About
It doesn’t take long for those who meet me to realise that I love a good story; to connect and learn with the people around me in meaningful and positive ways. But truly, my happy place is in the serenity of nature. I enjoy quiet time and nothingness…
I have lived a varied life and been fortunate to associate with a diverse range of people professionally, economically and culturally. I’ve come from humble beginnings and also enjoyed the high life. I’ve lived the city lifestyle, travelled the world and explored Australia’s outback. There have been incredible highs and inevitable lows including deep love and heartbreak.
My professional career led me from waiting tables to experiencing the intensity of the corporate business world and owning several successful businesses over many years.
I’ve personal experience in managing change, grief and loss, adapting to uncertain situations, rebuilding careers and businesses and creating new relationships. I have learnt the skills and tools to navigate through life, including managing symptoms of PTSD/ASD/ADHD/ADD and I know how important it is to have the right support.
My purpose is to share a neutral space with individuals experiencing life change, and offer them unconditional support.
Meet Caroline Villarreal
Meet "Yogi" Bear
Hi, I’m Yogi a true-blue Australian Cobber dog.
I’m not bragging but word has it on the street that Cobber dogs like me make perfect assistance and companion dogs because we are super intelligent and love human companionship. I have an “intuitive nature” that gives everyone around me a feeling of comfort and support.
Because I’m still learning all the moves for my official companion dog status, on occasions, mum puts me in charge of welcoming clients. I understand if you don’t want my official dog hug on arrival, you can let us know if you don’t want a Yogi hug when booking your appointment…
Caroline's Philosophy
My philosophy
My philosophy is based on a person-centred approach, where I believe you have an innate desire and capacity to grow towards fulfilling your true potential and you are the expert on your own life. I will guide you to build self-awareness and understand yourself more fully, develop new skills, introduce strategies and techniques and assist you to find your inner resources. With support, greater self-awareness, and trust in yourself, you will feel more confident to make constructive changes, leading to a more satisfying and meaningful life.
I provide a safe, compassionate, and confidential space for you to explore your beliefs, emotions, and experiences. I help you to learn ways of changing longstanding beliefs and behaviours that have hindered your well-being and satisfaction with life. I offer unique, focused, personalised counselling with flexible appointment hours and limited spaces, catering to your needs. Whether you need a few short sessions or sessions that go over 2 hours, regular sessions or not so often, we will agree on what works for you in our first session. Therapy can be distressing at times, I will always ensure at the end of the consultation you are feeling grounded and confident to carry on until your next appointment.
Accreditations
Qualifications
- Diploma of Counselling (AIPC) Australian institute of Professional Counselling
- Level 1 and 2 Wellness Coach (Cadence)
- Level 1 Irest Teacher
Advance study Majors
- Relationships and Conflict resolution
- Grief and Loss (in progress)
- Mindfulness practices
- Addictions (in progress)
Affiliations
As a professionally trained and qualified counsellor, I believe it’s important to be affiliated with professional counselling bodies. I am a member of the following counselling organisations. These bodies continually provide support to all counsellors as mentors and to improve counselling skills and follow a strict code of counselling ethics.
- Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors (AIPC)
- Australian Counselling Association (ACA)
- Australian Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (ARCAP)
Professional development, practitioners and modalities influencing my approach:
- PTSD and CPTSD – Ref: – Complex PTSD – from surviving to thriving – Pete Walker
- PTSD – Ref: – Irest and healing PTSD – Dr Richard Miller
- Trauma – Ref: – The Body Knows the score – Dr Bessel Vander Kolk
- Boundaries – Ref: – Steph Sterner and Dushka Zapata
- Narcissism – Ref – The Wizard of Oz and other Narcissists – Elenor.D Payson M.S W
- Narcissism – Ref – Malignant Self-Love Narcissism Revisited – Sam Vankin
- Trauma Bonds – Ref – The Betrayal Bond – Patrick J. Carnes PHD
- Grief – Ref – On Grief and Grieving-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and David Kessler
Special Interests:
- Narcissistic Abuse Recovery
- Overcoming Trauma Bonds
- PTSD and CPTSD
- ASD
- ADHD/ADD
- Intuitive Healing
About Counselling
Counselling is for anyone experiencing crisis and life change or simply overwhelmed with life. It provides a confidential and supportive environment to openly discuss issues without feeling judged and a confidante to support you. Counselling provides a safe space to explore and discover limiting beliefs, and provides techniques and strategies for goal setting and helps elevate symptoms like anxiety and depression. Counselling helps clients to self-validate, make appropriate changes and helps them find purpose, peace and build self-esteem.
