About me

My name is Sophie and I created True Nature Coaching & Education after two decades of searching for answers to a deep sense of things not being right within myself and the world. This showed up as social anxiety, panic attacks, toxic shame, depression, loneliness, failed relationships, and perfectionism. 

These experiences could have attracted many labels: social anxiety/phobia, depression, attention deficit disorder, autism, borderline personality disorder, among others. I now know that what I experienced was early developmental trauma as a result of growing up as a highly sensitive child in a wounded family system. 

I felt a calling to the healing arts at the age of 13 when my friends and I would have sleep overs, staying up for hours talking about our feelings and having ‘deep and meaningfuls’. 

At the age of 28, I made the decision to pursue training in clinical psychology after working with children in London hospital and feeling so much empathy for those who I could see were suffering in wounded family systems. 

Psychology would have been my path had the training been based on up-to-date information about the causes of mental illness and approaches that offered real healing from trauma and distress. I applied and was successful at being offered places in two masters programs, choosing the one that allowed me to move to a new city. I arrived in Melbourne and began life as a master’s student only to get a few weeks into the course and find that I couldn’t stomach the pathologising models of mental illness that were being taught. So I quit.

At this point, I turned away from mental health, pursuing a doctoral degree in climate change psychology instead. However, after graduating, I found myself drawn back to the mental health field and went on to build a twelve year career in research and education.

This experience provided the opportunity to delve into the science of trauma, attachment, parenting, and child development. I spent three years in a workforce development role, creating practitioner resources on wholistic, person-centred approaches to working with families and children. Through this experience, I came to realise the profound importance of emotions and relationships for our wellbeing (two elements that are largely left out of clinical psychology training).

Outside of work, almost all of my spare time was dedicated to seeking answers and healing my own trauma and distress. It was when I discovered Stephen Porges’ work on polyvagal theory that a huge light bulb went off. Finally, here was an explanation of mental illness that described its root cause origins and on a gut level, simply made sense. Polyvagal theory describes how many, if not all, chronic health problems are caused by nervous system dysregulation. This was a pivotal moment for me. I knew I had found information that held the answers to real healing and transformation.

The next five years was dedicated to my own healing and learning as much as I could about trauma and the nervous system. This included weekly sessions with a somatic trauma therapist and three years as a student in Irene Lyon’s SmartBody SmartMind (SBSM) program for nervous system health. SBSM is grounded in the work of Peter Levine, Kathy Kain, and Moshe Feldenkrais. It provides a comprehensive education in nervous system science and somatic approaches for resolving trauma. 

I am currently a mentee in the inaugural Scientuitive Practitioner Track (Level 1) training, Irene’s advanced mentorship program in nervous system health.

Since 2021, I have been offering coaching to people seeking recovery from mental and emotional distress where I draw on the knowledge, skills, and experience cultivated across a twenty year journey of personal healing and career in the mental health field.

It is my calling to serve you in your journey of recovery and to reclaim the wellbeing and flourishing that is your birthright.

If you would like to learn more or book a session, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.

Sophie