Nest Psychotherapy and Counselling

31/08/2026

I’m watching Come See Me in the Good Light again, for maybe the twentieth time, if you do one thing in this life, please watch this documentary.

I cannot stop wanting people to discover this extraordinary record of a life and a love. The enormity of what Andrea and Meg go through, the way they honour each other’s vulnerability, authenticity and right to their own experience, and the humour, the laughter, the joy.

The absolute giddiness when “Gibby” learns they get another three weeks. It reminds me how precious we all are, not in a delicate or sentimental way, but in a present, momentary, gleeful and honouring way.

Andrea’s life, words and way of meeting the world show us so much about what is here to cherish.

There is always another second, until there isn’t. Another second to reframe something, to reach for someone, to realise that you don’t simply want to stay alive, you want to marvel at being alive. This film makes me want to grab hold of the people I love, pay attention to what is right in front of me, laugh louder, and marvel at this fu***ng gorgeous life while I am here to live it.

A relationship therapist's tear stained, reflection on Andrea Gibson’s beautiful documentary exploring grief, love and what it means to truly be seen.

27/08/2026

I thought it might be time to properly introduce myself (especially with quite a few new faces here lately). 💚

I'm Tracy - psychotherapist, founder of Nest, mum, friend, and someone endlessly curious about people. About why we do what we do.

Why we can love someone deeply and still hurt each other. Why patterns we know aren't working can be so bloody hard to change. Why we protect ourselves in ways that made sense once, but end up getting in the way of the connection we want now.

That curiosity is a huge part of how Nest came to be.

I've been a psychotherapist for around a decade, and the thing I keep coming back to is this: relationships are where so much of our humanness shows up. Our history. Our attachment. Our fears. Our protective parts. Our nervous systems. Our capacity to love and be loved. None of it happens neatly.

I'm not a therapist who sits silently on the other side of the room and occasionally nods.

I'm warm. I'm curious. I'll ask questions. I'll notice patterns. I'll challenge you when I think it matters. We might laugh. There might be swearing. There will almost certainly be moments when I ask you to look underneath what you think you're arguing about.

Because underneath the dishwasher, the s*x, the parenting, the money, the phone, the tone of voice… there are usually two humans trying to feel heard, understood and connected.

That's the work I love.

Much of my work at Nest is with couples through The Relationship Retreat, plus some ongoing couples work. I also write and create resources about relationships, attachment, intimacy, neurodivergence and the gloriously complicated business of being human with other humans.

Because I'm a therapist, but also a person living a real life, figuring it out alongside everyone else.

So if you're new here, welcome. And if you've been here for years, thank you for sticking around.

I hope this makes you think, helps you understand yourself and the people you love a little differently, and occasionally makes you feel very, very seen.

I'm glad you found your way here.

Tracy x

25/08/2026

This is such a wonderful initiative. What a wonderful way to honour Lily 💗

LILY’S LEGACY – HELPING OTHERS COME HOME SAFE

Last night Council unanimously backed a Mayoral Minute to create something pretty special in Lily Hooper’s memory.

I’ve spoken with Lily’s family about what a permanent memorial for her could look like, and rather than a single physical memorial, they wanted something that could actually help keep other people safe.

So that’s what we’re going to do.

Council will purchase a number of Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) and make them available for locals and bushwalkers to borrow free of charge, along with some simple bushwalking safety information. We’ll seek to work with National Parks and our neighbours down in Wingecarribee and to make them available in strategic locations across the shire.

If you haven’t come across one before, a PLB is a small emergency beacon you carry with you when you’re heading into remote country. If something goes badly wrong, you can activate it and it sends a distress signal via satellite so emergency services can locate you.

Most importantly, it doesn’t rely on mobile phone reception.

There’s still a lot of work to do on the practical aspects of how we’ll make this work and that will be the subject of a further council report.

I think there’s something incredibly special about Lily’s family, in the middle of everything they’re going through, wanting her memory to be used to help someone else.

Hopefully these beacons never need to be activated.

But if one of them ever helps bring someone home safely to their family, then I reckon that will be a pretty special legacy for Lily.

20/08/2026

Dear Lily ❤️

We’ve spent these days thinking about you, Lily. Hoping. Watching. Waiting for news you were safe.

Now our hearts are with your family, friends and everyone who loved you as they face unimaginable grief. You were 18. You already you had the confidence, courage and zest for life to head into the bush, to walk, explore, enjoy your own company and the wildness and beauty around you. Do we realise how rare and precious that is?

An 18-year-old woman comfortable with solitude. Adventurous. Capable. Curious. Doing something you genuinely loved. What a treasure you must have been.

Because humans are humans, there’s been commentary about whether you should’ve gone alone. Whether it was safe. What you should’ve done differently.

I understand some comes from fear. That deeply human “there but for the grace of the goddess…” feeling. If we identify the decision that caused tragedy, perhaps we convince ourselves we can prevent it finding us or those we love. But we can’t.

People die or are terribly injured in cars. At work. Playing sport. At skate parks. From alcohol poisoning, accidents at home, mental health and social isolation. Doing extraordinarily adventurous things and completely ordinary ones. Life contains risk.

