OMA Wellness - Giselle Martins

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Byron Bay, NSW
OMA Wellness - Giselle Martins

☆ Holistic Psychology ☆ Somatic Healing
☆ 900h+ Wudang Taiji & Qigong
1-1 Sessions • Workshops • Retreats
📍Online & Northern Rivers, AUS in Psychology.

OMA Wellness was founded 10 years ago by Giselle Martins, an internationally qualified therapist who takes a holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing, integrating contemporary and evidence-based therapeutic methods with traditional practices. Giselle Martins is a qualified therapist with a Dip. in Counselling and B.Soc.Sc. She has undergone postgraduate training across New Zealand, Brasil,

and at UC Berkeley, USA, where she was also directly taught by Peter Levine, the founder of Somatic Experiencing. Additionally, drawing from over 15 years of dedicated meditation practice, and as a certified Taiji and Qigong instructor trained at the Wudang Mountains in China, she integrates mindfulness into her therapeutic approach. Giselle brings a rich and diverse background to her practice, having worked with Indigenous communities, served as a university course tutor, and supported survivors of severe interpersonal violence and abuse. She has supported hundreds of clients globally through individual therapy, group workshops and retreats. Her purpose is to provide guidance on the journey toward inner peace and resilience.

25/04/2026

For two days, 15 people came together to explore what "Coming Home" means.

Thank you to The Bardo Cafe for inviting me to co-facilitate this weekend workshop with Ani Zangmo, a Buddhist Nun and a guide for many in the Siddhartha's Intent Global Community.

Throughout the weekend we shared body-based tools to regulate and stabilize the nervous system, cultivated awareness of breath and posture for emotional balance, while exploring Buddhist-inspired teachings in a grounded, secular-friendly way. Additionally, we deepen our awareness of the energy body pathways, and connected with community in a supportive and nurturing environment at Lapis Dharma Centre.

So much goodness! Thank you to all the participants who came with an open-heart and willingness to explore the qualities of a clear, spacious and untouched mind.

Grateful for the opportunity to be in service! 🙌🏼
May all beings awaken to the light of their true nature. 🌈

21/04/2026

Memories from a one-month Dzogchen retreat in Aotearoa, held in the presence of my beloved root teacher and Dharma community.

There is something profoundly humbling in stepping away from the noise of the world, and gently loosening the grip on the identities and stories we carry. For a moment—or many moments—we remember how to look beyond.

Beyond the roles.
Beyond the narratives.
Beyond the effort of becoming.

And in that quiet recognition, there is a return.
A return to the pristine, clear, spacious nature of reality—always here, always untouched.

To spend about 10 hours a day in practice and study, for 30 days, without internet and contact to the "outside", feels like a rare and precious gift in a world that moves so fast. A remembering of what truly matters.

And perhaps this is what feels most needed now.
In times shaped by confusion, division, and so much visible suffering,
to cultivate peace within is not a withdrawal—
it is a responsibility.

A steady, grounded peace that does not turn away,
but meets the world with openness, clarity, and compassion.

I leave with a heart a little more open,
a mind a little more spacious,
and a renewed intention to walk this path in service of others.

May whatever clarity arises be of benefit.
May we all remember what we already are. 💚

26/02/2026

Before I can hold space for others, I must continually return to my own mind.

I’m beginning a 4-week meditation retreat with my root teacher, Lama Yongdu Chokyi Gyaltsen, rooted in the Kagyu Dzogchen tradition of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism.

As a therapist, I work with narratives, attachment patterns, trauma responses.
As a practitioner, I investigate the one who experiences them.

When we understand why we think, react and defend the way we do, change becomes possible.

When we recognise the nature of awareness itself, something even deeper unfolds — a freedom not dependent on circumstances.

Grateful for the Dharma path, for my sangha, and for the rare privilege of studying closely with my teacher. Ongoing inner work is not separate from my profession — it is the foundation of it.

See you in the other side. 💚

03/02/2026

The last year has been a chapter of deep listening, meaningful partnerships, and walking alongside communities who deserve to be heard.

