Six puffins sitting on rocks on a hillside, with one puffin flying above. Among Puffins Counselling

Counselling Services

At Among Puffins, Liz offers individual counselling across a range of focus areas, using a blend of evidence-based approaches grounded in compassion, cultural humility, and a deep respect for every unique story.

Common Areas I Support

    • Anxiety and stress

    • Depression and low mood

    • Burnout and emotional overwhelm

    • Life transitions and adjustment

    • Self-esteem and self-worth

    • Finding meaning and direction

    • Death of a loved one

    • Non-death grief (e.g., loss of identity, health, relationships)

    • Anticipatory grief

    • Grieving while supporting others

    • Suicide survivors

    • Impact of adverse childhood experiences

    • Family trauma or patterns passed down across generations

    • Relational trauma, including attachment wounds or difficulty forming safe connections

    • Emotional neglect or growing up in environments where your feelings were dismissed

    • Feeling unsafe in relationships or struggling to trust others

    • Difficulty setting or maintaining healthy boundaries

    • People-pleasing or fear of disappointing others

    • Perfectionism and harsh self-criticism

    • Hyper-independence or discomfort with relying on others

    • Feeling disconnected from yourself, your body, or those around you

    • Persistent guilt, shame, or the feeling that you're never quite "enough"

    • Neurodivergent-affirming support (autism, ADHD, etc.)

    • Masking and burnout

    • Chronic illness and invisible disabilities

    • Adjusting to a new diagnosis

    • Feeling "different" or misunderstood

    • Support for those impacted by ableist or neurotypical systems

    • Relationship and family concerns

    • Difficulty forming safe, secure connections

    • Identity exploration (e.g., "Who am I now?" or "Where do I fit?")

    • LGBTQIA+ affirming support

    • Consensual non-monogamy affirming support

    • Support for those impacted by patriarchal, capitalist, or heteronormative systems

Service Options

Short-Term Counselling

Focused support for a specific issue or challenge, typically 6-12 sessions. This might include navigating a life transition, building coping strategies, working through a recent loss, or addressing a particular stressor. Short-term counselling offers structured support with clear goals and is ideal if you're looking for help with something specific rather than long-term exploration.

Ongoing Counselling

Open-ended support for deeper, long-term work. This is for people navigating complex patterns, ongoing struggles, or wanting space to explore identity, relationships, and healing at their own pace. Ongoing counselling allows for flexibility — sessions can be weekly, fortnightly, or adjusted as your needs change. This is where sustained growth and transformation happen over time.

Trauma-Informed Counselling (Safety & Stabilisation)

Trauma-informed counselling is about empowerment and choice. You're always in control of what we explore and how we work together. This relational support focuses on safety and regulation. If it feels right for you, it can include gentle somatic work, bringing awareness to bodily sensations and nervous system responses but this is completely optional and always at your pace. Using Internal Family Systems and Emotion-Focused Therapy, we create new experiences of safety in our therapeutic relationship, helping your brain and body learn that connection can be safe. This is foundational work: building stability, understanding patterns, and supporting healing without deep trauma processing or retraumatisation.

If you're looking for deeper trauma processing work (such as EMDR or intensive trauma therapy), I'm happy to provide referrals to practitioners who specialise in that area.

Grief, Neurodivergence & Chronic Illness Support

Tailored counselling for specific experiences and communities. This includes grief and loss support (death, non-death grief, anticipatory grief), neurodivergent-affirming care (unmasking, burnout, navigating neurotypical systems), and support for those living with chronic illness or disability. These sessions centre your lived experience and the unique challenges you face, without pathologising who you are.

Counselling Approaches

I draw on evidence-based modalities that are anti-oppressive, inclusive, neurodivergent-affirming, and culturally inclusive

  • Rocks and crashing waves at a rocky shoreline. Among Puffins Counselling

    Narrative Therapy

    Many of us carry stories shaped by trauma, shame, or other people’s expectations. In narrative therapy, we gently explore these narratives and begin to reauthor them—centering your voice, your values, and your truth. Like puffins navigating unseen currents, this work helps you reclaim the deeper meaning and strength in your journey.

