My planned workshop TAP into your Calm for Sunday 29 March has been rescheduled. This workshop was created to assist teens and young people to manage anxiety and to tap into calm.
The more I spoke with people about the content of this one day workshop, which includes:
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT or Tapping)
- Energy protection and breath work
- Yoga and meditation
The more I started getting questions coming in by email, text as well as instant messages “Can you do this for primary aged kids?” “What about preschool kids?” and then “Can you run this workshop for adults?” I began to realise that even though they are strategies I wanted young people to know, and ones I wish I knew as a young person, they are relevant to all ages.
Then Corona Virus happened and I was forced to rethink how to deliver this program. For now the workshop is on hold, and I am hoping to deliver it to all of these age groups when the safety of everyone can be assured.
In my everyday sessions with clients, I refer to these techniques often. They are useful across all age groups and effective in the workplace as well as at home. I have also started working with a wonderful aromatherapist from Remedy Room who has created a roll-on essential oil blend for my clients called Calm the Farm which sold out within a few days. The need to maintain calm and stop panicking has hit crisis point. Not only for us as individuals, but as families, friends, in the workplace and globally.
I’ve put together a few resources for this workshop which I have now posted on the workshop page on my website under the tab services. You can follow this link to find them. There are some yoga poses for calm courtesy of the Remote Yogi, an EFT sheet to take you through tapping for big emotions, as well as a 10 point checklist to calm.
I am available by mobile and Face-time for individuals and couples counselling as well as Skype. M:0402 329 259. Please leave a message if I am on a call or email me on info@rachelwilkinson.com.au
When you are out and about, be kind to retail staff, stop buying more than you need and stay home to avoid further pandemic panic.
I have not written any blogs for a while as I’ve been doing all sorts of things. So here’ s a summary, a blog binge, a blinge if you may. A brief overview of what’s been happening with Rachel Wilkinson Counselling now trading as Wello Well.
What happened in 2019?
- Reiki Masters – I completed my Reiki Masters training. I can now initiate Reiki 1, Reiki II and Masters teaching level. Please let me know if any of these appeal to you or friends.
- Yoga for Kids – I completed my Yoga Kids Instructors course – enabling me to teach yoga to Kids, families at schools, day care centres, vacation care etc. Let me know if this is something you are interested in. I’m looking into venues now for an 8 week after school program.
- NDIS counselling – I am an NDIS approved counsellor which means I provide Individual counselling under the Improved daily living provision. This can be a mobile or offered in my clinic.
- Young Mums Connect – Together with Redlands Centre for Women and The Benevolent Society, I help facilitate a first-time mums’ group for young women aged 16 – 25. These weekly sessions come with a clinical health nurse, parenting and mental health support. Contact me for more details or go to https://www.redlandscentreforwomen.com/social-connection-groups/young-parents-connect/
How does 2020 look?
- Teen workshops – I’m going to be delivering workshops targeting bravery and courage for teens. These will run in the Redlands with the goal of empowering young women and providing resources to tap into for peace, calm and centring. There will be some yoga poses thrown in for extra support.
- Counselling for young adults from 11 years+ – Specialised sessions with parents then tailored sessions to work with the child. Specialising in anxiety, panic attacks, family relationships and friendships.
- Employee Assist Programs (EAP) – I will be offering face to face and phone counselling for companies wanting to support and enhance their team’s wellness.
- Intuitive Reiki sessions up to 90 minutes – I invite you to experience rest, connection with guides, messages from your soul and deep healing.
- Radio Work – I’m finally going to realise a dream to complete a DJ course with local radio. If nothing, I can learn to harness my voice, work on projection, enunciation and lulling people to sleep.
- Product – I will be stocking a few trusted items which I use regularly myself and love. I have salt lamps, protective crystals, magnesium spray for aches and pains, magnesium powder for energy and sleep as well as customised aromatherapy blends to roll on. Collaborating with a wonderful aromatherapist I am stocking Teen Spirit, (for anxiety and calm) Sweet Sleep and Goddess Blend (This is actually cranky hormonal bitch blend, but the name doesn’t fit on the label).
- Parenting course – Currently undergoing an 8-week circle of security parenting course delivered by the Benevolent Society. According to my children, I now need to find a cooking course, baking course and how to be less embarrassing course.
Rachel Wilkinson is a counsellor, working with individuals, families, teens, government, community groups and corporations to help them sort their sh!t out.
E: info@rachelwilkinson.com.au M: 0402 329 259
I know the importance of lists. I come from a long line of literate listy types. Currently I have lists in my diary of clients to follow up on, appointments, how many people we have coming for Christmas lunch, how many more squad training sessions until we start again in January, how many more days of school.
On the fridge held fast with magnets from the Orthodontist and Real Estate agent there is a twelve-bullet pointed list written in an 11-year-old hand of the 12 things she wants for Christmas complete with illustrations of elves and a calendar with Dec 25 written on it. Like I would forget. There is also an additional note about why she needs a phone to get all of her friends’ numbers. My 13-year-old has a small square with three items, top of the list simply states money.
I have highlighted things in my diary – get brakes checked THURSDAY @ 10am + rear break light. I’ve circled things like the address for my next yoga teacher training class which is different from last month and Monday day is FREE dress day at school. I also have the obligatory yellow sticky notes in my study, “Don’t forget to give this to Ally next time” on a huge heat/cold pack I ordered in. “Drop these forms in to NDIS to get signed”. I have reminders everywhere this time of year, I also have a chalk board for weekly comings and goings – who is home, what days husband is away, and the schedules.
