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Naomi Holdt - Psychologist and Speaker

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Naomi Holdt - Psychologist and Speaker

Psychologist | Speaker | Author | Personal & Professional Growth Mentor
Upcoming book: What the Actual Canary?! launching soon. Get on the waitlist 👇

ABOUT NAOMI
Naomi is a psychologist, author and speaker with over 20 years experience in education, educational psychology and psychotherapy with a special interest in the emotional well - being of children and young adults. With an initial teaching background she has insightful knowledge on the role of both parents and teachers in supporting, nurturing and helping young people reach their potenti

al. Naomi qualified cm laude with an MA in Educational Psychology from University of KwaZulu-Natal and is in private practice in Hilton, South Africa. She has spoken countrywide and her online parenting courses have now reached an international following. Naomi is a mother of two young children and regards this as a privilege and her most important role. DISCLAIMER
All content found on the Naomi Holdt Psychologist and Speaker Website and social media channels, including text, images, audio, or other formats were created for informational purposes only. The Site and its Content are provided on an "as is" basis. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your psychologist or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a mental health condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Website or Naomi Holdt Psychologist and Speaker’s social media channels. If you think you may have a mental health emergency, call your psychologist or doctor, go to the emergency department, or call emergency response immediately. Reliance on any information provided by Naomi Holdt Psychologist and Speaker, Naomi Holdt Psychologist and Speaker’s employees, contracted writers, or professionals presenting content for publication to Naomi Holdt Psychologist and Speaker’s channels is solely at your own risk. Links to content not created by Naomi Holdt Psychologist and Speaker are taken at your own risk. Naomi Holdt Psychologist and Speaker is not responsible for the claims of external websites and organisations. Please note that due to an overwhelming demand for assistance, I am unable to respond to requests and messages on this platform. If you would like to book a consult, please email info@naomiholdt.com or WhatsApp: +27 74 131 0260.

28/05/2026

There’s a certain kind of exhaustion that sleep doesn’t touch.

You can get through the day.
Reply to messages.
Support everyone else.
Show up at work.
Keep functioning.

And yet underneath it all, your nervous system feels permanently “on.”

You replay conversations long after they’re over.
You feel tension the second someone’s mood shifts.
You notice what’s unspoken in a room before anyone says a word.
You feel responsible for keeping the emotional atmosphere steady.

And over time, carrying all of that starts to become normal.

So normal that many people never stop to ask:
“What exactly have I been carrying all these years?”

Over many years, I’ve worked with thousands of people who quietly live this way.

People who are deeply empathetic, deeply perceptive, deeply emotionally aware… and deeply exhausted.

What many of them eventually discover is that this goes far beyond simply “being sensitive.”

There are deeper nervous system patterns underneath it.

Emotional over-functioning.
Hypervigilance.
Emotional absorption.
People-pleasing.
Internal pressure.

The compulsion to manage, soothe, hold, fix, anticipate, soften, carry.

And when these patterns run long enough without awareness, the body eventually begins to pay for it.

👇

That’s exactly why I created this bumper TWO DAY live experience:
THE EMPATH PATTERN: Why You Feel Responsible for Everyone.

Across these two evenings, we’ll be unpacking the deeper emotional and psychological dynamics underneath emotional over-responsibility and chronic emotional carrying.

👉 DAY 1 will help you understand the empath pattern itself - why your nervous system functions the way it does, why boundaries can feel emotionally loaded, and why some people absorb the emotional weight of the world so intensely.

👉 DAY 2 focuses on healing emotional over-functioning and beginning to build healthier emotional separation, steadier nervous system functioning, and self-honouring patterns.

This is not surface-level conversation. This is deep emotional and nervous-system work for the people who have spent years carrying more than they realised.

✨ Dates: 17 & 18 June @ 6pm SAST
✨ Replays + downloadable notes included if you cannot attend live

✨ Early bird investment is currently open at: $66 USD / R1075

No coupon code is required - the discounted investment is already applied at checkout.

You can reserve your place here:
https://tinyurl.com/empath-patterns

I think many people are going to hear themselves in this experience in ways they never expected.

