True Nature Coaching & Education

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True Nature Coaching & Education

🌿 Trauma-informed coach | 🌿 Psych PhD |
🌿 Supporting sensitive, introverted, neurodiverse souls to flourish through nervous system regulation

I support people to reclaim energy, calm, and wellbeing through teaching emotional literacy, healthy relating, and nervous system regulation. Drawing on PhD-level studies in psychology, lived experience of healing from complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) plus 20 year personal growth journey, I support you to heal and live the life you desire.

28/08/2025

The trauma I experienced as a highly sensitive child growing up in an environment of emotional neglect could have left me debilitated to the point of disability. It’s possible it could also have turned me to drugs as a way to numb the pain, and to a life of disabling addiction.

Something that I am forever grateful for is that I didn’t stay on that path.

Something within; a determination; a hope; a knowing that healing must be possible, that there must be answers to suffering, that there must be another way has guided me. I was guided onto another path; a path of seeking answers, of discovering what knowledge humanity holds about healing and the psyche.

In my work I've met many people whose suffering is so great that it has them caught up in the revolving door of health services; people who carry such a heavy load and are debilitated by their mental and emotional pain.

I share this because I also carried an incredibly heavy load and want to offer hope that healing is possible. There are answers. There is knowledge that we can learn from to support us in moving out of suffering and reclaim our true selves; the part of us that is untouched by trauma. That is whole. That is well. That is wise. It is possible.

There is a requirement. The requirement is that you must be willing to take the journey, something that takes action and courage. The good news is that we all possess the innate qualities of will and courage.

19/08/2025

I believe that to survive in the future we’re going to need strong emotional and relational intelligence.

Just accumulating more money and stuff isn’t going to keep us safe.

Our security will be built on our capacity to create mutually supportive relationships and live in community with others.

I feel this in my bones.

We’ll need to understand our relational triggers, childhood trauma, and attachment patterns.

When triggers arise, we’ll need to be able to discern how our past is showing up in the present and how to respond intelligently to these.

The nervous system is a map to making sense of this.

It provides guidance on what our individual needs are that we can then bring to relationships to nurture healthy interdependence.

It reveals what our attachment wounds are through the fight/flight/freeze responses that show up in the presence of others.

It also holds the information about what it needs to settle and return to a sense of safety.

I believe that nervous system education is going to be essential for creating the kind of strong, healthy community we need to navigate an uncertain future.

I love guiding people in learning the language of the nervous system and how it can be used to strengthen emotional and relational intelligence.

If you’d like to learn more and explore how we could work together, send me a DM or visit my website (link in bio). I’d love to hear from you 🌸

18/08/2025

Just one spot left for the Nurture Your Nervous System 5-Week Class! 🌱🌱

🧠 Curious about your nervous system and how it relates to stress, anxiety, overwhelm, getting triggered?

🔥 Empower yourself with knowledge and practices to support your body to move out of stress and find more ease.

📖 5-Week Class
In a relaxed and welcoming environment, we’ll meet for five weeks to learn about the autonomic nervous system and practice basic neurosensory exercises to support regulation.

Learn to:
* Recognise the different nervous system states (fight, flight, freeze)
* Attune to what your body needs at the nervous system level
* Help your system settle and find more ease
* Build capacity to more easily be with challenging emotions

👉🏻 When: 10:30am - 12:00pm on Fridays, 22 Aug - 19 Sep
👉🏻 Where: Goodwood (location confirmed on booking)
👉🏻 Cost: $85

📩 To find out more or book your spot, contact me via DM or email at sophie@truenatureocoaching.com.au

Visit https://truenaturecoaching.com.au/ to learn more about my work.

14/08/2025

I was thinking recently about how the regulated life is kinda the boring life, but in a good, I’d-choose-this-any-day-over-survival kinda way 😉

As I grow more and more nervous system regulation, the things that are important become clearer. And simpler.

The things that matter to me these days are:

✔️ preparing nourishing meals
✔️ moving my body in ways that are fun and keep me strong
✔️ connecting with myself, nature, people, God
✔️ continuing to heal trauma and engage in personal development
✔️ engaging in meaningful, soul-aligned work
✔️ learning about subjects that interest me
✔️ creative expression
✔️ experiencing beauty
✔️ keeping up with house work and life admin

Living in survival (aka nervous system dysregulation, aka trauma) was like living on a constant roller coaster of adrenalised emotions. It was exhausting and I didn’t know how to get off.

Gradually, as I continue the nervous system work to build regulation, my system is moving out of addiction to adrenaline.

