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Awake Counselling

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Awake Counselling

Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Awake Counselling, 410 Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Elvis Caus (pronounced Chaush)

🌿 Therapist | Trauma | EMDR
💬 Approved Counsellor (NSW Victim Services) & Victims of Crime
🌻 Supervisor
🔑 Authorised Visitor
📍 Surry Hills (in-person)
🪴 Telehealth

30/11/2025

“Unclench your jaw” sounds simple - but it’s actually one of the quickest ways to interrupt a dysregulated, stressed, or overwhelmed nervous system.

When we’re anxious, frustrated, or bracing for impact, the jaw is one of the first places the body holds tension.
We often don’t even realise we’re clenching until someone gently reminds us.

Softening the jaw sends a message of safety back to the brain - a tiny cue that says, “I don’t have to fight right now.”

This is one of the healthy habits I often talk about in therapy:

Small, body-based shifts that build emotional awareness, reduce stress, and strengthen your connection with yourself.

Try it now:

Loosen your jaw · drop your tongue from the roof of your mouth · breathe.

What’s the first thing you notice?

26/11/2025

I’m still contemplating the wisdom from last weekend and I wager I will continue to do so going forward. One of the most transformative ideas from last weekend is this:

We spend so much energy pretending we’re not mortal - and in doing so, we distance ourselves from the very things that make life meaningful.

When we finally turn toward:

• ageing
• grief
• loss
• uncertainty
• endings

…we begin to understand ourselves more deeply.

We soften.
We connect.
We live with more intention.

This is also what happens in therapy.
Not all at once. Not dramatically.
But gently, over time - a turning toward.

A willingness to feel.
An opening into growth.

As we move into a next week, I invite you to gently notice where you’ve been turning away - and whether you’re ready to turn toward just one thing with curiosity and compassion.

25/11/2025

After two days immersed in deep conversations about death, dying, grief, and meaning - I’m sitting with this simple truth:

Avoidance narrows our life.
Honesty expands it.

Turning toward these topics doesn’t make life darker - it makes it brighter.
It helps us:

• appreciate what matters
• untangle fear
• build meaningful relationships
• live aligned with our values
• soften into compassion (for ourselves and others)

These themes echo throughout my therapeutic work - supporting people to face what feels overwhelming, not with force, but with presence, grounding and safety.

When we acknowledge impermanence, we often become more present, more grateful, more awake.

23/11/2025

Day 2 at the Sydney Festival of Death and Dying, and something powerful is landing for me:

We often talk about ageing as decline - a slipping away, fading out, moving toward loss.

But ageing can also be seen as enrichment - a gathering of wisdom, depth, perspective, humility, love, courage, and stories.

Spending time in this space reminds me again of how much healing begins with reframing:

• Ageing isn’t a failure - it’s a privilege denied to many.
• Grief isn’t a weakness - it’s proof that we dared to love.
• Mortality isn’t morbid - it’s the quiet teacher that helps us wake up to our lives.

As a therapist, so much of the work I do is helping people turn toward what feels scary… and discovering that doing so creates space for connection, clarity and compassion.

Thank you to this community for creating such an honest, thoughtful event.

festivalofdeathanddying

22/11/2025

Today I attended Day 1 of the Sydney Festival of Death and Dying with my long-time friend and mentor (Lisa) tornarela - a space that invites us to gently turn towards the realities we’re often encouraged to avoid.

In our society, we celebrate youth and hide ageing. We soften language around death, skip conversations that feel uncomfortable, and try to push away anything that reminds us of impermanence.

But avoidance doesn’t protect us - it isolates us.

Turning towards these themes can actually deepen meaning, strengthen values, and open space for richer, more authentic living.

Therapeutically, this reflects many of the goals I support people with:

• Values - What truly matters when we strip life back to essentials
• Intellectual + Spiritual growth - Expanding how we understand life, loss and meaning
• Social connection - Talking openly, rather than carrying everything alone

Today was about listening, learning, and being present with the truth that to live fully, we must embrace our mortality honestly and tenderly.

19/11/2025

When we combine what we’ve learned - awareness, acceptance, nervous system regulation, emotional insight - something powerful happens.

We begin to move differently in the world.
We choose differently.
We respond instead of react.
We soften instead of shut down.
We practice instead of punish ourselves.

