Cam Ashley - Holistic Psychotherapist, Brookvale (2025)

24/07/2025

You don’t need to be fixed.�You need to be met — with gentleness, presence, and truth.

Every part of you, even the ones you judge, has a reason it exists.

Listen to their story.

Tag someone who would benefit from meeting themselves with compassion today.

23/07/2025

Reflection:�

We are conditioned to chase healing as a destination—something we must get to or achieve. But what if healing is not about adding anything, but about releasing everything that isn't truly you?

The stories, roles, expectations, and beliefs you’ve carried—they may have helped you survive, but they are not your truth.

Healing is a returning. A shedding. A quiet remembering. It’s less about “getting better” and more about feeling safe enough to be who you already are.

Journal Prompt:� Let go through reflection:

What expectations or roles have I outgrown?�
What beliefs about myself are no longer true?�
Who am I beneath the layers of should's, roles, and fear?

Share an insight in the comments below 🙏🙏🙏�

22/07/2025

Client Story:

For years, she chased it.
The next goal.
The next title.
The next person who might finally say, “You’ve made it.”

Her smile was polished.
Her life, on paper, looked perfect.
But inside?

Happiness always felt one step ahead.
Like trying to hold sunlight in her hands.

We didn’t begin by chasing more.
We began by listening.

✨ What made her heart ache with longing?
✨ What brought tears to her eyes — not from pain, but from truth?
✨ What moments left her feeling alive, even if no one else noticed?

We traced the breadcrumbs back to her soul.
Not the “should's.”
Not the roles she was taught to play.
But her values.
The quiet truths her body had always known.

Slowly, she stopped asking,

“What will they think?”
and began asking,
“What feels right in my bones?”

She realised happiness wasn’t hiding in an achievement.
It wasn’t waiting in someone else’s approval.
It was in her everyday choices that mattered most.

🌿 A slow morning walk.
🌿 Saying no — and meaning it.
🌿 Creating for the joy of it.
🌿 Loving herself without needing to be earned.

💛 Happiness is not a destination. It’s a homecoming.
A sacred return to your inner alignment —
To the values that nourish you.
To the truth that can’t be bought or performed.

Reflection for you:
What are the values that make you feel most alive — even when no one’s watching?

Take a moment.
Place your hand on your heart.
Breathe.
Ask:

“What truly matters to me — not because it’s impressive…
but because it’s mine?”

Then take one small step today in devotion to that.
Not for the outcome.
But as an act of love.

Because real happiness isn’t out there.
It’s the life you choose when you finally choose yourself. 🤍

22/07/2025

Her pattern looked like self-destruction from the outside.
Falling for those who kept her at arm’s length.
Over-giving.
People-pleasing.
Slowly disappearing in every relationship.

But when we slowed it all down —
When we dropped beneath the surface stories —
We found something tender… and sacred.

🌙 A little girl.
Still waiting at the door.
Still hoping her father would turn the handle and say,

“There you are. I choose you.”

She wasn’t self-destructive.
She was devoted.
Devoted to a silent, unconscious vow:

“If I can just be good enough, maybe this time… they’ll stay.”

Every adult relationship became a stage.
A chance to rewrite the original script.
To finally earn the love she was never given freely.

But healing doesn’t come from reenactment.
It comes from remembrance.
From reclaiming what was always hers to begin with.

We didn’t try to fix her pattern.
We sat with her.
Held space for the ache.
Listened to the longing beneath the behaviours.

And gently, over time, we whispered the truth:

“You never had to earn love.
You just needed to feel it.”

“You are loveable — not because of what you do,
but because of who you are.”

And something shifted.
Tears came.
Breath deepened.
The little one inside exhaled for the first time in years.

💔 Patterns don’t change through willpower.
They change through witnessing.

When the pain beneath the behaviour is seen —
with tenderness, with presence —
it no longer needs to scream for your attention.

🌿 Reflection for you:
Is there a part of you still trying to earn love?
Whose love are you still chasing in the present… that belongs to the past?

Pause.
Breathe.
Place your hand on your heart and ask:

“What did I need to hear back then…
that I’ve never let myself receive now?”

Let that part of you be held —
not judged.
Not fixed.
Just met.

