Somatic therapy in Melbourne and online across Australia
Somatic Experiencing® and Internal Family Systems (IFS) for grief and the kind of stress that years of talking haven't moved. Sessions are in Thornbury and Elsternwick, or online across Australia.
Book a free call
The work starts with what your body is doing right now.
About the work
What people bring to sessions
A lot of what keeps people stuck is held in the nervous system, which is why we spend much of each session with sensation and breath as you talk.
Most people arrive after a loss or a long stretch of pressure, and plenty have already done years of talk therapy.
About Rudi- Grief after a death, a separation or a move that cost more than anyone expected
- Burnout after years of pushing through
- Anxiety and stress that won't settle
- Trauma from childhood or from past relationships, including what's sometimes called complex PTSD
- A career change or relocation that leaves a person unsure who they are now
- Self-doubt, and trouble trusting others
- A sense of going through the motions of a life that should feel good
I'm not a registered psychologist or psychiatrist, and this work sits alongside medical or psychological care without replacing it.
From a client
"From our first session, I felt truly heard. What surprised me most was the body work: simple exercises that helped me short-circuit stress in a way that thinking alone never had."
Servane · Client
Areas of focus
Some of what we can work on together
Grief and life transitions
A death usually brings a funeral and some time off work. A separation or a move overseas often brings neither, though the body grieves both. In sessions we work with how the loss is sitting in the body now, whether that's a weight in the chest or a numbness that's lasted months. Anger often comes with it, especially after a separation, and there's room for that too. Retelling the story in detail isn't required for this to help.
Couples
Couples usually arrive having had the same argument many times over. Each person knows their lines, and once it starts neither can stop it. We slow that moment down enough to notice what happens in each nervous system as things heat up. IFS then helps each person speak for the part that's hurting, and a partner can often hear that in a way they couldn't hear the argument.
Imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome often shows up in people who've done well by being whatever each situation needed. The achievements are real, yet a voice keeps insisting they got lucky and will be found out. We look for where that fear lives in the body, then use IFS to get to know the part that's been protecting them with it.
How I work
The work, and where I learnt it
My work is with people who've spent years adapting to what everyone else needed, often at a cost their nervous system has been quietly paying. Most arrive burnt out or grieving, sometimes both. Sessions help your body find its way back to feeling steady, so you can tell what you want again and trust it. People often notice it at work first, in how they handle a hard conversation. Later it shows up in how close they let others get.
My sessions combine Somatic Experiencing® and Internal Family Systems, drawing on polyvagal theory and my Integral Coaching training. I've trained personally with Einat Bronstein in IFS, and with Maggie Kline and Kathy Kain in somatic work. Deb Dana taught me polyvagal-informed practice, and I'm now a Teaching Assistant with Somatic Experiencing International on the Melbourne training, where Maggie teaches.
"Your nervous system learned to protect you, and every part of you has a good reason for what it does. In our work you are always in charge of your body. We go at a pace that stretches you without overwhelming you, and we practise until the body catches up with what the mind already knows."
Qualities of Self
Four qualities I help people embody
Internal Family Systems describes eight qualities that belong to Self, the steady centre underneath a person's protective parts. IFS holds that everyone already has them. In sessions I help you feel four of them in your body, which makes them easier to reach on a hard day.
Calm
Calm is steadiness in the body, with enough room for the nervous system to settle. Many people notice it first as a slower breath or a looser jaw, well before their thoughts quieten.
Compassion
Most people are kinder to a friend than to themselves. Compassion in this work means offering yourself that same tenderness, which matters most with grief and shame.
Courage
Staying with something difficult, a little at a time, takes courage, and it's rarely dramatic. It might be one honest sentence in a session, or a feeling you've avoided for years finally getting some attention.
Connectedness
Grief and shame both pull people away from others and from themselves. Connectedness is the sense of being in relationship again, with your own body and with the people close to you.
Ways of working
What we might use in sessions
Body-based
Somatic Experiencing®
Somatic Experiencing® starts with what your body already knows how to do, and uses it to help old stress and trauma settle.
Somatic Experiencing® in Melbourne →Parts work
Internal Family Systems
IFS helps when part of you wants one thing and another part wants the opposite. We get curious about each of them, including the ones you'd rather not have.
About IFS →A practice to take home
Tension, Stress and Trauma Release Exercises (TRE®)
TRE® uses a short series of simple exercises to invite the body's natural tremor, which many people find lets long-held tension settle. Once you've learned it, it becomes a practice you can use at home between sessions.
About TRE® →About Rudi
Most of what I bring to sessions, I learnt the hard way first.
Fifteen years of moving countries taught me to adapt fast, and I didn't notice what it was costing my nervous system. Therapy that worked with my body, and later Internal Family Systems, led me to train in this work myself.
I'm a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, an IFS Practitioner and an ICF Professional Certified Coach. I'm also completing a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy at Ikon Institute.
Client experiences
"I came to Rudi at a time of need and found the sessions to be really helpful. He is great to talk to, highly knowledgeable, skilful and empathic. His sense of humour is pretty unique and that helped too. Rudi is very passionate about his work and generous with his follow-up and suggesting practices for in between sessions."
Claire · Client
"What's rare is finding someone who can be sophisticated, tender and delicate, but at the same time bring real presence and gravitas. The way Rudi creates a space where you feel genuinely heard is remarkable, and it's the first step where you can start getting curious about yourself."
Min L · Client
"I'd recommend this especially to people who think they know themselves, but for some reason keep hitting the same wall. There's a chance you've been intellectualising your journey. There's so much wisdom available through a somatic approach, and so many options you haven't seen yet. It's one of the most beautiful gifts you can give yourself."
Min L · Client
What changes
What people tend to notice over time
Patterns that shift
Old habits loosen in the body as well as the mind, so you spend less energy holding them in check.
Saying what you need
It gets easier to know what you need, and to say it before the conversation goes sideways.
Steadier through loss and change
A death or a separation can still turn life upside down, but there's more ground under your feet when it does.
Results vary, and they tend to arrive unevenly.
Locations
Where sessions happen
I see clients in person at two Melbourne clinics, and online in every state and territory for anyone who'd rather stay home. There's more on somatic therapy in Melbourne if you'd like the wider picture.
Thornbury
Melbourne Integrated Therapies8-10 Mansfield St, Thornbury VIC 3071
Elsternwick
Glo Health358-360 Glen Huntly Road, Elsternwick VIC 3185
If you need help now
Sessions aren't an emergency service. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call Triple Zero (000). For support right now, Lifeline is available any time on 13 11 14.
Get started
Start with a free 45-minute call
Pick a time and answer three short questions. We'll then spend 45 minutes talking about where you are and whether this work suits you. If it does, you'll sign a short client services agreement and complete an intake form before your first session.
Book a free callFor fees, email me at rudi@rudidoku.com.au.