I had the privilege of coordinating Safe to Speak project in the Northern Rivers, in partnership with and the Department of Communities and Justice — a project shaped by the voices of CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) communities to strengthen responses to domestic, family and sexual violence within migrant and refugee spaces.

Along the way, I was honoured to join the Family Law Pathway Network Conference as a panelist, representing migrants with my personal and also professional lens as a Domestic, Family & Sexual Violence Specialist, alongside inspiring leaders including NSW Women’s Safety Commissioner Dr Hannah Tonkin.

Outside the conference rooms and meeting spaces, my work stayed rooted in community — from organising playgroups for migrant and refugee families, to celebrating Harmony Day, to taking part in national conversations at the Settlement Conference with diverse voices, including representatives from the UN Refugee Agency.

Grateful to Women Up North for the trust and the platform to amplify migrant voices. And especially to the Aboriginal team, for continually reminding me that real allyship starts with humility, deep listening, and the courage to challenge what isn’t working.

Closing this chapter with a full heart — and stepping into the next one, curious about how I can keep showing up for the benefit of all beings. 💚🙌🏼

01/02/2026

Nature is always calling us back to the present moment, listen to it. 💚

04/01/2026

Learning to live with both gratitude for this precious life and grief for the suffering in our world is a deep practice. It asks for patience, tenderness, and the courage to let sorrow and joy coexist in the same heart.

Too much grief hardens us. Too much gratitude blinds us. But together, they open the heart, and compassion becomes possible.

Our heart is far more spacious than we may know. 💚

18/12/2025

Each of us carries a story that goes beyond what the eyes can see.
We are more than smiles in photos or moments shared on social media.
We are made of challenges overcome, invisible scars, and dreams that don't always fit into words.

Therefore, don't compare yourself.
Comparison distorts reality and steals your peace.

What makes someone special is not what is seen on the outside,
but the essence that overflows from within.
True beauty lies in authenticity,
in the courage to be who you are,
without needing to fit into standards
that don't reflect your truth.

07/12/2025

We twist, reshape, and rise again
shedding skins that no longer fit,
birthing new versions of ourselves with every season of life.

Yet through all this shapeshifting,
our true essence remains untouched:
luminous, steady, and spacious,
like the sky behind every storm.

In all our forms,
the fierce,
the soft,
the wounded,
the reborn,
there is a steady pulse that remains the same.

This is our resilience: a quiet, unshakeable truth woven through every woman.
We are transformation itself…
and still, we remain whole. 💚

30/09/2025

My heart goes out to all those suffering from conflict, oppression, war, genocide, injustice, and hatred

To the people across Africa, in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Somalia, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon, and Mozambique;

to the people of Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Tibet, Ukraine , Myanmar, Haiti, Afghanistan;

and in every land where people are suffering in silence. May humanity remember their true essence and find hope, healing, and peace. 🤍💚

02/08/2025

39 and still swinging (literally 😄) through life with a curious heart, a big smile, and a playful soul.

Time flies, and life is fragile, but that only makes me want to live it even more fully.

Laugh louder, love deeper, stay open, stay wild, and keep saying yes to wonder.

Age may climb, but my spirit stays light. 💫

14/07/2025

I honour the ones who walked before me,
The forest-dwellers of old Germania, who whispered with trees, sang with wolves, and lit fires in rhythm with the stars.

The songweavers and earth women of Slavic lands, who danced with the rivers, offered herbs to the moon, and spoke to their ancestors in dream and ritual.

The first people of Brasil, who moved with the jaguar and knew the language of water, fire, wind, and root.
The blend of spirits and saints, of drums and prayers, of candles and African rhythms, that shaped the soul of Brasil I come from.

I honour the ones who survived, the ones who remembered, and the ones whose stories were silenced.
Through my blood, your memory moves.
Through my voice, your song returns.
Through my breath, I root into the earth and rise to the stars.

May I walk with reverence.
May I carry you with care.
So be it. 🙏🏽

Address

Byron Bay, NSW

Website

http://www.omawellness.org/

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