About Wellness Coaching
Wellness coaching is a particular kind of coach that supports clients to make positive choices around their families, fitness, nutrition, weight management, health risks and stress management in a balanced, flexible and achievable way that is reasonable and has long-term results. Ultimately my goal as a wellness coach is to work with you so you become your own wellness coach by overcoming your inner critic and taking control of your choices so you can support yourself.
Therapy style
Everyone is unique and individual therefore; I work in collaboration with my clients to tailor the type of therapy to suit them. Using holistic and integrated approaches combining self-inquiry techniques, mindfulness and evidence-based practice linking body awareness (a somatic approach involving the senses) which encourages clients to find the inner teacher within to form a deep connection with their body, mind and spirit….. The answers lie within…….
- Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
- Solutions-focused therapy (SFT)
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Mindfulness practice
- Irest Yoga Nidra
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
CBT is based on the concept that your thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and actions are interconnected, and that negative thoughts and feelings can trap you in a negative cycle. CBT aims to help you deal with overwhelming problems in a more positive way by breaking them down into smaller parts.
Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT)
Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) places the focus on a person’s present and future circumstances and goals rather than past experiences. In this goal-oriented therapy, the symptoms or issues that bring a person to therapy are typically not targeted.
SFT helps to develop a vision of the future and offers support as we determine the skill, resources, and abilities needed to achieve your vision successfully.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) gets its name from one of its core messages: accept what is out of your control and commit to action that improves and enriches your life.
ACT aims to maximise human potential for a rich, full and meaningful life.
ACT does this by helping you to:
a) develop psychological skills to deal more effectively with difficult thoughts and feelings, to reduce their impact and influence over you.
b) clarify your values (your heart’s deepest desires for how you want to behave as a human being; how you want to treat yourself, others and the world around you). You then use these values to guide, inspire and motivate yourself to take action: to do what matters, face your fears, live meaningfully, and change your life for the better.
c) focus your attention on what is important and engage fully in whatever you are doing.
Mindfulness Practice
Mindfulness is the practice of gently focusing your awareness on the present moment over and over again. It often involves focusing on sensations to root yourself in your body in the here and now. It can be practised during formal meditation or during everyday activities, like cooking, cleaning, or walking. On the other hand, a full mind means you’re not rooted in the present moment.
It’s the nature of the mind to think, analyse, and figure things out. That’s its job. That means that left to its own devices, the mind will constantly seek out new stimuli, new things to think about, and new ways to check out from reality.
Mindfulness practice is a way to gently retrain the mind to settle into the present moment. It’s kind of like becoming a parent to your mind rather than letting it control you. In the end, the mind is simply a willful toddler. By practicing mindfulness over and over with patience and compassion for yourself, you can teach the mind to be still. Eventually, the mind may even dissolve altogether, meaning that there is no intellectual or conceptual overlay between you and what you’re experiencing. Instead, you’re fully immersed in and at one with the present moment. This experience is what’s known as true presence.
I-Rest Yoga Nidra
My teachings are informed by the works of Richard Miller PHD and the Irest Institute.. www.irest.org
i-Rest® Yoga Nidra is a research-based transformative practice of deep relaxation and meditative inquiry and is a proven effective approach to using Yoga Nidra Meditation and Deep relaxation techniques to overcome trauma that:
- Releases negative emotions and thought patterns
- Calms the nervous system
- Develops a deep capacity to meet any circumstances you may encounter in life
Research has shown that i-Rest Yoga Nidra effectively reduces:
- PTSD
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Chronic pain
IRest has been a transformative tool used in the USA to help PTSD in returning military personnel.