More and more, I am in the driver’s seat and able to take control of the speed and direction of the roller coaster.

There are still some hairy corners but it doesn’t reach the same heights and goes at a lot slower speed.

More often these days, it’s a fun ride.

From the perspective of adrenaline addiction, the regulated life might seem like a boring life.

But the truth is that a regulated life has finally allowed me to feel human; to feel connected to and flow with life instead of simply hanging on to survive.

The regulated life isn’t big and fancy.

It’s slowed down and uncomplicated.

It’s about simple pleasures.

It’s sustainable.

If you’re curious to explore what a regulated life could look like for you, I offer a free 30-minute connection call. Link to my website is in bio.

I’d love to connect!

31/07/2025

There are a few new faces around here so I though I’d take a moment to re-introduce myself and say hi.

Hi, I’m Sophie 👋

If you’ve recently started following me, thank you and welcome!

I’m a coach with a psychology PhD who supports the Deep Feelers of the world to reclaim their personal power through redefining their relationship with emotions and the body.

I would have been a psychologist if the system wasn’t so broken and my own healing journey hadn’t taken me way deeper than what is possible through mainstream psychology training.

I live close to the beach in Adelaide, South Australia, and share my home with a housemate and resident feline, Biscuit.

When I’m not working in my business, I’m reading, walking, connecting with people I care about, cooking, and pondering what it means to be human.

Instagram is a funny place to hang out. It’s not a natural home for me, that’s for sure.

You won’t find polished, on-trend reels here but you will find me showing up authentically in my humanness sharing real life experiences that support you to feel seen and validated.

I offer 1:1 and group sessions in person and online.

If you’re keen to learn more about my work, check out my website where you can sign up to my newsletter and receive a free audio for soothing overwhelm. Link in bio.

20/07/2025

The other day I took myself on a drive and visited a wildlife park about an hour from home.

I love animals and it was really special to spend some time up close with native wildlife (the ethics of caged animals is another discussion).

Going on drives to explore new places is one of the things I discovered I like to do since starting to heal my nervous system.

There has been so much I’ve learned about myself as I’ve come out of living in survival and begun to experience nervous system regulation.

It’s as though I hardly knew myself before starting this journey.

Through a slow but steady process of self-attunement and building nervous system capacity, life has shifted to one of fear-based survival to one of empowered choice and action.

Discovering the simple things that bring a sense of joy and meaning is one of the gifts of healing at this level.

After years of feeling empty, it’s such a blessing to connect with a sense of self and aliveness.

If you would like to chat about how nervous system work could support you to connect with your aliveness, type ‘ALIVE’ in the comments below.

To making the most of this one precious life 🌹

06/07/2025

I shift between different sources of information for guidance and wisdom.

Last night I started this book that is an account of a priest having a channeled dialogue with Jesus (Yeshua) and Mary Magdalene and straight away it pulled me back into the truth that were here to experience life through emotions.

Reclaiming feminine value is about reclaiming our relationship to feeling and emotion.

My seeking always circles back to this truth.

It’s not about just including emotions in our experience, it’s about radically recentring them as Truth and direct connection with God.

This is the path through. This is how we come back into connection with our humanity.

This is how we come back into connection with the heart.

01/07/2025

Something I notice a lot still in the mental health space, and to an extent, in the coaching space, is the emphasis on trying to help someone NOT feel their feelings.

This is despite growing awareness of the role of the body in trauma and adoption of concepts such as emotion regulation and window of tolerance.

Whether conscious or unconscious, there is an underlying goal of trying to find ways to help someone push away their emotions.

Even when teaching somatically-oriented exercises such as breath work, grounding, or another body awareness technique, currently they are used in service of “calming” and attemptig to stop the emotion the client is feeling.

Though well intentioned, it does not serve true healing.

As the saying goes, you’ve got to feel it to heal it.

Emotion is energy that is asking to be moved and expressed.

We don’t need more techniques to suppress emotion. We need more techniques (and spaces) that support people to safely feel and express emotions through the body.

Holding onto emotion makes us sick.

Learning to feel and express emotions is the path to healing and reclaiming our humanity.

Are you seeking a space where emotions are welcomed and you are compassionately supported to express difficult feelings and sensations?

As a trauma-informed somatic coach, I offer a 12-week program as well as single, 5-, and 10-session options.

Visit my website to book a free 30-minute connection call (link in bio). No sales-y pressure, just human connection.

03/06/2025

As a highly sensitive woman with early developmental trauma (plus some neurodivergent traits) overwhelm is something I’ve experienced A LOT.