Because love doesn’t have to be earned.
Only remembered. 🤍

21/07/2025

Healing isn’t just about effort.
It’s not just about “doing the work.”
It’s not another thing to grind through, achieve, or conquer.

True healing is the dance of yin and yang —The sacred balance between doing and being,
Action and allowing, Effort and ease.

I’ve worked with so many high-functioning, heart-centered people —
People who care deeply, want to grow, and are committed to their path.

But they’re exhausted (I was that person, and at times still am)

They’ve done the journaling.
The therapy.
The shadow work.
The inner child healing.
And still, they feel like they’re chasing something just out of reach.

Why?
Because they’ve learned to equate healing with doing.
With pushing.
With constantly “working” on themselves.

But the deepest shifts I’ve ever witnessed in my clients didn’t come from effort.
They came in the pause.
In the breath between the doing.
In the stillness that allowed something softer — something sacred — to rise.

✨ Healing isn’t a race.
✨ It’s not a to-do list.
✨ It’s not something you hustle through to finally arrive.

It’s a homecoming.

And like all true homecomings, it requires rest, receptivity, and trust.

Not with more doing — but with a softening.
A returning.
A remembering that your body, your heart, and your soul already know the way.
They just need space to speak.

Because contrary to what the world tells you —
You don’t need to do more.
You need to allow more. The doing comes after this....

What if the next layer of healing isn’t about effort…
But about exhale?

What if your softness is your power?

What if resting is the most radical thing you could do right now?

Let stillness be sacred.

Let presence be enough.

💛 Start there.

17/07/2025

When you live from your values, your path becomes clear — even in chaos.

What do you really stand for?
What are your Physical Needs ? Emotional Needs ? Relationship Needs ? Spiritual Needs ?
And are your choices aligned with that truth?

This post will help you reconnect to your inner compass.

💬 Drop one of your top values in the comments 👇

16/07/2025

Reflection:�

We all have shadow—a part of us that holds the pain, anger, fear, or shame we’d rather not see.

But wholeness does not come from denying the dark. It comes from welcoming it.

True healing is an integration. When we bring light to what we’ve exiled within ourselves, we reclaim lost energy, power, and truth. Your wounds are not your weakness—they are your teachers.

Making the darkness conscious is not about drowning in it—it’s about meeting it with love, curiosity, and compassion. That’s where transformation happens.

Journal Prompt:�Dive deep with:

What parts of myself do I try to hide or suppress?�
What might those parts be trying to protect or express?�
What would it mean to meet these parts with curiosity instead of judgment?�

Share an insight in the comments below 🙏🙏🙏�

15/07/2025

I’ve heard these words whispered through trembling lips.
Not always out loud.
But in the body —
In the clenched jaw.
The held breath.
The white-knuckle grip on what used to feel safe.

🌀 That fear isn’t irrational.
It’s the echo of a system that’s been in survival mode for far too long.
Because for many, letting go doesn’t feel like a choice —
It feels like a threat.
Like falling into the unknown.
Like dissolving into nothing.

But here’s what I’ve witnessed time and time again…

🌿 Letting go is not the end of you.
It’s the end of the false self that learned to cope.
The persona built to protect, please, perform, or survive.

And yes — grieving that identity is part of the process.
Because it once kept you alive.

But it’s not who you are now.

🌱 True healing begins when we stop gripping.
When we soften the armor.
When we stop trying to micromanage the mystery of life.

✨ Letting go is not passive.
It’s an active surrender.
It’s choosing to tend to the part of you that’s still holding the pain —
Not to erase it, but to say,

“You don’t have to hold this alone anymore.”

This isn’t weakness.
This is radical strength.

🌿 Reflection for you:
Where in your life are you gripping because letting go feels like losing control?
What might soften if you asked:

“What part of me is afraid to release this?”
“What safety does this tension give me?”

And then —
Can you sit with that part,
with tenderness,
and breathe?

Sometimes, it’s not about pushing through.
It’s about laying it down.

14/07/2025

One of the most overlooked parts of healing is this: clarifying your values.

Not the values your parents gave you.
Not what society says you should want.
Not what looks good on paper.

But the values that are true for you —
At your core.
In your soul.
In your lived, embodied experience.

