Project 18 the wellbeing nook

Project 18 the wellbeing nook Project 18 the wellbeing nook is located in the heart of Port Adelaide. It is a safe and welcoming space, shared by experienced qualified practitioners.

It is a counselling practice specialising in support for children, adolescents and young adults.

Celebrating 7 years of Project 18!Yes, It’s true!7 years ago, in September 2019, I took a leap of faith and signed my fi...
20/09/2026

Celebrating 7 years of Project 18!

Yes, It’s true!

7 years ago, in September 2019, I took a leap of faith and signed my first ever commercial lease!

I hadn’t even started in private practice yet, not a single client. I was still working full-time in my role at CCYP !!

But I believed with all my heart that my vision was worth backing!
And that taking on a premises was an important part of that vision!
I knew that I needed a space, for me and my clients, that embodied all that I wanted to achieve.

And here we are, in September 2026, and I have just signed another lease renewal. It’s a different premises, but one that still epitomises all that Project 18 represents.

Has it been easy, heck no!!
It’s been a roller coaster ride. As anyone who runs their own business will tell you, there are good days, days you are chuffed and proud, and then there are days you just want to go and work at Bunnings!!

I have learnt a lot.
Grown a lot.
Discovered as much about myself as anything else.

I have cried, been frustrated, angry, confused and lost at times.
But most of all, I have not once regretted the decision I made 7 years ago to back myself, believe in my vision and to commit every day to creating safe and meaningful connections, supporting children and young people through life’s challenges!

So, here’s to another 7 years – hopefully!

📷 Me, a few more lines, a few more greys, and many more learnings.

Back to Basics!Another questions I'm often asked, sometimes directly and sometimes more subtly, is: “Why is counselling ...
14/09/2026

Back to Basics!

Another questions I'm often asked, sometimes directly and sometimes more subtly, is: “Why is counselling taking so long?”

It’s a fair question. We often think of support as something that identifies a problem, provides a solution, and then comes to an end. Sometimes that is exactly what is needed.

But many of the children and young people I work with are not dealing with a single, simple problem. Some are navigating the effects of trauma, while others are living with significant anxiety, identity questions, friendship difficulties, family stress, emotional overwhelm, or the challenges that can sometimes come with neurodivergence. These experiences can shape how a young person sees themselves, relates to others, and experiences the world.

Trauma is often created in relationships, and when the wound is relational, healing is rarely just about learning a coping strategy. But even when trauma is not the main issue, young people still need a space where they feel emotionally safe, understood, accepted, and supported.

Before a young person can talk about the hard things, they need to know that someone will listen without judgement. Before they can explore change, they need to feel safe. Before they can trust their own voice, they might need to experience a relationship where their thoughts, feelings, and experiences are taken seriously.

That takes time!

Engaging in long-term counselling does not mean a child or young person is failing, and it does not mean counselling is “not working.” Often, it reflects the depth of what they are navigating and the importance of having consistent support while they grow, heal, and make sense of themselves and their world.

At Project 18, we do not measure success only by how quickly counselling ends. We look for signs of connection, confidence, self-understanding, participation, hope, and the growing belief that they are worthy of care.

Sometimes staying connected for longer is not a sign that nothing is changing.
It is a sign that the foundations for lasting change are being built.

And that takes time!

📷 Feathers as a metaphor for time.

R U OK? Day is more than just a reminder!It is more than a little encouragement.It is more than just a question.R U OK? ...
09/09/2026

R U OK? Day is more than just a reminder!
It is more than a little encouragement.
It is more than just a question.

R U OK? Day is a campaign!
It is a campaign to raise awareness about mental health.
It is a campaign that highlights the number of people who are struggling.
It is a campaign that aims to prevent su***de!

R U OK? Day is a movement!
It is a movement towards reaching out.
It is a movement towards making connections.
It is a movement towards supporting each other.

Conversations matter.
Feeling that you are not alone matters.
Being offered help without needing to ask matters.
Knowing you are supported without judgement matters.

R U OK? Any Day – let’s help share the message!
https://www.ruok.org.au/r-u-ok-day

Back to Basics!The benefits of counselling are not always dramatic or immediately visible. Sometimes they can be difficu...
09/09/2026

Back to Basics!

The benefits of counselling are not always dramatic or immediately visible. Sometimes they can be difficult to see, feel or even notice at all.

I know this can be hard sometimes, for the person who has come to counselling wanting things to feel different and for the people around them who care, are supporting them, and who understandably hope to see things change.

Sometimes people hope counselling will provide a breakthrough moment that changes everything overnight. While those moments can happen, more often the changes are quieter, gentler, more gradual, than that. They can build, bit by bit, internally, subtly, long before they become obvious.

