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Carmel Catanuto Psychotherapy

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Carmel Catanuto Psychotherapy

Carmel Catanuto, Psychotherapist Counsellor - Sans Souci, St George area My main approach is Gestalt Therapy. What is Art Therapy?..and what can it do for you?

Gestalt is a holistic and experiential therapy that focuses on deepening your awareness by focusing on your present experience, including your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and behaviours. The therapeutic relationship is foundational to Gestalt therapy, as is through relationships with me where growth and healing occur. It is through your relationships that you define how you feel about yourself and how you want to be now and in your future. Art Therapy is a creative way of combining therapeutic theory and art processes to explore and resolve issues such as self-esteem, making better choices, and reducing the stress in your life. Art therapy helps to bring insights and understanding when there is no clarity. It will address why you are feeling and behaving in particular ways that don’t work. Art therapy is a useful tool when used in conjuction with Gestalt therapy. If you resonate with me and my approach, contact me for a free, no-obligation, 15-minute phone call. You can tell me your problems and I will let you know how I can help. Phone for an appointment on m. 0409 690 701.

17/02/2026

If you stop holding it all together, they might leave.

So you be the strong one, the reliable one, the dependable one; your needs are pushed aside.

Holding it together doesn’t equal feeling safe.

It’s about connection with yourself, and a real, honest connection doesn’t minimise your needs.

Give yourself permission to rest and attend to your needs. The right people stay.

16/02/2026

When your mind is future-focused, your body reacts too; you might experience tension, restlessness, tightness, and an increased heart rate.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, or believe it or not, your thoughts will create sensations in the body and nervous system.

Everything is connected. Your nervous system is giving you information and is in protection mode.

There’s nothing wrong with future planning and focus, including your body; perhaps it's seeking safety.

Come back to the here and now by bringing your awareness to the present moment, starting with your breath. When you think about what’s coming up, how does your body respond in the present moment?

Make a decision from embodied presence.

Ask yourself: What do I need for this upcoming situation?

You’re doing a lot with this action: teaching yourself about your needs, attending to your nervous system, and staying connected to yourself.

Gestalt therapy helps you return to yourself.

If anticipation turns into worry, remember it could be your nervous system looking for safety.

If this resonates with you, follow along for more relational tips.

12/02/2026

I’ve changed, and my relationships in my life pull me back to my old self.

You’ve done the healing work. You’ve changed, you’ve become more conscious.

Sometimes the closest relationships you have pull you back into old ways. The tempting habits, the relational dynamics that you’ve worked hard to change.

It can get confusing and tiring. You can become torn between connection and disconnection within yourself to keep the peace and avoid conflict.

What can help is noticing the triggers and choosing to respond with awareness,
boundaries, and self-compassion. It doesn’t mean you’ve gone back to your old ways.
Sometimes it can feel uncomfortable to stay in the present with yourself in uncomfortable situations.

It’s about remembering your truth, supporting your needs, and connecting with yourself.

11/02/2026

That’s a belief that helps you feel safe and stay alert, anticipating what other people need.

There’s an outward focus and loss of connection to what you’re experiencing. How can you know what you need if your focus is outward?

Often it’s a learned way from early childhood. Perhaps safety was compromised, and it taught you to be on guard no matter how big or small.

Over time, the skill is refined, and it’s an ally but also keeps you on high alert, never fully relaxing into yourself.

This impacts your health, leading to exhaustion and resentment toward others.
Safety is connected to your own experience; it’s about learning to trust yourself, your thinking, and your emotions.

Internal harmony isn’t dependent on the outside its cultivated internally.

Safety isn’t in control. You can unlearn what you’ve always known. Therapy can untangle the patterns and align more with your true nature.

If you’d like support with exploring relational patterns. Reach out for a free 15-minute consultation, and we can talk about what working together might look like.

10/02/2026

When overwhelm overtakes your body.

Your body reacts, and your mind catches up.

You feel tense, your breathing is shallow, and your throat tightens. You feel frozen, want to run or hide.

It’s a reaction, not weakness; your nervous system is sending you messages.

Slow down, pause, and focus your mind on your feet to feel the ground. Name one thing
you can see, hear or touch.

You don’t need to fix yourself; you need to support yourself and your experience.

Wonderful, you’re now in the present with awareness, which brings choice.

And you know what safety feels like.

05/02/2026

You feel that something is something’s off. But you don’t know what to do or how to say it.

Have you ever had that feeling inside that something isn’t right, but you can’t quite
name it until something happens?

You go into your head and question yourself, talk yourself out of it, doubt yourself.

Often, your body feels something before the mind or the words catch up or make sense of it.

You don’t need to work it out with the perfect words; get curious about your body sensations, the tightness, the pull to hold back.

Clarity is about listening and not rushing; it’s getting curious with your feelings as they
deserve space to be felt.

