Warida Wholistic Wellness

23/04/2026

Last week I began five weeks (2 half days a week) of learning through the Centre for Existential Practice’s Clinical Supervisor Training, The Wheel of Supervision, with Dr Allison Strasser and Dr Adam McLean. I am really valuing the chance to deepen my skills as I continue working towards PACFA recognition as a certified clinical supervisor.

While I already offer both clinical and cultural supervision, it felt important to have this formally recognised. I still have a way to go, yet I am genuinely loving the exposure to different supervisors, different models, and the richness that comes from learning alongside others, experientially.

I also wanted to acknowledge three First Nations supervision models that matter deeply in this space: Yorgum Healing Services’ Aboriginal Cultural Supervision Framework, Our Healing Ways: A Culturally Appropriate Model for Aboriginal Workers, and the growing work on Supervision on Country (Sorby, et al) which brings forward identity, community, relationality, deep listening and yarning in supervision practice.

There is something powerful about continuing to learn, deepen, and strengthen the way we walk alongside others.

Bianca xx

The articles are:

Jamie Sorby, Chrisma McKenzie, Rebecca Regan-Coe, Carole Zufferey & Nicole Moulding (05 Mar 2025): Supervision on Country: Enhancing Culturally Safe Social Work Supervision Through First Nations Knowledges, Australian Social Work: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0312407X.2025.2462304

https://yorgum.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Cultural-Supervision-Framework.pdf

https://healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/healthinfonet/getContent.php?linkid=572183&title=Our+Healing+Ways%3A+supervision%3A+a+culturally+appropriate+model+for+Aboriginal+workers

There has been limited scholarship on culturally responsive supervision in social work. This article provides a comprehensive review of literature and builds artefacts and conceptual maps encompass...

21/04/2026

Oh wow! I had no idea Rosie could sing like that! Bundiyarra Irra Wangga Language Centre does incredible work on a variety of languages, including Badimia (Badimaya).

Thank you Uncle Peter, for seeing the importance of recording Thiinma for future generations.

❤️💛🖤

Peter is the last living speaker of the First Nations language Thiinma. When he met linguist Rosie, they used music to help keep his knowledge alive, and formed a beautiful friendship along the way.

17/04/2026

Today, through our major collaboration with BilaEmpower, Warida Wholistic Wellness provided offsite therapeutic support this afternoon to Senior leaders of Women’s and Children’s Health Network.

What was also wonderful is that I got to practice my ridiculously rusty weaving skill (or lack of 🤣). Remembered how much I enjoyed it. Now to practice some more.

Bianca

10/04/2026

Am I ready for this morning’s PhD supervision?

Decaf coffee ✅
Pot of Yorkshire gold tea ✅
Water ✅
Draft thesis ✅
Note book (remarkable) ✅
Working internet connection ✅
Nanna blanket (cause it’s freezing today) ✅
Quiet house ✅

Yep, I think I’m ready 🤪

10/04/2026

Today I’m rocking De Greer Yindimincarlie’s brand new, hot off the press Yindi Artz creation!!!

I must say, I’m a fan. These earrings are light, beautiful and a great way to support a local First Nations business.

Visit Yindi Artz to learn more (and hopefully stock up on some goodies). https://www.yindiartz.com.au/

❤️💛🖤

09/04/2026

Some days remind you that wellbeing is not a luxury. It is something people need space, safety and permission to come back to. Today we had the privilege of facilitating a Wellbeing Day with CALHN staff through Warida Wholistic Wellness and Legacy Counselling and Consultancy. What sat at the heart of the day was not performance, pressure, or trying to fix people. It was creating room to slow down, reconnect, and return to what we already know in ourselves, each other, and place.

The evaluation told a powerful story. Across just one day, there was an overall average improvement of 31.6% across the key wellbeing domains measured.

The strongest shifts were in:
* 45.6% improvement in slowing down and presence.
* 42.0% improvement in feeling grounded in the body.
* 40.7% improvement in connection to self.

There were also meaningful shifts in relational connection and being heard, returning to balance, connection to place and Country, and deep listening and reflection. What stands out most is that this was not simply a day people enjoyed. It created measurable movement in how people felt in themselves.

Before the day, people described arriving feeling bumpy, emotional, upset, unsettled, anxious, tired, and just plain meh. By the end of the day, words had shifted to safe, stronger, whole, calm, reflective, empowered, uplifted, centred, grounded, connected, and relaxed.

That matters.

It speaks to what can happen when staff are given a culturally grounded, relational space to pause, breathe, reflect, and reconnect. It also speaks to the value of wellbeing work that goes deeper than surface level self care.

