Throughline Counselling

10/06/2026

The richness of conversations and why therapy can relieve heavy emotions and distress is very much imbued in this quote from Ursula K. Le Guin below taken from the Marginalian:

“Words are events, they do things, change things. They transform both speaker and hearer; they feed energy back and forth and amplify it. They feed understanding or emotion back and forth and amplify it,”

“Despite what dictionaries would have us believe, this world is still mostly undefined.”

08/06/2026

I’ve just published a new article exploring trauma-sensitive counselling and what this approach can feel like in therapy.

Trauma-sensitive therapy isn’t about rushing into details or focusing only on symptoms. It’s about pacing, safety, and the therapeutic relationship — creating space for your experience to unfold at a pace that feels manageable and respectful.

In the article, I look at what it can feel like to begin therapy when trauma is present, why agency matters, and how the therapeutic relationship supports the process of change.

You can read it here:
https://www.throughlinecounselling.com/journal/what-is-trauma-sensitive-counselling

If you are looking for trauma counselling in Bendigo or online, you’re welcome to explore my approach or get in touch.

Trauma sensitive psychotherapy and counselling in Bendigo

06/06/2026

06/06/2026

My view of counselling people with trauma is not one of reducing therapy to just encompassing trauma symptoms. Counselling and therapy just for trauma symptoms or any symptom checklist for mental distress or human suffering is in my opinion reductive and may not provide the longer-term resilience or capacity in you to be more open and curious about life.

Trauma therapy that encompasses all facets of you is more likely to help you live, work and love more fully. Our struggles and suffering are usually woven into the fabric of our lives and connected to who we are as a person, the people we are connected to (or not), what we have experienced in our early life, the culture we grew up in, culturally oppressive do's and dont's, or events that have happened to us.

We are shaped by relationships, and we can change in relationships. This idea is also embedded in both narrative therapy and contemporary psychodynamic therapy, which is foundational to how I work.

Trauma counselling in Bendigo and online. Workplace trauma, grief, loss, and difficult life experiences affecting your personal and professional life.

31/05/2026

I work with people affected by su***de loss, including family members, friends, colleagues, health professionals, social workers, teachers, disability workers, first responders and others whose lives have been touched by su***de.

Losing someone to su***de can leave people with grief, shock, guilt, confusion, anger and many unanswered questions. While many experiences of su***de bereavement share common themes, every relationship and every loss is different.

***deloss ***debereavement

Everyone’s story leading up to su***de bereavement is unique, albeit in many cases also similar to some other people’s stories. Whether you were a colleague, a doctor, a teacher, a friend or a close family member, the despair of losing someone to su***de can feel shattering in many different way...

27/05/2026

I wrote this article because exposure to trauma, crisis, and high emotional demand is often normalised within helping professions. Many workers quietly carry significant strain while feeling unsure about what support they should reasonably expect from their workplace — or when they may need support beyond supervision and debriefing.

An exploration of burnout, workplace stress, therapy, and psychological safety for helping professionals, written from the perspective of a counsellor and manager working within the helping sector.

17/05/2026

Do helping professionals need their own therapy?

Yes. Helping professionals are shaped by relational wounds, losses, and hardships just like everyone else. Regardless of our academic studies and professional training, our feelings are stirred in professional and personal relationships, just like anyone else’s.

Helping work should not leave you depleted. This article explores why helping professionals such as nurses, doctors, teachers, therapists, and social workers may benefit from their own therapy, including burnout, grief, workplace stress, emotional resilience, and the limits of EAP counselling.

14/05/2026

The author of this article on Psyche, behavioral ecologist Philip T Stark, challenge the view that resilience means everything is back to normal. Stark invites a less narrow view on the impact of life adversity.

In my opinion measuring yourself or trying to fit in with a narrow understanding of resilience (and what someone else's understanding is) may also hinder coming to terms with adverse experiences.

In fact for some people who have experienced tragedy and unfathomable loss, it can be invalidating to have that narrow understanding of resilience projected on to them.

"When someone calls a person resilient, they reassure themselves that whatever happened to that person didn’t really change anything – not that person, and certainly not themselves. It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card"

I hate talk of resilience: it places an expectation on people to return to how they were. That’s not how real recovery works

14/05/2026

What kind of therapist should helping professionals see?

Many therapists, nurses, teachers, doctors, social workers, and other helping professionals need a space where they can step out of their professional role and speak openly about both personal and work-related experiences.

When choosing a therapist as a helping professional, it can help to look for someone who:

* Can separate therapy from supervision, while still allowing discussion about work and client relationships but with a focus on you and the effects on your work and personal life.

* Understands the therapeutic relationship itself, not only techniques or modalities.

* Offers strong confidentiality and thoughtful handling of your "visibility" as a professional and the privacy you need in particular if you are seeking in-person therapy.

* Has a clear ethical stance around dual relationships, particularly in regional communities and the ability to unflinchingly discuss this.

* Can create a space where grief, trauma, shame, anger, burnout, and vulnerability can be explored without judgment and tolerate you bringing the whole gamut of human experiences into the therapeutic relationship.

Counselling and Narrative therapy with Frederikke Jensen at Throughline Counselling. A supportive space for helpers to explore grief, burnout, and identity, and reconnect with what matters.

09/05/2026

The article from Forbes cited below discusses de-skilling and how AI usage may also affect the pressure to produce at work and feelings of incompetence.



Reading the article made me query, what does the use of AI do to workplace pressure (and stress) in the workplace?

As a therapist I have seen how the internal pressure to produce at work is something that can "harass" helping professionals, especially in helping professionals having newly graduated and as an aspect of the conscientiousness inherent in who we are when we come to this work.

What I am getting at is counter intuitive in our culture as mostly AI is touted as reducing stress and should give you more time to spend with clients or whoever you are here to serve.

Given AI is also used in helping professions such as Psychotherapy, law and multiple allied health services, I think it is important to keep in mind and grapple with.

Perhaps it is worth holding on to the notion that what may look shiny is not necessarily always quality and can create problems down the track in some work contexts where things are more unpredictable?

"The challenge comes when that confidence has not been built through experience and has been supported by tools that shape the message. When conversations move in unexpected directions or deeper questions arise, that confidence can feel harder to sustain. This creates borrowed confidence, where the confidence is coming from the tool more than your own experience".

New workplace tools raise expectations faster than people can sustain, creating pressure to keep up, borrowed confidence, and a new kind of stress at work.