With love,
Naomi 💛

26/05/2026

I have been head-down over the last few weeks putting this together for you as I've received SO many messages about this particular topic, and here it is-

Over the years, I have worked with thousands of people who carry an extraordinary amount emotionally.

People who walk into a room and immediately feel the emotional atmosphere shift inside their own body.

People who overthink conversations for days.

People who carry tension they cannot explain.

People who feel emotionally responsible for keeping everyone else okay.

People who absorb stress, pressure, conflict, disappointment, grief, anger, and emotional chaos without even realising they are doing it.

Many of these people have spent years believing they are simply “too sensitive.”

What I have found is that there is often a much deeper pattern underneath it.

A pattern of emotional over-functioning.
Hyper-vigilance.
People-pleasing.
Internal pressure.
Nervous system exhaustion.
Slowly disconnecting from yourself while trying to hold everyone else together.

And honestly, I think many people are quietly exhausted from carrying far more emotional weight than they were ever meant to.

I've been head-down building and creating this and decided to present it as a bumper TWO DAY live experience:
THE EMPATH PATTERN: Why You Feel Responsible for Everyone

💡 DAY 1 - Understanding The Empath Pattern
We'll explore the deeper psychology and nervous system dynamics behind empathy and emotional over-responsibility.

💡 DAY 2 - Healing Emotional Over-Functioning
We'll focus on healthier emotional functioning, emotional separation, and practical tools for self-honouring.

Dates: 17 & 18 June @ 6pm SAST

👉 Replay recordings + downloadable replay notes included

Over these two evenings, I'll be unpacking the deeper psychological, emotional, relational, and nervous-system patterns that sit underneath emotional over-responsibility and chronic emotional carrying.

We'll explore things like:
• emotional absorption and emotional contagion
• hypervigilance and nervous system sensitivity
• why boundaries feel difficult or guilt-inducing
• emotional burnout and chronic overwhelm
• people-pleasing and over-functioning
• the “fix-it” pattern
• emotional responsibility and relational labour
• healthier emotional separation and self-honouring
• practical nervous-system-informed tools for steadier emotional functioning

This experience is for the people who are deeply empathetic and deeply tired.

The people functioning well outwardly while quietly overwhelmed underneath.

The people who have spent years trying to hold everyone else together while slowly abandoning themselves in the process.

And my hope is that these two evenings give you language, clarity, self-awareness, and a far healthier understanding of what your nervous system has actually been carrying for years.

👇

EARLY BIRD PRICING IS NOW OPEN
For a limited time, the investment has been reduced to:
$66 USD / R1075 (Early bird pricing ends 7 June.)

✨ You do not need a coupon code - the discounted pricing is already applied directly through the checkout and you can grab your seat here: https://tinyurl.com/empath-patterns

If you cannot attend live, you will still receive full replay access and downloadable notes afterward.

See you there! 💛

18/05/2026

Lately, I’ve found myself sitting in some very interesting rooms.

Rooms filled with conversations about leadership, organisational health, communication, emotional wellbeing, burnout, stress, team dynamics, culture, and what it actually takes for human beings to function well together under pressure.

To be honest… I think something in me has known for a long time that this work was coming.

Over the past few weeks especially, I’ve had the privilege of speaking at schools, in leadership spaces, and organisations that genuinely care about the humans inside their systems.

Not just productivity.
Not just performance.
But people.

People who are tired.
People carrying pressure.
People trying to lead well while overwhelmed themselves.
People trying to build healthier ways of communicating, relating, functioning and working together.

And the more rooms I step into, the more convinced I become that nervous systems are quietly shaping far more of our workplaces, leadership spaces, relationships, and lives than most people realise.

The truth is:
many people are still in survival mode.

I don’t think enough people fully appreciate the impact the last ~6 years have had on human beings psychologically, emotionally, relationally and physically.

Many nervous systems never fully recalibrated.
Many people never properly recovered.
Many teams are functioning while exhausted underneath the surface.

And I think this is one of the reasons my Radical Reclamation program has impacted people so deeply.

