Narla Dean Somatic and Relational Therapist

16/03/2026

THE CLIENTS I'M SEEING LATELY - "How to relate. How to be intimate. How to love well."

If any of this resonates for you, book in your free 15 minute consult today.
www.narladean.com

There's something I've noticed.The clients finding their way into my therapy room are already really self-aware. Already doing the work. They arrive not because something is wrong with them, but because something in them is awake enough to want more. More depth, more honesty, more aliveness in how t...

11/03/2026

LOW MAINTENANCE

Sometimes… a red flag.

Low maintenance is often just well behaved self abandonment.

When someone says they are low maintenance, it can sound attractive.

Easy.
Relaxed.
No drama.

But in the therapy room I often see something else sitting underneath that phrase.

Sometimes “low maintenance” actually means
I don’t express my needs.

I don’t want to be a burden.
I don’t want to upset anyone.
I don’t want to risk rejection.

So the nervous system learns to make itself smaller.

Needs go quiet.
Desires get pushed down.
Boundaries soften.
Suppression happens.

From the outside, the person looks incredibly easy to be with.

But over time something begins to happen inside the body.

The weight of unspoken needs builds.
Disappointment quietly accumulates.
Resentment begins forming in the background.
Bitterness, withdrawal, dissatisfaction.

Because every human has needs.

For attention.
For care.
For reassurance.
For consideration.

When those needs are never voiced, relationships can become confusing, muddled, lost, and disconnected.

One person believes things are smooth and simple.

The other is carrying a silent emotional ledger.

Low maintenance often means someone learned somewhere along the way that their needs were inconvenient.
Or that expressing emotion or needs caused too much discomfort, so they decided it was unsafe to do so.

Healthy relationships are not low maintenance.

They are honest.

They include wants, limits, feelings, and repair.

And strangely, when people are allowed to have needs openly, relationships often become far less dramatic.

Because the agreements are spoken instead of silently expected.

Having needs is normal.
Having none is… not.

www.narladean.com

With love,
Narla.

10/03/2026

These are a few ways I am making my therapy support a little more accessible.

08/03/2026

UNDERSTANDING THE STATES AND THE UNDERCURRENTS

Another client moving through Relating, Me Before We.

Right now we are exploring the different states we move through in relationship. Read more...

Another client moving through Relating, Me Before We.Right now we are exploring the different states we move through in relationship.The moments when we are open.The moments when we are reaching for connection.The moments when we are at capacity.And the moments when we feel the need to hide and prot...

08/03/2026

Sundays are for connection.
5 practices to reconnect with life, nature and the person I share my home with.

28/02/2026

When couples explore open relating, what usually gets activated are not logistics.It is belief.Deeply installed stories about love, worth, safety, and security.Here are some of the most common ones I see, and the reframes that begin to shift them.“Love means being chosen above all others.”Many o...

28/02/2026

Dear love, I can feel you reaching for relief.

28/02/2026

Couples therapy is the heart of my work.As a somatic and relational therapist offering couples therapy in Byron Bay, Lismore, Sydney and online across the world. I have chosen to focus deeply on working with the relationship when it's in the same room/zoom call, not just the individuals within it.Wh...

26/02/2026

Testimonials from recent clients.

25/02/2026

I'm excited to be offering some beautiful workshops at taste of love, for the festivals first time in Sydney.
I'll be speaking on relating, open relationships, vulnerability, heart lead intimacy and my program Relating, Me Before We.

Big love,
Narla.

25/02/2026

This one is for the black sheep.

23/02/2026

I’m still feeling it in my body.

The softness. The laughter. The sweet and quiet tears.
It was honest and tender week.

It was Rachael’s first retreat and it felt so natural, so easeful. It was honest, rich and beautifully held.

I felt genuinely honoured to be there.

To share what I know, to collaborate and guide.
To witness the women open, take risks, find edges, ask for what they want, name their no, explore their bodies, their intimacy and their ways of connecting with the world.

There’s something deeply nourishing about watching women come home to themselves in a room full of others doing the same.

And working beside you, Rachael, was easy, was graceful, was warm, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.
You lead with heart and it is felt in every detail.

It was a stunning week.
white ❤️

With love,
Narla