Meet Zoë | Gestalt Therapist & Counsellor | Bellingen, N.S.W

Hello — I'm Zoë

If you've landed here, something has probably brought you to this point. Maybe you've been carrying something for a while. Maybe you're tired of explaining yourself to others (or to yourself). Maybe you're not even sure what's wrong, you just know that something is.

You don't need to have it figured out to reach out!

I'm a Gestalt Therapist and Counsellor based in Bellingen, NSW and also available online across Australia. I work with adults individually and as couples. I engage in my own therapy, and I know firsthand what it takes to sit in the client's chair: the courage, the uncertainty, the hope that something might shift.

I won't tell you what to do or hand you a framework to fix yourself. What I will do is be genuinely present with you - curious about your experience, attentive to what's happening beneath the surface, and committed to working at a pace that feels right for you.

What working with me looks like:

Sessions are relational and unhurried. I pay attention to what you're saying, and to how you're saying it - what lights up, what goes quiet, what your body is doing while your words go somewhere else. This isn't about analysing you from a distance. It's about being in the room with you, in real contact with what's actually happening.

I draw on Gestalt Psychotherapy, Depth Enquiry (EMDR) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), all of which are grounded in the belief that 

awareness: real, felt awareness - not just intellectual understanding, 

is where change begins.

If you're curious about how I work, not just what I do, this is for you. 

'Gestalt' is a German word and doesn’t have a direct translation in English. It can mean pattern, shape, configuration or form. In gestalt therapy, this relates to understanding the 'whole' person without reducing them to isolated parts: mere fractions of their entire being.

GESTALT IS ABOUT PERCEPTION & EXPERIENCE

How we make sense of our world...

* Recognising our ways of being in relationship with one another and 

our patterns of behaviour. 

* The circumstances that have created our life experiences and 

how we react to them.

Gestalt therapy is a process-driven modality which means that my curiosity will be peaked by how you tell your story and how your story plays out in your life. Frequently we get stuck in unproductive or outdated patterns of thinking and behaviour. Such repetition can be a catalyst for addressing the change that is needed to feel whole. 

By attending to an individual's here and now situation (present consciousness) with accountability, issues of the past and anxieties about the future 

can be integrated. 

Gestalt therapy is a blend of Western Psychoanalytic Theories and Eastern Practices. It is an Existential Philosophy that respects the curiosity of our human experience as a holistic embodiment. 

This is a profoundly Relational modality that allows for a collaborative encounter. It is also an Experiential and Phenomenological approach; Gestalt therapists regularly tune in to what is happening with a client's body —

Somatic memory: body sensations, imagery, feelings, and abstract thoughts are all valuable methods of deepening enquiry into life experiences. Visualisation techniques, art, clay, movement, music, aromatics, storytelling, play and enactment are all creative processes that can be utilised.

Ultimately, Gestalt therapy is client-centred. We will build self-awareness in the present moment of what is, experiencing, co-creating and experimenting with how to be human together.

Gestalt therapy in Bellingen and Online across Australia — confidential, relational and effective counselling.