Holistic Counselling with Bella Aurora Starr – Sunshine Coast QLD

My Specialisations 

• Anxiety
• Trauma – from childhood (long standing trauma, rather than PTSD from a recent event)
• Relationships – helping you create healthy relationships and heal relational wounds from childhood.
• Unhealthy behaviours, addictions and compulsions e.g. sugar, caffeine, overeating, cleaning obsessions, shopping addiction etc (not heavy drugs or alcohol dependency)
• Chronic Health Issues / Pain – exploring the link between mind, emotions, trauma and physical health

I specialise in these areas because they are from my lived experience. I discovered that somatic based therapy works best for transforming anxiety and trauma as these are energies held in the body.

My Approach

• I am a fellow traveller – a compassionate support person, and guide. I am fully present with you and I meet you where you are at. I hold a safe container for you to release emotions, allowing you to move through these experiences and break free from suffering. 
• I ask your permission for each healing intervention I suggest, so this is a co-creation and a collaboration to bring about healing and change. You will learn skills that will ensure you can keep growing and healing yourself. You will also grow your inner resources so you can cope better with life.
• This is a body-centred / somatic approach. Your body will tell me a lot. I work with you to explore the sensations in your body and guide you to safely release traumatic imprints and energies. If you commit to this work and integrate it into your life, your body will transform – your posture may change, the sensations and experience of your body will change – feeling lighter, more spacious, more grounded and more embodied.
• I guide you to connect with and work with your parts / archetypes / sub-personalities / inner child (you will find you have more than one inner child part – these are parts of you at different ages). You will find you have several parts that are in different roles – the vulnerable parts and the protector parts (e.g. perfectionist part, inner critic, people pleaser, and the saboteur are actually protector parts). We can work with these parts to bring healing, unburden them, and gradually change their roles in your life to bring overall harmony to the psyche system. As you do this work you can cultivate more Self energy so you become lead by your higher Self.
• I help you find clarity and insight, and tap into your own inner guidance. Sessions with me are empowering. 
• I work with your subconscious mind so we can find the core beliefs and wounds, and transform them. 
• This is holistic counselling, so I consider all influences in your life: your experiences, emotional wounds and trauma, ancestral trauma, family influences, and societal and cultural influences. Whatever is arising in a session, informs the work we do.
• I connect with Great Spirit/Source, hold an intention through the session and help guide you to a resolution or healing. I allow my intuition to guide me and my knowledge to assist me, and as appropriate will bring through guidance and insights for you.
• I guide you to connect with your soul (heart) and higher self (higher consciousness) so you can transform gradually, safely and with grace. This way you can connect with that which is already whole and complete (higher self). This is therapy and spiritual healing together. This is very important for healing, because if you stay identified only with what happened to you (the past), then it is difficult to transform. What will happen gradually is a great undoing – a letting go of who you thought you were, so you can be more of who you really are, and live with much more lifeforce / vitality.
• I guide you to practically improve your relationships and heal your attachment patterns. You can learn to assert healthy boundaries, attract healthier relationships and learn how to meet your needs in healthy ways, and presence yourself. People pleasing, fawning, avoidance and dissociation can be replaced with embodied awareness and asserting healthy boundaries, with clear communication.
• By working with your core wounds and beliefs, and working with your parts – to release their burdens and pain, unhealthy behavioural patterns can be transformed at the causal level, rather than by using will power.
• By working with your nervous system and the felt sense in the body – anxiety and trauma can be slowly and safely released and you can begin to feel lighter and more integrated, and be able to respond to life’s challenges with more ease and grace.

I am here for those who really want transformation and are willing to take responsibility for their life. I am your guide, support and a healer/teacher. However, you will make the most progress by committing to your Self, and establishing a daily practice for continual integration and healing.

For those on a spiritual awakening journey, I’m here to support you as go through your initiations and continual awakening too. My spiritual awakening and shamanic path means that I have gone through many initiations. Sometimes it just helps to know you are not alone.

“We’re all just walking each other home”

-Ram Dass

Frequently Asked Questions

WHAT IS HOLISTIC COUNSELLING?

