About Me

Hi, I'm Shalina and I'm so glad you're here - having made the decision to take a step towards your healing, to improve your relationship with yourself and others and improve the quality of your life. Let me tell you a little about me and my background and how I can support you in this process.

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Get yourself a cuppa (5 minute read 😉)

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My professional background

I am an extremely passionate therapist dedicated to guiding individuals just like you on their journey of self exploration. I support people with healing the connection with themselves and to find a place of balance, physically and emotionally, using a holistic approach to healing.

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With an extensive background in Bodywork Therapies, Personal Training and Nutrition, I have a deep understanding of the body. Over the last 16 years of practicing as a therapist and working with thousands of clients, I came to realise the importance of the whole person in the healing process - mind, body and spirit. Working with the body or the mind alone has it's limitations, so bringing it all together is the key.

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Rather than focusing solely on specific symptoms, be that physically, emotionally or psychologically, we must address the underlying cause of distress rather than merely alleviating symptoms. This is what lead me down the path of Somatic Healing.

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Research shows us our nervous system is responsible for our whole experience including the patterns held in the physical body, affecting how we move through the world. With that information it became clear to me I had to expand my knowledge of how to integrate all of the modalities I had studied and practiced, to bring it all together.

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I have trained in person with some amazingly skilled and knowledgable teachers including Dr Andrei Traldi, Steven Jaggers, Dr Samir Mujagic, Bridger Faulkenstien, Caleb Boston, Jennifer Savage, Dr Arielle Schwartz, Fran Booth to name but a few and many other mentors along the way. Each sharing years of rich experience from dedication to their own work, that has helped me truly embody everything I have learnt.

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I now integrate a whole toolbox full of techniques and somatic approaches into my work such as emotional regulation, mindfulness practices, breathwork, poly-vagal applied yoga and intuitive movement, trauma release techniques, touch, myofascial release, as well as verbal processing - using somatic parts work and an understanding of attachment theory.

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Driven by the belief that true wellbeing comes from nurturing the inner landscape, I aim to create a safe and supportive environment with both 1:1 sessions and group work, for individuals to explore their emotional, psychological and physical experiences, where deeply ingrained patterns play out, keeping us stuck in a loop. I am committed to helping others reconnect with themselves, cultivating deeper relationships, growing resilience and building capacity in their nervous system to hold the life they're desiring.

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My personal background

With all that said, I am no different from you... I know what it feels like to live in a dysregulated state trying to hold it all together. Let me tell you now - it is not sustainable!

 

I grew up in a dysfunctional and abusive family dynamic. I've been through the social care system, I didn't finish school, I've had periods of homelessness and struggled financially as a single parent in my 20's. I had built up some big walls around my heart which prevented me from letting people get close and when they did I would unconsciously sabotage things in one way or another trying to protect myself. Or I'd find myself in unhealthy relationships that I didn't know how to leave, unable to break old patterns. I had developed some very useful coping strategies, like strong resilience and being super independent. Whilst they have served me well in the work environment, they were just a survival mechanisms that didn't make me happy and blocked the very intimacy I longed for. I worked long hours in a corporate environment trying to better my situation, over-giving to prove my worth, to others and myself, but never feeling a sense of inner peace and only ever a heartbeat away from losing my shit!

 

The stress eventually drove me to burn out and my world collapsed around me. Headaches, psoriasis, random stomach pains and painful hips. I was feeling irritable and tearful most of the time. My long term relationship was falling apart and my identity that I had entangled with my success in work, all crumbled around me. The question I had no choice but to ask... Who was I without all of the scaffolding I had build around me to hide my fear of failure, pain and numbness inside? 

 

This is where my inner journey of healing really began, right at the bottom! Although the feeling of being lost with no direction tipped my world upside down, I look back now with so much gratitude and see it as a god send from my higher self, that pushed me on a different trajectory of life altogether. 

 

I found transcendental meditation and learnt to sit quietly and look within. My biggest insight.. nothing outside of me was going to save me, I knew I had to listen to and explore what my body was trying to tell me, symptoms and all. I took up yoga again, something I had practiced off and on since pregnancy in my early twenties. I took up long distance running as a way to clear my head, out in nature and I took a good look at my nutrition. Surviving on coffee was no longer an option. I needed an overhaul to be able to pick myself back up. I left the corporate world and followed my interest in wellbeing.

 

I initially retrained as a Personal Trainer and a Sports & Remedial Massage Therapist, training clients and working at 100's of sports events for over a decade. This was a great experience that lead on to me learning and understanding more about the body. But somehow with all this practice, I still felt like something was missing in injury rehabilitation. I would apply all of my clinical knowledge but still people would have reoccurring injuries that lingered and I came to realise it was the nervous system that was almost always in the way of a full recovery.

 

With an ever curious mind, this is where I have gone on to learn more about how much the nervous system is responsible for, way beyond the physical recovery - to how it affects our behaviours, relationships and communication with the entire world around us. Finally, what felt like a huge YES! This is what people need, this is what I needed... and this is what I want to share with you now. I know we can all heal from whatever our story, if we just slow down and listen to our body. Learn what it is trying to tell us with it's innate wisdom and intelligence, and trust your body is working for you not against you.

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​Me now...

When not working with clients I have a rich personal life. I love to spend time connecting with my family and friends, sitting around a fire. I also enjoy many interests such as hiking in the mountains or walking in the woods. I find being in nature real medicine for my soul. I also enjoy swimming in the sea and visiting the sauna. I love  reading, rock climbing, listening to music and singing at the top of my lungs, especially when I'm driving! Dancing is a big part of my life and is something I love to do daily! I also love to travel, meet new people and explore new places and cultures. A big part of my life is also of course my own practice of intuitive movement and yoga, breath-work, meditation and reflection and let's not forget a good dose of regular laughter!

 

I am always exploring new ways to deepen my own journey of self-discovery.​ As well as my continued professional development, attending workshops and additional trainings, I also have on-going psychotherapy myself and regular supervision with a mentor - as my understanding of myself grows so does my desire to go even deeper on my own healing journey, stripping back anything that is in the way of me living my fullest potential. I am now in my mid 40's and feel fitter, healthier and stronger both physically and emotionally, than I did 20 yrs ago. I don't think learning about ourselves ever stops and I gratefully embrace all that this precious gift of life has to offer.

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