If you’d like to learn more about nervous system support for overwhelm, you can access a free guided exercise when you sign up to my newsletter via my website (link in bio).

And if this post resonated, I’d love to hear about it in the comments! ⬇️

23/05/2025

It’s ok to be discovering/reinventing who you are at any age.

I’m only discovering who I am now at 45 after healing trauma and coming out of survival mode.

Now that it no longer feels like I’m going to die if I make a mistake, get it wrong, change my mind.

It means I try things and they don’t work out.

I tried holidaying in Fiji like I did as a 20-something in my backpacker days, roughing it on a budget, and it was awful! It was so uncomfortable that it’s been really hard to enjoy myself here!

The old me would’ve criticized myself and felt ashamed as though I’d “failed” at being on holiday.

Regulated me sees it as an experience that’s giving me feedback about who I am and what I need to thrive at this point in my life.

There are many things about roughing it that didn’t work for me but hands down the main thing I discovered is the need for access to fresh whole foods to feel vital and well. Sadly colonialism is alive and well through the marketing of highly processed, nutritionally dead food.

Still, I’ll look back at the photos and remember what a gorgeous paradise Fiji is 🌺 And I’ve been treated with care and respect by everyone I’ve met 🩷

What are you discovering about yourself at this moment?

07/05/2025

A friend asked me before I left to fly to Canada, how I support my nervous system while travelling.

I’ve been pondering it and some things came to mind that I wanted to share.

There are two parts to it:

One is the things I’m doing here to settle in after arriving.

Another part is the accumulated impacts of regular nervous system practice that has been building my capacity and window of tolerance over time.

For me, adjusting to the different timezone and overcoming jet lag is the biggest challenge especially since I’m wanting to have good energy for the week-long intensive we’re embarking on in a few days.

To navigate this, I’m practicing:

🌱going to sleep and getting up at the usual times

🌱getting outside in the morning to be in the natural light

🌱 finding opportunities to take shoes off and be bare foot

🌱 Finding parks and nature to spend time in

🌱 sticking close what and how much I usually eat

🌱 staying hydrated

🌱 generally keeping to day-to-day routines

While these are more circadian than nervous system health principles, they are so helpful in supporting regulation and navigating stress associated with overseas travel.

The other piece supporting regulation is the nervous system basics i’ve been practicing and integrating since beginning my nervous system healing journey.

Things like:

✅ orienting, following impulse, connecting to the environment, paying attention to posture, and resourcing.

It’s interesting to practice orienting to surroundings and feeling the connection with the seat in an aeroplane!

Continual practice of these basics has meant I’ve been able to build more and more capacity to handle stress. It’s what’s allowed me to, first, organise a solo overseas trip (something that I couldn’t have done a couple of years ago) and then travel with minimal stress and disruption to my wellbeing.

It’s felt a lot easier getting to Canada this time around than it did last September.

The jet lag is there but it’s manageable.

My energy levels are good and I’m enjoying a mixture of planning and following impulse while exploring Vancouver.

If something in this post resonated, I’d love to hear about it in the comments ⬇️

11/04/2025

For close to two decades, I struggled with social anxiety and panic that made things like going to a party or going out for coffee - ordinary experiences that most other people find fun - a painful ordeal.

I would be so hyper-focused on people’s reactions to me - micro changes in their facial expression and tone of voice - because I was on guard for the slightest hint of disapproval and rejection.

I’d leave a social situation and then process it for hours, going over and over what I’d said to see if I’d done anything “wrong” that could make people dislike me.

Often this would trigger a shame spiral leaving me feeling worthless and broken for days.

Then I discovered the work of Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory and suddenly it started to make sense.

There is a concept in Polyvagal Theory (PVT) called ‘neuroception’ and it describes the way that the nervous system is wired to scan the environment for signs of safety and threat. It is doing this constantly, outside of our conscious awareness.

As mammals, we have evolved to seek safety through connection with close others and because of this are especially sensitive to threat signals in people’s body language. Porges worked out that facial expression and tone of voice are the main ways that humans communicate these signals to people around them.

It was such a revelation because it meant that being sensitive to people’s reactions wasn’t a sign that I was crazy. It was my nervous system stuck in survival mode and constantly on the lookout for threat as a result of growing up in a highly stressful childhood environment.

Learning this piece of nervous system science was the difference between feeling crazy and broken, and being able to see that it was a pattern left over from my body’s attempt to keep me safe as a child.

It helped me to break free.

Want to learn more about how your nervous system works and its role in safety and healing? Join my newsletter by following the link in my bio.

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https://truenaturecoaching.com.au/

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