A client may begin to understand their emotions instead of simply feeling overwhelmed by them. They may start to recognise anxiety before it takes over. They may find themselves communicating a little more honestly, setting healthier boundaries, sleeping a little better or feeling less alone.

These things might seem small from the outside. But they can represent really significant shifts for the person experiencing them.

Counselling can also help people make sense of patterns that have followed them for years. Patterns in relationships. Patterns in self-talk. Patterns in the way they respond to stress, conflict, disappointment or change.

One of the greatest benefits counselling offers, is a place where clients don’t have to perform. So many people spend so much of their life trying to appear okay, capable, strong or unaffected. In the counselling room, that pressure can fall away completely.

The goal is not perfection and change rarely happens in a straightforward kind of way. What we aim for is a greater understanding, greater self-compassion, and greater capacity to navigate life in a way that feels more authentic and balanced.

📷 Hidden potential.

Back to Basics!It doesn’t matter how long it has been around, or how familiar it is to many of us, a question I am still...
24/08/2026

Back to Basics!

It doesn’t matter how long it has been around, or how familiar it is to many of us, a question I am still so often asked is “what actually is counselling”?

And to be honest, it’s a great question. Counselling, for many, is something they’ve heard about, but never experienced themselves. So that can create all sorts of assumptions. Not to mention that there are so many different types of counselling and counsellors.

So, here’s how I often describe it:

Counselling is NOT about being judged, analysed, or told what to do. It is NOT a place where someone decides whether your feelings are reasonable or whether your experiences are ‘serious’ enough to matter.

Counselling, at its heart, is a conversation within a safe and respectful relationship. It is a two-way dialogue, an exchange and interaction, sometimes communicated without words.

It is a space where clients can speak openly, sit quietly, share, cry, laugh, question things, or simply try to make sense of what has been happening in their life.

Sometimes the work is practical. Sometimes it is emotional. Sometimes it is about exploring and discovering, to help understand patterns, build coping strategies, or uncover who you are and what really matters to you.

People often think counselling is only for times of crisis. It is not. So often clients seek counselling long before things reach breaking point, which is good.

Sometimes they reach out because they feel stuck, something feels heavy, or confusing, wrong or just different to how they want to feel.

Counselling is not about ‘fixing’ a person. I see it as creating space where insight, healing, change and growth have an opportunity to take place. This looks different for each of us, as it should, we are all different, which is great, it’s what makes us human.

If you’d like to read some other explanations here are some links:
What is Counselling? - Australian Counselling Association
Counsellors and counselling - what is it and how it can help | healthdirect

📷 Expression withouth words - shared with permission.

A little update from Project 18.Since sharing the news about 18 Sparrows in May, I’ve had a lot of questions from people...
10/08/2026

A little update from Project 18.

Since sharing the news about 18 Sparrows in May, I’ve had a lot of questions from people connected with Project 18, so I thought it might time for a little update.

The most important thing to know is that Project 18 is not going anywhere!

Project 18 remains the heart of my counselling practice and the place where I continue to provide therapeutic support to children, adolescents and young adults. The values, relationships and approaches that have shaped Project 18 over the past (almost) seven years remain very much the same.

18 Sparrows has emerged from this work, building on the time spent supporting children and young people, the learning and the connections that have developed through Project 18.

It reflects a broader vision of support and is motivated by a growing need for advocacy and assistance in navigating systems. Something that extends beyond what I can offer in a sole-practitioner counselling practice.

I’ll continue to share important updates here and on all of Project 18’s pages. But you will find most of the progress updates, news, plans, and future opportunities to connect with 18 Sparrows on the 18 Sparrows pages.

So, if we are connected through Project 18 and you haven’t already started following 18 Sparrows, I’d love to, gently, but enthusiastically, encourage you to do so, simply to stay connected with the next chapter, and the one after that, then the one after that too!

Thank you for the ongoing support, the questions (even the tricky ones) and the encouragement. I appreciate it more than you know.

Jodie 🌺

📷 Sun's out! Time for a quick brain break!

Today is International Friendship Day!!So, I want to give an enormously special, heartfelt and true shout out to my “pee...
30/07/2026

Today is International Friendship Day!!

So, I want to give an enormously special, heartfelt and true shout out to my “peeps”. The friends I call family, the ones who have my back, pick me up, make me laugh, validate my plant obsession, pester me when it’s needed and the million and one other things in between.

Today wasn’t established to only recognise the personal, individual friendships that enrich our lives but to also promote the idea that “friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities” (un.org).

What’s not to love about that!!

Friendship means different things to different people, for some it’s about trust, sharing interests, showing care, having someone to have fun with. For others it’s about loyalty, support, being understood by someone and knowing they are there to reach out to when things feel tough.