Full disclosure: This 30-day experience was a HUGE experiment for me. I had never run something quite like this before.

And WOW-

The level of honesty.
The breakthroughs.
The self-awareness.
The courage.
The pattern interruption happening inside that group already has been extraordinary to witness.

What’s been most meaningful for me is not perfection or performance from people.

It’s watching human beings become more honest with themselves.
More aware.
More connected.
More willing to stop abandoning themselves.

The feedback has been both deeply humbling and incredibly affirming.

Because I think people are hungry for spaces where they can actually understand themselves differently- not just intellectually, but practically, relationally and emotionally in real time.

At the same time, I’ve also been quietly building and stepping further into organisational and leadership work in ways that feel incredibly aligned.

And over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more about some of the spaces, organisations, projects and conversations I’ve had the privilege of being invited into recently.

Some of them have honestly blown my mind a little.

There is something very powerful about watching organisations intentionally invest in healthier communication, stronger leadership, emotional intelligence, staff wellbeing, and the relational health of their teams.

That kind of care matters.

And then - because apparently life enjoys keeping things interesting 😅 - my book BOUNCE: How to Raise Resilient Kids and Teens marks ~10 weeks to GLOBAL release in audio, Kindle and print format.

Which means for everyone who has messaged me over the years asking:
“Will I be able to get this in the UK?”
“In Australia?”
“In the US?”

…the answer is finally YES.

Watch this space over the next few weeks for official release details and unboxing... because BOUNCE got a little makeover too! 😬

Big things are happening.
Quietly.
Steadily.
Meaningfully.

I’m deeply grateful to be in the rooms I’m finding myself in lately.

THIS... is the BECOMING.

With love,
Naomi 💛

15/05/2026

I have sat in rooms with smart people, good products, capable leaders and genuinely ambitious goals.

And still, something in the organisation felt heavy.

It is interesting how often the issue isn’t lack of talent.
It is relationship strain.

Conversations that should have happened earlier.
Feedback that has been softened so much it no longer helps.
Trust that has thinned quietly over time.

People working alongside one another while slowly becoming less honest, less connected, less able to navigate pressure well together.

👉 This is one of the reasons I keep saying that relationships are the currency of business.

I mean that in the most practical sense possible.

Because the quality of working relationships shows up everywhere.

It shows up in how quickly things get resolved. In how safe people feel raising concerns.

In how honestly leaders communicate.
In whether teams can move through tension without becoming fractured by it.
In whether people still have enough trust and goodwill left when things get hard.

I think we sometimes underestimate how much a business depends on the relational maturity of the people inside it.

The ability to communicate clearly.
The willingness to keep growing.
The steadiness to build trust over time.

And yes, the chemistry that allows people to still feel human with each other while doing demanding work.

None of this is fluffy.

It is the difference between a team that only looks good in calm seasons and a team that can hold itself together when the pressure arrives.

This is why I’m increasingly drawn to working inside organisations and leadership spaces.

The relational health of a team affects far more than morale.

It affects performance, retention, decision-making, resilience and the day-to-day experience of work itself.

If you’re leading a team or heading up an organisation and this conversation feels timely, my DMs are there for you to drop into.

13/05/2026

Most workplace problems are not actually performance problems.

They’re nervous system problems.

In early 2025, I was invited into an organisation to facilitate conversations around culture, communication, and the integration of company values across teams.

On paper, it sounded fairly straightforward.

Values.
Alignment.
Leadership.
Organisational development.

Important work, of course.

But what struck me almost immediately was that underneath every conversation about performance, communication, or culture… there were quieter questions sitting beneath the surface.

Questions people were not always asking directly.

But questions their nervous systems were asking all the same-

- Do I feel safe here?
- Can I trust what is communicated?
- Do I know where I stand?
- Can I speak honestly?
- Can I think clearly inside this environment?

Because here’s what I continue seeing across leadership spaces, teams, schools, businesses, and organisations of every kind:

Human beings cannot consistently function at their highest capacity when they are operating in prolonged states of stress, uncertainty, fear, overwhelm, or survival.

And yet so many workplaces unknowingly normalise exactly that.