    Potential Outcomes

    Feeling kinder towards self

    More confident in your choices

    Letting go of harsh self-judgement

    Letting go of blame towards yourself

    Making sense of painful experiences

    Stronger sense of who you are and what truly matters to you

    Feeling more grounded and in control during big life changes or in relationships

  • A group of six Atlantic puffins standing on grass and dirt, with a blurred natural background. Among Puffins Counselling

    Parts Work (drawn from Internal Family Systems Therapy)

    We all contain many parts—some loud, some hidden, some protective, some in pain. Parts work creates space to understand and care for these different inner voices without judgment. It's a way of exploring your internal world with curiosity and compassion, helping you feel more whole and integrated, rather than fragmented or overwhelmed.

    Potential Outcomes

    Feeling more in control of your emotions

    Quieting the inner battles & being less hard on yourself

    Greater self-understanding and compassion

    Feeling more present, connected, and grounded in your day-to-day life.

  • Cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, green grassy top, rocky faces, and some birds flying around. Among Puffins Counselling. Emotion Focused Therapy. Counselling for life's invisible challenges

    Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)

    EFT supports you in recognising, understanding, and safely expressing your emotions—especially those that may have been suppressed or misunderstood in the past.

    Potential Outcomes

    Better understanding of what you’re feeling and why

    Feeling less anxious, low, or emotionally shut down — more alive and connected.

    Handling tough emotions with more ease and bouncing back more quickly.

    Building healthier relationships and feeling safer to be yourself.

    Reacting less intensely, avoiding less, and staying more present in challenging moments.

  • A puffin walking on soil and holding a small fish in its beak, with coastal rocks and green vegetation in the background. Among Puffins Counselling

    Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)

    ACT invites you to make room for difficult thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them. It helps you connect with what truly matters to you, and take meaningful steps—however small—toward a life that aligns with your values. Like the puffin adapting to shifting tides, ACT supports you in moving forward with purpose, even in uncertain waters.

    Potential Outcomes

    Feeling less overwhelmed, less down, and more at ease in daily life.

    Being able to face hard feelings or situations without shutting down or running from them

    Stronger connection to personal values and life direction

    Finding better ways to manage the challenges of chronic health issues, past trauma, or neurodivergence — with more self-understanding and support

    Feeling more motivated, fulfilled, and connected to a sense of meaning in life.

Contact Liz

Feel free to contact me using the contact form or at
amongpuffinscounselling@gmail.com. I am happy to answer any questions about availability and whether working together would be a good fit for you.

Check out my FAQ Page incase your query has already been answered!

Liz is an experienced online counsellor and therapist providing trauma-informed, anti-oppressive support for women and LGBTQIA+ adults in Melbourne, Victoria, and across Australia. She specialises in working with people who have felt marginalised, misunderstood, or let down by traditional medical and mental health systems.

Liz offers counselling for a wide range of emotional and psychological challenges, including depression, anxiety, stress and burnout, grief and bereavement (including suicide loss, disenfranchised grief, and illness-related grief), childhood and developmental trauma, chronic illness, neurodivergence (including ADHD and autism), identity exploration, relationship challenges, and life transitions.

As an anti-oppressive and non-pathologising counsellor, Liz believes your emotional responses make sense in the context of your lived experience. She draws on Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), Narrative Therapy, and Internal Family Systems (IFS) to help clients understand their emotions, explore protective patterns, and build a more compassionate, steady relationship with themselves. Liz provides a safe, affirming space for clients to process grief, trauma, and difficult emotions without feeling judged or pathologised.

Liz offers LGBTQIA+ affirming therapy, neurodivergent-affirming counselling, and trauma-informed support in an online setting. Appointments are available Tuesdays and Thursdays including evenings via Telehealth, allowing clients in Melbourne, Victoria, and across Australia to access therapy from home.

Her approach helps clients build resilience, develop self-awareness, manage stress and emotional challenges, strengthen relationships, and move toward healing and personal growth. For anyone seeking online counselling in Melbourne or Australia that is compassionate, relational, and grounded in respect for lived experience, Liz provides professional, tailored therapy that meets each person where they are.