Holistic counselling is a natural form of therapy and healing that works with mind, emotions, body and spirit. As a holistic counsellor I consider all that influences you, such as your beliefs and early programming, family, race, culture, personal history, values, sexuality, physical health, trauma or overwhelming events, spirituality or religion, your energy field, as well as who you really are beyond all concepts and labels. Different holistic counsellors have different approaches. I have outlined my approach above, although you probably need to experience it to understand it.

WHAT CAN HOLISTIC COUNSELLING HELP WITH?

• Anxiety
• Trauma
• Support in challenging times
• Relational wounds (e.g. for those who experienced emotional, physical, sexual or spiritual abuse or neglect or bullying in childhood)
• Relationship problems/patterns
• Transitions – divorce, new life stage
• Grief
• Facing death
• Chronic pain or illness
• Transforming unhealthy behaviour patterns including addictions. (An addiction is any repeated behaviour that you cannot stop that has detrimental long term consequences – so that could be overeating, unhealthy foods, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex, etc.)
• Creating change in your life and manifestation
• Healthy and holistic weight loss
• Integration for plant medicine journeys, or for those who are awakening

WHAT CAN I EXPECT?

If you are coming in person sessions are held in my treatment room in my house, and there is everything there to ensure your comfort and safety: a comfortable chair, water/herbal tea offered, tissues, healing tools that may be used, comfortable lighting, a comfortable room temperature, and a bathroom nearby.

You can expect me to deeply listen and respond to what is arising for you. Each session offers the opportunity for healing. As we identify issues, or blocked energies/emotions, unhelpful beliefs, wounded parts and so on I offer healing to bring resolution or create a change. Much of this work is about releasing, resolving and integration.

You will have your own realisations, and can integrate the work we do into your life to become your own healer.

HOW DOES HOLISTIC COUNSELLING DIFFER FROM PSYCHOTHERAPY?

While we use the same kind of listening and communication skills, the emphasis is not on talk therapy alone. I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and I don’t diagnose you. I am non-judgemental and will approach issues with a sense of curiosity, compassion and care and guide you to presence yourself that way too.

WHY CHOOSE HOLISTIC COUNSELLING?

In order to create change, you will need to feel a shift within you – willing change via the conscious mind is not enough! That’s why I work with your body, your subconscious mind and your energy, and help you to let go of wounds and pain and the beliefs that were created from them. If you want transformation, then holistic counselling is for you. I’m here to help you heal yourself, and be empowered to move forward. 

HOW MANY SESSIONS WILL I NEED?

This varies from person to person, and we can discuss this – it really depends on you, your history, where you are at and your goal. If you want lasting change then I recommend you commit to come regularly (every 1 or 2 weeks) for a while. Following a period of working together regularly, you may choose to start spacing sessions out, or the healing and therapy may be complete for a while. I will be here for you when you need me.

I HAVE BEEN TO QUITE A FEW THERAPISTS ALREADY, CAN YOU HELP ME?

If you feel a resonance then most likely I can help you. A true healer is also a teacher, and will work to empower you. I’m honest and authentic, and imperfect! I’m not your guru. I am a good guide and will support you on your journey, and ultimately it is your unique journey. This is a collaboration – I’m always listening to you, and guiding you as best I can and I want to hear your feedback. I am very approachable, compassionate and caring.

Issues are doorways. There is no issue that is too big. This work can be deep. It is best to approach any issue with curiosity and self-compassion – and these are skills you can learn. As we work together, you will be able to presence yourself more and more, and your nervous system will be healing.

I had anxiety and complex trauma and now that I’ve healed so much of it I feel more alive, more safe and embodied. I still have pockets of trauma, sensitivity and triggers – so my work continues – but the person I am today feels so much better than I used to feel when I was walking around with so much trauma in my body. I am here and present for you with your pain and suffering so that you may do the same.

The truth is I didn’t get the right kind of support for a long time. For those like me who have relational wounds, healing in a consistent and safe therapeutic relationship is important, so when I did get the support I needed it changed my life. When we have relational wounds but only rely on ourselves we are reaffirming those wounds and beliefs “I’m alone”, “I’m not safe”, “I don’t matter”, “I don’t belong” etc. When we truly feel safe and supported in a therapeutic relationship, or in any truly supportive relationship, we can heal naturally. So if you haven’t found the right therapist for you yet, please do not give up, there is help available.

“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”

– Joseph Campbell