We often assume poor communication is a communication problem.

👉 Sometimes it’s a nervous system problem.

We assume people are disengaged.
Meanwhile they are exhausted.

We assume someone is underperforming.
Meanwhile their cognitive load is so high they cannot access clear thinking consistently anymore.

And this is where organisational work becomes deeply fascinating to me.

Because once you begin understanding the human beings inside the system - not just the strategy, structure, or KPIs - entirely different conversations begin opening up.

Better leadership conversations.
Better communication.
Better relational dynamics.
Better self-awareness.
Better capacity for sustainable performance.

Not through fear, pressure or through “motivating people harder.”

Through understanding what actually allows humans to function well together.

What was so encouraging in this particular organisation was the willingness to listen honestly.

To ask difficult questions.
To look underneath the obvious layer.

And I think that matters enormously.

Because the healthiest organisations are not the ones pretending humans don’t have nervous systems.

They are the ones learning how to lead with greater awareness of them.

This is the direction more and more of my work is moving toward now - helping organisations, leadership teams, schools, and businesses create healthier, more sustainable ways of functioning from the inside out.

And not only large corporates.

Some of the most meaningful work happens inside smaller businesses with leaders who genuinely care about their people and understand that healthy humans build healthy organisations.

I currently have availability to work with a limited number of organisations and teams through workshops, facilitated conversations, leadership development, and nervous-system-informed organisational support.

If this conversation resonates with the kind of environment you’re trying to build, please feel free to pop me a DM.

Naomi 💛

12/05/2026

Exactly one year later today and I still wholeheartedly believe this is THE best surgical team EVER!

Dr Neil Moodley (Specialist Surgeon), Dr Alistair Paterson (Anesthetist) and Dr Claudine Lee (Assisting GP). Forever grateful to these WOW professionals and just all-round incredible humans.

It makes ALL the difference to healing when, as a patient, you are truly seen, heard and valued as a human being first- not just a file number.

The care I received on every level was just remarkable. My phenomenal physio frequently tells me that even after decades of her work with Breast Cancer patients, the work Neil did remains aesthetically some of the best that she’s ever seen.

And here’s why I believe that: When he meets a patient, he sees the human being… He takes their entire life into consideration. Not just the moments in the surgery room. He really, really cares. Just like Alistair. Just like Claudine.

To every medical practitioner who sees the “more than” side of patients…
It matters… so much…
You matter.
Thank you ❤️

11/05/2026

A few weeks ago, someone said to me regarding my space, my decisions, and some of the life choices I’ve made lately:

“But other women who have been through this are…”

I didn’t react.
I didn’t respond.
I took a breath and let it pass...

(Because honestly, ignorance isn’t worth getting riled up about…)

But I did start thinking…

About journeys.
About grief.
About healing.
About how easy it is to quietly measure someone else’s life against what we think SHOULD be happening by now.

But the truth is…
Even when two journeys look similar from the outside…
They never really are.

No two nervous systems are the same.
No two losses are the same.
No two marriages, diagnoses, heartbreaks, traumas, childhoods, capacities, support systems, or stories are the same.

No two anything’s are truthfully the same…

There is no textbook of “Perfect ways to journey life.” (And even if there was- I reckon it would be rather boring!)

Healing is not maths.
It’s not linear.
It’s not neat.

You have to walk at its pace and in the direction it wants to take you…

You have to honour where and how it leads you…

Yet, so often as humans we toss about these words… these thoughts… these blind-folded opinions:

“She should be further by now.”
“He should be over it already.”
“They should have bounced back.”

We judge,
we compare,
we comment on paths our feet have never touched…

My friends, if you’ve ever felt on the receiving end of a “should be”, here’s your reminder:

Whether your journey is healing…
Or growth…
Or rebuilding…
Or becoming…

There is no timeline.

Not for grief.
Not for clarity.
Not for becoming who you are after life cracks you open…

Whether you’ve rebuilt quickly.
Whether you’ve disappeared into the woods for a while.
Whether you’ve reinvented everything.
Or whether you’ve simply survived for longer than anyone realised…

ALL.OF.IT.IS.VALID.