So, with all the kindness I can muster, judgement about the “silliness” of you walking alone can be gently shoved up one’s arse.

You died tragically, doing something you loved. Out in the world with purpose, independence and joy. Rather than making you smaller or more cautious to soothe our anxiety, let’s honour who you actually were.

Go for a bushwalk for Lily. Try that sport. Go somewhere beautiful. Learn something. Have an adventure. Sit quietly alone and discover your own company can be wonderful. Do something that sparks joy.

Then send your love to a family whose beautiful girl should’ve had decades more adventures. Our community was deeply invested in bringing you home. The hope was enormous because the care was enormous. To search crews, emergency services, SES, volunteers and everyone who gave their time, skills and heart: thank you.

Now let’s surround those who loved you with care and comfort.

18/08/2026

The news of Hayden Panettiere's death at just 36 is hard to sit with.

Hayden spoke publicly about things that sit at the heart of the work we do at Nest: motherhood, mental health, and domestic and family violence.

After becoming a mother, she spoke openly about severe postpartum depression, at a time when motherhood is so often wrapped in expectations of gratitude and bonding. That matters. Shame can make an already vulnerable period even more isolating.

In 2020, after her former partner was arrested and charged following allegations of abuse, Hayden released a statement saying she hoped sharing her experience would empower others in abusive relationships to get help. Speaking publicly as a survivor is never a small act, abuse rarely comes with a neat, linear story.

At Nest, we sit with people inside experiences that rarely look as simple from the inside as they do from the outside: becoming a parent, struggling with mental health, surviving abuse, trying to find your way back to yourself.

So today, alongside Hayden the actor, we remember Hayden the mother, survivor and advocate - a woman prepared to say some difficult things out loud.

Those conversations matter. They make it a little easier for someone else to say, "This is happening to me too."

Rest in peace, Hayden. 🤍

16/08/2026

When I first started understanding my own ADHD, it felt like getting the instruction manual to a machine I'd been operating for forty years without one.

Our family is ADHD, autistic, and everything in between, and family dinner sometimes looks less like a Norman Rockwell painting and more like a series of separate peace treaties.

This is Part 1 of a new 3-part series on neurodivergence in relationships: "I Thought We Were Speaking the Same Language." Read it here: https://nestcounselling.com.au/neurodivergence-in-relationships-part-1/

06/08/2026

For years, I thought I was the problem.

I convinced myself I was weak, overreacting, lazy, or just not coping as well as everyone else. I became very good at masking pain while wondering why life seemed so much harder for me than it appeared to be for others.

It took decades for my adenomyosis to be diagnosed. Ironically, it was my naturopath who first suggested the possibility, not the many medical appointments before that. From there, I had to keep asking questions, seeking opinions, advocating for myself, and trusting what my body had been trying to tell me all along. Eventually, that advocacy led to the hysterectomy I needed.

Looking back, the hardest part wasn’t only the physical pain. It was the years of doubting myself because I had absorbed the message that what I was experiencing couldn’t really be that bad.

So many people live with chronic pelvic pain for years before receiving answers. Conditions like adenomyosis and endometriosis are incredibly common, yet diagnosis is still often delayed, leaving people to carry pain that is invisible to everyone else.

If there’s one thing this experience has taught me, it’s to trust people when they tell you they’re in pain. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t changing every part of their life.

And if you’ve been wondering whether it’s “just you,” please keep asking questions and keep advocating for yourself. You know your body better than anyone else.

To everyone living with chronic pelvic pain: I see you, I believe you, and I hope your answers come sooner than mine did. 💛

14/07/2026

Christmas in July has become one of my favourite traditions. 🎄❄️

Every year I insist everyone eats my strata… because apparently it’s not Christmas (or Christmas in July!) without it. I first discovered it in The Family Stone years ago and decided it needed to become a Proud family tradition. No one gets a vote. 😂

I genuinely love family traditions. They don’t have to be big or expensive they’re the little rituals that become the stories we tell, the memories our kids keep, and the moments that bring us back together year after year.

What’s one quirky tradition your family or friendship group has that you’ll never give up?

28/05/2026

10 YEARS OF PINK DRINKS!🎉

This is very close to my heart, so I’ve written a piece about the impact the wonderful Pink Drinks has had on our beautiful Southern Highlands community.

Have a read at the link below💚
https://nestcounselling.com.au/pink-drinks-turns-10-the-community-that-made-queer-folks-feel-less-alone-in-the-highlands/

17/05/2026

This week’s medicine is Temperance.

Not everything is asking you to choose a side.
Not every path requires certainty before movement.
Not every truth is singular.

Temperance reminds us that we can hold complexity without collapsing into black and white thinking. One foot in the water. One foot on the sand. Different paths can both hold beauty, growth and reward.

The message beneath the medicine is the Nine of Pentacles — abundance, connection, nourishment, the deep exhale that comes when we stop fighting ourselves long enough to receive what’s already trying to grow.

But it may not feel peaceful at first.
The Five of Wands says this could feel internally conflicted. Like tension between what you’ve always believed is “right” and what might actually be possible if you softened your grip on certainty.

This week asks:
Can you trust yourself enough to hold nuance?
Can you allow more than one possibility to exist?