A small number of people still left feeling tired or exhausted, and that is worth honouring too. Days that involve honesty, reflection, embodiment, and emotional presence can bring fatigue alongside reconnection. That does not weaken the impact. It reminds us that meaningful wellbeing work is real work.

Participants also rated strongly that they felt listened to and heard, and that they were leaving with something meaningful to take forward into their work and lives. This is the kind of shift that becomes possible when wellbeing is approached through deep listening, relationship, and grounded practice.

Thank you to CALHN staff who attended, and especially the Aboriginal Health and Research Translation team who contracted us; for your openness, presence, and willingness to come into the day fully.

08/04/2026

Bush garden at Warida Wholistic Wellness Sanctuary.

Enjoying those peaceful moments.

08/04/2026

This is where the data starts to speak for itself!

In the second workshop of Warida Wholistic Wellness and Legacy Counselling and Consultancy's First Nations Trauma Informed Practice series, we moved beyond understanding… into what it actually takes to stay in practice, and the shift was not small.

Across the Integration workshop, participants experienced an average 41% uplift in their ability to:
• stay present in complexity rather than react
• recognise and work with their own nervous system
• pause before responding
• engage relationally, not just procedurally

This is not typical for a one-day workshop. Most professional development programs see shifts in the range of 10–20%. A strong program might reach 20–30%. What we are seeing here sits well beyond that and it makes sense. This is not content that sits at the surface, this is work that shifts how people show up.

When practitioners begin to:
• notice their own internal state.
• interrupt automatic responses.
• remain present in complexity.
• hold cultural, relational, and systemic awareness together.

Their practice changes, the quality of support they provide to people accessing the hospital system improves! Not perfectly, but meaningfully.

What is also important is that this builds directly on the Foundations workshop, where we saw:

• up to 60% improvement in relational engagement.
• 50% increases in cultural safety and trauma understanding.
• strong movement from uncertainty to applied capability.

This second workshop does not repeat that learning. It deepens it, it tests it and it brings it into real moments. Knowing is one thing, but staying is something else entirely.

Deep appreciation to the CALHN Aboriginal Health and Research Translation team (SA Health) and all staff who continue to step into this work with honesty, openness, and courage.

This is how systems begin to shift.

07/04/2026

There are moments in this work where you can feel the shift in the room, not because of what is being taught, but because of what people are willing to sit with.

This week, Tod Stokes from Legacy Counselling and Consultancy and Bianca Stawiarski from Warida Wholistic Wellness came together again with CALHN (SA Health) staff for the Integration workshop in our First Nations Trauma Informed Practice series.

Building on last week’s Foundations, this space moved beyond understanding into practice, into presence and into what it actually takes to stay with people in complexity.

The yarns were honest: about the pressure of the system, about the pull to fix, move, resolve, and about how quickly we can lose ourselves in that. We explored what changes when we don’t.

When there is a pause, when there is awareness of what is happening in us and when listening is not rushed. We sat with:
• recognising our own nervous system in the moment
• interrupting automatic responses
• moving away from fixing
• holding relational, cultural, and systemic awareness together
• applying Warida’s LISTEN Framework in real practice

Not as theory, but as lived experience. What stood out most was not perfection, it was willingness.

* Willingness to reflect.
* Willingness to slow down.
* Willingness to do this work differently, because this is not easy work.

It asks people to stay when everything in the system says move, it asks people to listen when everything says solve, and it asks people to remain grounded when things feel anything but. Despite all of this, we see that this is where change begins.

Deep appreciation to the CALHN Aboriginal Health and Research Translation team and all staff who stepped into this space with openness and honesty.

This is how practice shifts. Not through more information, through how we show up, together.

06/04/2026

I felt deeply humbled and genuinely honoured to appear on Robyn Baker’s The Connection Currency podcast.

It was a meaningful conversation, and one that spoke to so much of what sits at the heart of my work through Warida: deep listening, relationship, and healing on your own terms. This includes the importance of staying connected to who you are, even in the midst of everything life can carry.

I am grateful to Robyn Baker for creating space for conversations that matter, and for the care she brings in the way she holds them.

If you would like to have a listen, you can watch here:

https://www.facebook.com/share/1JhMCLFGYG/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Thank you, Robyn, for the invitation and for the generosity of this yarn.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

06/04/2026

Warida’s YouTube channel is the place where all of our videos now live.

We had accidentally started two channels along the way, so we have now brought those videos across and combined everything into this one main Warida channel.

This space shares reflections, teachings, and real conversations around healing, burnout, trauma, self worth, empowerment, and reconnecting with your inner fire. It is also where I will keep sharing new videos regularly, so if you would like to stay connected and not miss what is coming next, I would love for you to subscribe.

Thank you for walking alongside Warida Wholistic Wellness and for supporting this work.

Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/