And if en route-

You take dozens of wild and chaotic detours,

You fall flat on your forehead and land up with a dust covered face,

You’ve had to stop to breathe more times than you’ve expected,

Your path looks nothing like other people thought it should…

THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.

Life is meant to be walked YOUR way.
In YOUR time.

You do you.
Unashamedly.
Unapologetically.
As wildly as you need to.

And one last thing:

If anyone makes you feel like you should be anywhere other than exactly where you are on your journey right now, remember:

You’re not required to shrink your becoming to make anyone else more comfortable with your timeline.

Trust the perfect timing of the version of you that’s still unfolding…

In all its tangled, raw, unfiltered messiness-
It’s beautiful.

With love always,
Naomi ❤️

06/05/2026

After my year of “unexpecteds” last year, many people have been asking me what I actually DO nowadays…

Well, still all I have done and passionately loved, but with a few exciting additions…

You see, over the past few years, my work has slowly begun expanding beyond the therapy room in ways I’ve found deeply meaningful. Actually- totally energizing and soul- filing.

What started as conversations around anxiety, stress, burnout, emotional regulation, relationships, and human behaviour has increasingly opened doors into schools, leadership spaces, teams, and organisations wanting to better understand the humans inside their systems.

And truthfully… I think this shift has been coming for a long time.

Because while I care deeply about individual healing, I’m also incredibly interested in what happens collectively:

inside workplaces,
inside leadership,
inside high-pressure environments,
inside cultures where people are expected to perform while quietly dysregulated, exhausted, disconnected, or overwhelmed.

And I’m seeing A LOT of this…

And leaning into my decades of enthusiastic discovery of all things related to neuroscience and human functioning, the reality is this:

Stress impacts communication.

Anxiety impacts leadership.

Burnout impacts decision-making.

Nervous systems shape entire workplaces whether organisations acknowledge it or not.

Frightening truth BUT when you understand this and have the tools, it’s also extremely empowering to know.

I 100% believe we are moving into a time where emotional intelligence, psychological safety, self-awareness, communication, and nervous system literacy are no longer optional skills in leadership spaces.

They are essential.

Let me say that again:

THESE ARE ESSENTIAL LEADERSHIP SKILLS.

So alongside my existing work, I’m becoming increasingly available for:

corporate speaking
leadership and executive development
facilitated workshops and conversations
stress and burnout education
communication and team dynamic work
nervous system-informed leadership development

I’ll definitely continue my work with schools, speaking, and parts of my practice although more selectively moving forward.

But I’m absolutely loving helping organisations create healthier, more sustainable ways of leading, communicating, and functioning as humans.

This is work that not only changes entire organizations, but because of the depth of it, the impact extends to every family member of every employee.

If this resonates, or you know of a company exploring this kind of work - reach out and send me a DM.

Naomi 🤍

05/05/2026

I looked down at my watch in the kitchen this morning.

It was exactly 9:06am.

The exact minute, one year ago, everything changed.

A moment forever etched into my memory…

My phone rang 24 minutes before I was due to give the first of three presentations that day.

I answered, not knowing that in the very next breath, life as I knew it would split clean open…

“It’s cancer.”

And just like that-
That “she” was gone…

The version of me who had lived almost 48 years in a certain world, with a certain story,
a certain sense of safety and continuity…

Gone in the shortest two-word sentence.

I said goodbye to her without ceremony.
No warning.
No preparation.

Just… a door closing.

And another one – uninvited, unfamiliar, unimaginable – opening…

And I had no choice, but to step through it.

To walk into a chapter I never would’ve chosen.

But one I had to learn how to survive…

Early this morning, I stood outside with my coffee.

Cold drops of rain on my skin
The most exquisite sunrise breaking through it all.

And I found myself thinking…

How many times in a lifetime are we born?
And how many times do we die?

Not physically.

But in all the quieter, invisible ways.

The endings no one holds funerals for.
The versions of us, we outgrow, lose, shed, or have taken from us.

The identities that dissolve.
The certainties that collapse
The lives we thought we’d live…
That we don’t.

