My own journey has been a deep and layered process of overcoming wounds and stepping into my full power and worth.

I was brought up by strong women, and from a young age embodied courage and individualism. Yet my childhood was also characterised by traumatic events that affected me deeply - from the breakdown of my family and emigration of my father, to the sudden passing of my brother when I was nine years old.

As a child my earliest memories are of being very connected to my father. Sadly my parents separated when I was three, my father met a new partner and when I was five he emigrated to the other side of the world to start a new family. When I was around 6 years old, my brother and I travelled to Australia to see him and meet our new half brother and sisters. I will never forget the moment of arriving there and meeting these two new babies, as it was then that my heart broke for the first time. My deepest understanding was that I’d been abandoned and replaced, by the person I loved and needed the most, and that it was somehow because something was wrong with me.

A few years later my own brother was diagnosed with brain cancer and died shortly after. For me, this sealed the deal on my inner wounding around my worthiness. I had lost almost everyone around me, and, as children do, I made it mean something about me and my deservedness. I wrote a suicide note around that time although, I never followed through with the act.

Although the small warrioress in me powered through those tough times, the cracks of these experiences started to show as I entered into teenage years and early adulthood. I was wearing masks to try to fit in where I didn’t really belong, attracting unhealthy friendships and relationships, using my quickly developing body to gain validation of worthiness from men and not speaking up for myself when I needed to, in some cases for decades. In early teenage years I developed an eating disorder and by the time I was in my 2os unhealed trauma was starting to take a toll on my physical health in the form of gut health issues and hormone imbalances.

In my 20s I moved to Australia and for a number of years covered up the deep need for self-inquiry and healing, with a superficial veneer of party friends, fun in the sun and recreational drugs. I was having a great time on the outside, but my internal world was not getting the attention it needed. After a painful break up and further warning signs in my physical health, I was eventually called into a journey of deep healing that many would call a dark night of the soul.