Radical acceptance gives us honesty.
Intentional choice gives us direction.
Action (even tiny action) creates momentum.

This is exactly what so many people in therapy discover:

Change isn’t a single moment…it’s a series of small aligned choices, repeated gently over time.

✨ What’s one tiny action you can take today that aligns with the person you’re becoming?

16/11/2025

One of the things I see so often in therapy is this moment when someone realises they weren’t making “bad choices”…
Their nervous system was making choices for them.

When we’re overwhelmed or dysregulated, decisions usually come from:

• fear
• past trauma
• old patterns
• survival instincts

Not from our values or long-term needs.

This is why we spend time practicing:

• grounding
• breath work
• humming
• leaning into glimmers
• naming emotions before reacting

Because when the nervous system settles, clarity shows up. And with clarity comes better choices.

✨ How does your body tell you you’re about to make a choice from stress rather than intention?

14/11/2025

Radical acceptance gets misunderstood a lot.

It isn’t resignation and it isn’t “just deal with it.”

It’s the practice of saying:

“This is what’s here right now - and I don’t have to like it to work with it.”

For many people I support, this approach becomes a turning point because it helps reduce that internal battle. When we stop fighting reality, we suddenly have more energy to respond from a grounded place.

In Awake Counselling we often pair radical acceptance with:

• body awareness
• naming emotions
• EMDR strategies
• small daily habits that build stability

Acceptance creates space. Space creates change.

✨ Where might a little acceptance help soften something in your reflections this week?

12/11/2025

Today we recognise National Survivors’ Day where we remember and commemorate the courage and journey of those people who have survived sexual assault and institutional abuse, their supporters, and whistle-blowers across Australia.

If you or someone you know has been affected by institutional child sexual abuse, the National Survivors’ Foundation Casework Team can help.

They can assist with navigating legal, mental health and social welfare systems and coordinate the right support for your needs. They are available Monday to Friday on 1300 12 44 33.

1800RESPECT is also available to help you. Call 1800 737 732, text 0458 737 732 or visit www.1800respect.org.au for online chat and video call services.

National Survivors Foundation

09/11/2025

I’ve been listening (again) to one of my favourite podcast episodes:

How to Make Better Choices with Barry Schwartz on The Happiness Lab. lauriesantosofficial

What I love most is this reminder:
We don’t always need perfect choices… just better ones.

In therapy, that often looks like:
• slowing down
• noticing the feeling that’s driving the urge
• aligning decisions with your values rather than fear

When we understand why we choose the way we do, we suddenly have more space, more clarity, and more self-compassion. This ties directly into many of the goals we work on in therapy: strengthening insight, expanding emotional capacity, and building sustainable habits that support growth.

If you’re curious, here’s the episode:

https://www.pushkin.fm/podcasts/the-happiness-lab-with-dr-laurie-santos/how-to-make-better-choices-with-barry-schwartz

✨ What’s one small choice you want to make with more intention this week?

06/11/2025

Earned secure - growing new pathways is possible and manageable with intent, commitment and support.

Attachment injuries are real - and repair is real too. With practice, your system can learn: ‘I can be close and keep myself intact’ • conflict is survivable • boundaries protect connection.

What therapy looks like can include us jointly mapping your patterns • build nervous-system skills • reprocess the memories that still run today • practise new moves in the present.

Insight in session - action and change in life.

Which small relational habit would move you 1% toward secure - naming a need, taking a pause, attempting a repair?

04/11/2025

Disorganised / fearful-avoidant attachment and what it can feel like could include: push-pull inside - wanting closeness, fearing it at the same time • body swings between panic and shutdown • relationships feel like walking on a fault line.

How it shows up can include fast flips in intimacy • strong triggers around anger, withdrawal or unpredictability • ‘I’m too much - and not enough.’

EMDR + attachment focus can help highlight how to go slow • build stabilisation skills first • titrated reprocessing of trauma/neglect • strengthen compassionate parts that can co-regulate inside. Aim - more safety in the body, more choice in relationships.

A tiny practice - orient to the room, feel your feet, name 3 safe things right now before responding.

Address

410 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW
2010

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 7pm
Tuesday	8am - 7pm
Wednesday	8am - 7pm
Thursday	8am - 7pm
Friday	8am - 12pm

Telephone

+61449191883

Website

http://www.awakecounselling.com/

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