Appointments available

Hi, my name is Maria, and I’m a Health and Wellbeing consultant.

I work with you to help identify an area of your health and wellbeing that you want to improve or change. You may not know where to start or may need skills or support to pursue your goal. I can assist you to identify your strengths and what is important to you, and we use that insight to build opportunities for change. From there we identify meaningful goals and I work with you to develop confidence, skills, and realistic plans to achieve your health and wellbeing changes.

The areas that I can help with include:

• Sleep – explore strategies and habits to improve your sleep
• Life Balance – rebalance your life to align with your needs and values
• Weight – identify challenges and strategies to address weight goals
• Exercise – incorporate movement into your life for improved wellness
• Nutrition – gain understanding and strategies to achieve your nutrition needs
• Health – support with general health goals or addressing other health problems
• Anxiety/ depression – provide practical resources to manage these
• Somatic therapy – listen to your body and asking the mind to be quiet

Our first session is typically 80 minutes and subsequent sessions are typically 50 minutes. The number and timing of sessions is up to you and varies depending on your starting point, your goals, and your availability. These plans are collaboratively developed in the initial sessions and evolve over time to meet your needs. It is common for people to gain initial benefit from 4 to 8 sessions approximately weekly or fortnightly. Consultations may then change to a less frequent pattern for maintaining changes or future reconnections to address new goals.

Why might you want to engage me as a health and wellbeing consultant?

You want to do what you can to improve your health and wellbeing to maximise your ability to engage in the rich, full, and meaningful life of your choosing. Pursuing this goal on your own can be tough, and that’s where a consultant on your team can help.

I have been alive for 51 years and experienced directly, and been involved with others who have experienced, the many challenges that living in our mind and bodies presents. We all learn from these experiences and are aided by people who support us – both personally and professionally. 

Having been a Registered nurse for 30 years with experience in mental health, emergency nursing and nurse education, I have a deep understanding of both physical health and the behaviours and experiences people have that influence their health. I have also run my own fitness business for 10 years and am blessed to have supported many people to achieve goals they never thought possible. The overarching concept of wellbeing encompasses all aspects of a person’s life. While people may wish to target one area of concern, achievement can influence many areas of their physical, mental, and social/interpersonal wellbeing – the best kind of “side effects”.

Our work together

Before your first consultation, you will complete a questionnaire to review your situation and help identify health and wellbeing areas that you want help with. This information will help me prepare and plan our first consultation. We will get to know each other and start to explore ways that we can work together to achieve your goals. As we explore your concerns we will work as a team to set goals, review experiences with your weekly actions and build your knowledge and skills to achieve your goals.

Along with practical and supported strategies for behavioral change, I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to guide our overarching process of exploration and change. We work together to clarify what really matters to you and build skills to manage obstacles and painful thoughts or feelings that get in the way of achieving your goals. With increased understanding and allowing space for uncomfortable experiences we can change the influences that throw you off course. In our consultations we will build your skills to bring curiosity to your experience, utilise flexibility in your interpretation and exercise choices in your actions. We will enlist humour and laughter along the way as we all need a little break from the seriousness of life from time to time (you don’t get to be a nurse for 30 years without learning how to laugh and engage humour to help when things get hard).

I would love to meet you and explore how I can help coach you to achieve your health and wellness goals.

 If you have any further questions, please contact me through email at maria@optimalhealth.com.au or phone our reception staff on 02 6232 4242.