programs - no cookie-cutter formulas, just high-level support as you create a life that feels rich, embodied and completely aligned.
If you’re done playing small and ready to put yourself at the centre, let’s talk about your next level.
09/10/2025
I heard this lyric recently and it landed in my body:
“Fear is really courage becoming known, and tears are really joy finally coming home.”
And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
Because this is what I see, over and over, in the women I work with.
Fear isn’t the problem. It’s a signal. A stirring. A moment just before you rise.
And tears? They’re not weakness. They’re a doorway. A body saying, “I can finally let this go.”
So many of us have spent decades holding it together, pushing through, doing the work. And then, at the edge of expansion, the feelings come. The wobbles. The tears. The restlessness. And we think, “What’s wrong with me?”
But what if nothing’s wrong?
What if this is your system softening… your self-trust starting to surface… your courage getting louder?
That’s what I hold space for.
Not the performance of having it all together—but the powerful process of coming home to yourself.
If this speaks to you, I invite you to sit with this today:
Where might fear be courage in disguise?
Where might your tears be joy, finally finding its way back?
And when you’re ready to explore that with support and safety, you know where to find me.
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Helping you find freedom - mental, emotional and physical.
Like WD40 for your life, Shan facilitates your healing on all levels.
Achieve your biggest goals, re-write your story, live the life you dream of.
You can be more confident, more successful in career and sport, free from addictions and phobias, sleep better, reduce or eliminate physical symptoms and illnesses, get pregnant, lose weight - and more!
Shan is also an Intuitive Remedial Massage Therapist and Clairvoyant Healer with over twenty-five years' experience, both in the UK and Australia. Her early training was in osteopathy.
Shan Therapy is physically located in a purpose built cabin in Mona Vale on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia.
Sessions are equally effective online via Zoom or WhatsApp.
Testimonials:
Hi Shan, I wanted to thank you so much for the gift of your RTT session. It truly was wow! Wow! Wow! I am feeling so much better in myself. I am noticing since the session the clawing hunger for food I had seems to have relaxed its grip on me and I am feeling so much lighter. I am listening to the audio each night and feel so relaxed and happy to do so. This shows me that any resistance I had has melted away. How did I get so lucky? I am so grateful and thankful for your working with me and your professionalism. There is nothing I would change at all. Thanks again. - Helena.
I recently had a session with Shan to deal with my fear of being in enclosed spaces and in particular lifts. I’m pleased to say that I’m now riding the lift quite happily and I still have the recording of our session, if I feel the need to listen to it again. I was amazed at how quickly I worked through it. Thank you Shan for your professionalism, insight and guidance. I have no hesitation in recommending Shan - Molly
Fabulous RTT session. The tape recording is brilliant. I listen at least twice a day – once in the morning and when I go to bed. Total relaxation. The feeling of complete exhaustion I have been experiencing for a long time now has gone. FANTASTIC! - Claudine