We speak so much about THE birth.
THE death.

But the truth is -
We live a thousand of them.

A thousand endings.
A thousand beginnings

Moments when something in us closes…
And something else, often trembling, and so-far-from-ready, begins.

Some of those crossings we choose.
And some… choose us.

Some we walk towards with courage.

And some we are dragged through- kicking, feather-filled and disorientated, trying to find solid ground again.

But maybe this is the work of being human.

Not holding onto every version of ourselves, as if it defines us forever…

But learning, again, and again, to release what we can no longer carry.

To let parts of us die.

So that something else – something we don’t yet fully understand – can be born.

Today, I honour her.

The version of me who didn’t always know what was coming.

Who lived lightly in ways I didn’t even realize- even when it felt heavy.

Who trusted a future that hadn’t yet been rewritten.

And I honour this version too.

The one standing here now.

Changed.
Cracked open.

More aware.
More alive in some ways…
And more tender in others.

Maybe growth isn’t one big transformation.

Maybe it’s this:

A thousand quiet deaths.
A thousand brave beginnings.

And the willingness-
No matter how hard, raw and tender the process…
To keep stepping through the door anyway.

With love and gentle honouring,
Naomi ❤️

30/04/2026

I’M DONE.

These were words I heard from an incredible human sitting on my therapy couch yesterday, and I have to be honest - I got goosebumps.

Because those are words I have said myself before.
And those are some of my favourite words to hear.

Not because they come from defeat.
But because they come from truth.
From clarity.
From the moment someone can no longer tolerate the way they have been living.
From the moment they recognise their own worth enough to stop abandoning themselves.
From the moment they finally, deeply realise:

this is not how my story gets to continue.

There is so much power in the words, ‘I’m done.’

I’m done with self-abandonment.
I’m done with the patterns that leave me feeling not good enough.
I’m done with the exhaustion.
I’m done with the burnout.
I’m done with shrinking.

I’m done with old versions of me that no longer fit.

I’m done with circling the same pain and calling it normal.

I’m done with refusing myself the joy, freedom, truth, and fullness that life is asking me to receive.

Because the truth is: until we can say ‘I’m done’ to what is past, we are often not fully available for what is next.

Radical Reclamation is about that moment.

The moment where something in you rises and says-
NO MORE.

No more betraying myself to stay comfortable.
No more carrying what has already expired.
No more staying loyal to patterns that cost me my peace, my aliveness, my self-trust, my joy.

And what I need you to know is this-

What waits on the other side of ‘I’m done’ is not emptiness.
It is not loss.
It is not selfishness.

It is freedom.
It is relief.
It is self-return.
It is truth.
It is energy.
It is possibility.
It is the joy that becomes available when you stop living in opposition to yourself.

For some of you, saying ‘I’m done’ will be the first time you have ever truly put yourself in the position to receive more - without guilt, without apology, without making yourself wrong for wanting a deeper, fuller, more honest life.

And that is not selfish.

That is powerful.

If you are done - truly done - with the patterns, protections, identities, and cycles that are no longer serving you…

If you are ready to stop rehearsing the past and start meeting yourself differently…

If you are ready for a new season…

Radical Reclamation begins tomorrow- a potent group space for shedding old patterns, reclaiming yourself, and moving into your next season with clarity and intention.

If you’re ready for growth and transformation, (and I get that not everyone is- but if you are) here’s the link:

✨https://naomiholdt.thrivecart.com/radical-reclamation/

And if something in you is reading this and whispering (or screaming) YES! - then come join us.

Because ‘I’m done’ is not the end.

It is the beginning.

With love and SO ready for the journey,
Naomi ❤️💃

Address

Hilton
3245

Opening Hours

Monday	08:00 - 17:00
Tuesday	09:00 - 16:00
Wednesday	09:00 - 16:00
Thursday	09:00 - 16:00
Friday	09:00 - 16:00

Telephone

073 585 4672

Website

https://naomi-holdt.shopstar.co.za/, https://naomiholdt.com/what-the-actual-canary/, https://naomiholdt.com/

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