Whatever friendship means to you, it’s a blessing, but just like everything else in life that is important it needs taking care of too. Friendships need our attention, respect and good communication, they are reciprocal in nature and need consideration and thoughtfulness to be established, nurtured and maintained.

So, let’s recognise, appreciate and celebrate International Friendship Day, together!



📷 One of the my faves 💕

Last month I stood in front of a room full of young people, educators, youth workers, and other supportive staff members...
28/07/2026

Last month I stood in front of a room full of young people, educators, youth workers, and other supportive staff members. It was at Compass Catholic Community for one of their Community Conversation sessions.

I shared this already and expressed gratitude for the invitation. But I’d like to share a little more about why I chose to connect sensory processing with the idea of self-regulation. And why I only spoke briefly before inviting everyone to explore the sensory stations that had been created.

We often talk about emotional regulation, but we don't always talk about why it can feel so different from one person to the next. Or about how our brains and nervous systems are constantly taking in information from the world around us. Every sound, light, texture, movement, conversation and environment is being noticed, filtered and processed.

No two people process information in exactly the same way. There is no right or wrong response. When we don't understand this, it's easy to judge ourselves or others. We might think we're ‘too sensitive’, ‘too emotional’, ‘too distracted’ or wonder why things seem harder for us than for others.

But there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with us. Our nervous system is simply responding to the information it’s receiving. For me, this is where self-regulation begins. Not with controlling our emotions or trying harder but with understanding ourselves.
When we start recognising what supports us, drains us, helps us focus, recover, or leaves us feeling overwhelmed, we can start responding to our needs with more compassion and intention. That’s why the sensory stations were the heart of this workshop. I didn't want people to simply hear information. I wanted them to experience it.

So, we moved around the room exploring different sounds, smells, textures and visuals. There was conversation, laughter and a willingness to have a go. It was fun and a bit messy but hopefully provided an opportunity to consider what might help us feel calmer, more focused, energised or comfortable.

A huge thank you again to Compass Catholic Community for creating the space for these conversations. It really was a privilege to be part of the morning.

Why does the space matter?We often talk about holding space for others, but we don't often talk about the importance of ...
21/07/2026

Why does the space matter?

We often talk about holding space for others, but we don't often talk about the importance of where that happens.

The room. The environment. The look, the vibe. The feeling someone gets as they walk in, before we've even said hello.

For me, this physical space has always been an important part of the therapeutic process. Not because I believe there's one "right" way to create a counselling environment. There isn't. Every practitioner, every client and every setting is different.

But for the children, young people and families I work with, I have chosen to create a space that reflects the way I work.

People will often hear me say ‘my space’ or ‘the space’, very rarely do I use words like, clinic or rooms, or centre, or office. Because I have intentionally created a space that doesn't feel clinical. It feels friendly, and comfortable, it’s colourful and little bit fun.

There’s no receptionist or formal waiting room, but you will find a comfy couch and bookcase full of goodies. I open the door myself and welcome each young person in, with a smile and a quick guided tour as we walk through.

There are books, games, sensory toys and lots of plants. There are nooks here and there and even a ‘harry potter’ style cupboard filled with art supplies. Every detail has been considered. Not because those things are the therapy. But because they help communicate something before the therapy begins.

Many of the young people I work with have spent time in offices, clinics, meeting rooms and unfamiliar spaces. Some carry difficult memories of places where they've had to retell painful stories, answer hard questions or felt like they were being assessed rather than heard. I can't change those experiences, but I can be intentional about the experience someone has when they walk through my door.

I want this space, my space, the Project 18 space, to quietly say: ‘You're welcome here’, ‘You can be yourself here’ and ‘You are safe here’. According to the feedback, it does. Not because it's fancy or perfect but because every part of it has been curated with care.

The power of music!Today I am missing someone. It’s that kind of missing that makes you tear up when you think about it....
09/07/2026

The power of music!

Today I am missing someone. It’s that kind of missing that makes you tear up when you think about it. So what have I done, to help myself in this moment, I have turned my music up!

I love music, as I am sure we all do. I am very much a ‘mood’ music person though. I listen to (almost) all genres (no heavy metal for me though thanks) but my choice is always dependent on what I am feeling at the time – happy, hyped, chilled, feisty, sad, nostalgic, inspired…..

So, this has got me thinking about just how powerful music really is!
Music has been with us throughout the ages. It is used in all sorts of ways, individually and collectively. We use it to celebrate, connect, motivate, protest and to feel all the feels.

There is so much research too about the benefits of music, emotional and physical. But I don’t need to go into all of that today. Today, I just want to share that I am listening to my music LOUD!

Happy Music for Our Soul Day (made up by me, just now, enjoy!)

📷 Thanks Thelma 💙

Address

228 St Vincent Street Port
Adelaide, SA
5015

Telephone

+61432367193

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