If you’d like support with the mind and body connection. Reach out for a free 15-minute
consultation, and we can talk about what working together might look like.

04/02/2026

Self-connection can be confusing and scary as the ‘performing’ is dropped, you start feeling. Survival mode was a way to cope with and adapt to situations.

It doesn’t mean it’s wrong; it means a new way of being is emerging as the outdated method is no longer needed. With a new language and connection to your body, this is an opportunity to create what feels right for you.

Your deepening a relationship with yourself and understanding what true self-connection is, part of this new way is to feel awkward, vulnerable, and confused.

As you take a breath in, allow space for insight and intuition to come up with the answers. Support this new way with kind and compassionate inner talk.

Be patient with yourself as you learn to understand more about your nervous system.

If you’d like support with the mind-body connection. Reach out for a free 15-minute consultation, and we can talk about what working together might look like.

03/02/2026

I understand, so Why Am I still Stuck?

You have awareness
You have insight
So Why are you still stuck?

Understanding with your mind isn’t the same as working it through.

What’s in the way is often held in the body, in old programming in old nervous system responses.

Not a lack of insight on your behalf.

Therapy helps connect with thoughts and embodiment and you don’t have to do it alone.

30/01/2026

Have you noticed how your thoughts move into anticipation?

Thinking about scenarios and the What-ifs
Or go over and replay what might happen
Your mind fills with thoughts, and your body tenses up.

When your mind is future-focused, your body reacts too; you might experience tension,
restlessness, tightness, and an increased heart rate.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, or believe it or not, your thoughts will create sensations in the body and nervous system. Everything is connected. Your nervous system is giving you information and is in protection mode.

There’s nothing wrong with future planning and focus, including your body; perhaps it’s
seeking safety.

Come back to the here and now by bringing your awareness to the present moment, starting with your breath.

When you think about what’s coming up, how does your body respond in the present moment?

Make a decision from embodied presence.

Ask yourself: What do I need for this upcoming situation?

You’re doing a lot with this action: teaching yourself about your needs, attending to your
nervous system, and staying connected to yourself.

Gestalt therapy helps you return to yourself.
If anticipation turns into worry, remember it could be your nervous system looking for
safety.

If this resonates with you, follow along for more relational tips.

28/01/2026

Sometimes the glimmer of joy is a quiet arrival

Hi, I’m Carmel, a counsellor helping empathic women reduce emotional discomfort and find their voice.

A small amount of energy of aliveness
A sense of groundedness when you speak up
An ease in your body

That’s not random that’s the work you’ve done on yourself, a reclaimed part of yourself that’s home.

The familiarity of glimmer is an insight, your body remembers.

Insight is inclusive of the body not just the mind.

The felt sense is your true experience, a part of you that remembers and now has the opportunity to be fully expressed and experienced.

Welcome the insight and the aliveness, it’s reaffirming to your being.

If this resonates with you follow along for more relational tips.

27/01/2026

It can feel comforting to control, to be one step ahead, to anticipate a move, thinking
that nothing can go wrong.

That’s a belief that helps you feel safe and stay alert, anticipating what other people
need.

There’s an outward focus and loss of connection to what you’re experiencing.

How can you know what you need if your focus is outward?

Often it’s a learned way from early childhood. Perhaps safety was compromised, and it
taught you to be on guard no matter how big or small.

Over time, the skill is refined, and it’s an ally but also keeps you on high alert, never fully
relaxing into yourself.

This impacts your health, leading to exhaustion and resentment toward others.

Safety is connected to your own experience; it’s about learning to trust yourself, your
thinking, and your emotions.

Internal harmony isn’t dependent on the outside its cultivated internally. Safety isn’t in control. You can unlearn what you’ve always known.

Therapy can untangle the patterns and align more with your true nature.

If you’d like support with exploring relational patterns. Reach out for a free 15-minute
consultation, and we can talk about what working together might look like.

22/01/2026

Does this sound familiar? I’ll start therapy when?

Things settle down
When life is less busy
When I feel more ready

Hi, I’m Carmel, a counsellor helping empathic women reduce emotional discomfort and find their voice.

There is no perfect time to start therapy. The present moment is always the right time to invest in yourself.

You have the awareness, this is where change begins. It’s not about the perfect time.

You don’t need to wait for the right time to start. To be ‘ready enough’.

What’s important is you notice and that, that something matters.

That’s the beginning.

If you’d like a safe space to explore. Reach out for a free 15-minute consultation, and we can talk about what working together might look like.

Address

Suite 2, 1A Torwood Street, Sans Souci
Sydney, NSW
2219

Opening Hours

Wednesday	9am - 6pm
Thursday	9am - 6pm
Friday	9am - 6pm

Telephone

+61409690701

Website

https://carmelcatanuto-psychotherapy.com.au/

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