I’ve worked with so many people who feel lost, stuck, or quietly unfulfilled — even though, from the outside, their life looks “fine.”
They’ve achieved. They’ve grown. They’ve done the work.

And yet… something feels off.
Like they’re living someone else’s life.

Why?
Because without a clear connection to what truly matters to you, life can easily become a performance — A long list of expectations, obligations, and goals that don’t actually light you up.

What are values then? they are the guiding truths that live beneath your roles, your wounds, and your conditioning. They reflect the real you — the you who longs to feel alive, free, connected, and at peace.

When your values are unclear, decision-making becomes foggy.
You might find yourself people-pleasing, self-abandoning, overcommitting, or chasing things that leave you empty.

But when your values are rooted in truth?

✨ You begin making decisions that feel aligned.
✨ You stop outsourcing your worth.
✨ You begin building a life that nourishes, instead of depletes.

Your values are your internal compass.
They help you choose what to say yes to.
They give you permission to say no.
They create boundaries that protect what matters most.

And they remind you — especially in moments of uncertainty — who you are and what you stand for.

This is how love grows. Not just romantic love — but self-love, life-love, soul-love.

Because when your life reflects your values,
Fulfilment, joy, and peace stop being things you chase —
And start being the ground you walk on.

🌿 Take a moment today to ask yourself:
What truly matters to me?
Not what should matter.
Not what used to matter.
But what matters now.

Let that answer shape the way you move forward.

10/07/2025

Letting go doesn’t mean forgetting.�It means making room for something more aligned with your healing.

What are you still holding on to out of fear?�

This post offers practices to release — with love.

🔥 Drop “RELEASE” below if you’re ready to let go.

09/07/2025

Reflection:

Many of us carry invisible pain. We look back at past experiences and wonder, “Was it really that bad?” Or we compare our pain to others, minimising our own.

Gabor Maté offers a profound reframe: trauma isn’t the event—it’s the impact. It’s what happens inside you when your needs were unmet, your feelings dismissed, or your spirit left unprotected.

Honouring trauma doesn’t mean staying stuck in it.

It means acknowledging the places within you that still need safety, voice, and presence.

Healing begins when we validate our own experience—not by blaming, but by bringing love to what hurt.

Journal Prompt:�Reflect with honesty:

Where in my life do I still carry the emotional imprint of past events?�
What did I need back then that I didn’t receive?�
How can I begin offering that to myself now?

Share an insight in the comments below 🙏🙏🙏�

08/07/2025

Client Story:

He had all the markers of success.
📈 High-achiever.
💡 Brilliant mind.
💬 Respected by colleagues and friends.

But when we sat together in session, we slowed everything down, we explored gently, he said something I’ll never forget:

“I don’t trust myself.”

Not with decisions.
Not with emotions.
Not with connection.

So, we slowed down even more.
Not to figure him out — but to feel into the truth.

And beneath the polished exterior,
we met someone else…

🧒 A young part of him.
The boy who once got punished for being too emotional.
Who was teased for being too curious.
Who was told, again and again,

“Don’t speak. Your're too loud. Don’t need.”

That part had learned to survive by shutting down.
And every time the adult him tried to grow, connect, or express…
that younger part would pull the brakes.

Not out of sabotage —
But out of fear.

Because in his system, expansion had once meant danger.
And his dream body remembered.

That’s what so many call “self-sabotage.”
But it’s not sabotage.
It’s protection.
It’s a wounded protector doing the best it can with the tools it had.

💔 You don’t build self-trust by bullying these parts into silence.
You build it by turning toward them.
By listening.
By offering them the compassion they never received.

And from that place —
✨ Self-trust isn’t built.
It’s remembered.

🌿 Reflection for you:

What if the part of you that you judge the most…
is actually the part that’s been trying to keep you safe?

💬 What would change if you asked that part,

“What are you protecting me from?”

Start there.
That’s where trust begins again.

Cam Ashley - Holistic Psychotherapist

24/07/2025

23/07/2025

22/07/2025

22/07/2025

21/07/2025

17/07/2025

16/07/2025

15/07/2025

14/07/2025

10/07/2025

09/07/2025

08/07/2025

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