I also have a rolling mental list to take library books back, pick up some milk, bring camera to Mums’ and Babies group for cute end of year photos, check in with P for coffee on Sunday, wrap presents, set up for Kids’ yoga on Sunday morning.
This time of year there is a lot on. Everyone decides to catch up with each other before the end of the year. Then things happen last minute, my printer runs out of ink, dash to Officeworks, grab a few Kris Kringle gifts and a quick bakery visit, cutting up jam roll roughly pretending I baked it myself for the Year 6 farewell. The shopping for nieces and nephews. I’m fitting in the gym around clients, walking the dog, feeding kids, groceries. I’m trying to justify why I poured a scoop of laundry powder into the dog bowl this morning. Even after my 6.30am meditation to clear my mind and set my focus for the day ahead.
My daughter woke up sick and I used the last bit of compassion I had rousing on her to get back to bed. I then made sure my 13-year-old ate breakfast which consisted of a broken off piece of pretend home-made jam roll. It’s so hot and no one is hungry, and we are all tired and I think that’s when things kind of turned to shit. I was distracted by my sick child, tired teen and then walked into the laundry thinking “I know I came in here for something…” so I scooped the laundry powder into the dog’s bowl. It was only after I saw the white powder in the blue bowl that my brain woke up and I said out loud “That doesn’t quite look right,” I threw the powder into the machine and closed it.
I realised I had become robotic, going about the motions, feeding kids, dog, washing every morning, driving back and forth to school drop off, visiting clients, taking girls to training, grabbing groceries, swimming laps of the pool and really not being mindful about anything, just going through the motions and trying to get everything done before the end. The end of what? The end of the school year, the end of the month, the end of the working year, ticking everything off the list. Even though I often laugh to myself in December and tell people that time isn’t linear and nothing ends in December, we all come back in January and life continues, it kind of does all come crashing to a mad halt in December before everyone falls into holidays.
My client arrived this morning for a chat. I handed her a piece of paper after our session. I found the notepad yesterday a long slender notepad with lines and tick boxes. A whole notepad of potential lists. I told her to put herself at the top and do something nice for herself. I suggested she stop racing around trying to put everyone else first. She nodded and left, patting the dog.
I sat down and sighed. I tore off a page of the notepad and wrote another list. This time it had one word. Me.
Don’t forget in the rush and bustle of the next four weeks and the screeching race to finish school or work for the year, to do something for you. I’m going to make myself a cup of tea now and later I will take the dog for an apologetic walk with lots of extra time to sniff every post.
Ingredients
- 50ml soy milk
- 1 x handful of frozen berries
- 1 x banana
- 1 x tsp LSA mix
- 1 x tsp Acai powder
- 2 tbs yoghurt
Method
Open fridge and scream “Where the hell are the blueberries?” Slam fridge shut. Watch husband slink out the door to work with suspicious container probably harboring the last of my blueberries. Retrieve dirty blender from sink and rinse it off quickly whilst eyeing off the fruit bowl. Swat fruit flies away and cut up the overripe bruised banana nobody wants. Fling Tupperware and random plastic items with no lids around the cupboard muttering “Where the heck is the measuring jug?” and “Who keeps stealing my lids?” Retrieve medicine cup from cough mixture and pour soybean juice into it five times. Apparently 50ml of soy is good for hot flushes. I can’t be bothered with tofu, so the milk is worth a shot. I’m sick of flinging off my cardigan and wrestling with the seat belt at traffic lights four times a day.
I’m grateful for all the strawberries which I have cut up and frozen. I buy them locally to cut down on food miles. Not that it matters much as they travel further to school and back, returning home watery and I’m weird about throwing out food. Add a teaspoon of LSA, I’ve forgotten what it means but I know it does something good and you can’t taste it. Add a teaspoon of Acai powder. I refuse to buy an Acai bowl from a 12-year old kid with high pants and a messy bun at hipster cafes; but secretly I scoff it at home. It has some kind of superpower and rumoured weight loss ability. Do not under any circumstances add kale. I don’t care what it does. It smells like feet, end of story. At least Acai is tasteless and pink. I steer away from green juice at all costs, just in case.
Lastly, I add the sad few watery scrapes left in the container of yoghurt abandoned in the fridge. There is another one open, what the fuck is wrong with people? After blending this to a thick smoothie, I add the finishing touch – a metal straw. Insta-worthy. Seriously, those paper ones disintegrate to mush in a heartbeat, and this is too thick to drink without assistance. After wrangling kids in the morning, feeding the dog, trying to meditate, showering and dressing, doing my two minute makeup routine which consists of forgiving foundation and thick mascara, finding the socks, school shirt, shoes that my children cannot seem to locate even though they are in the same place every time, and packing some kind of lunch, who has time to chew?
Voila. Menopause smoothie. With that 5-star health rating, I should be ready to hoover back some chocolate chip bickies by ten. Enjoy!
Rachel Wilkinson is a Counsellor and writer based in Brisbane. She tries to eat well but occasionally falls headfirst into a baked cheesecake. Approaching 50 she is trying to manage her own hormones, a teen and a preteen, a husband, work and a very naughty sock thieving Cavoodle.
An exciting range of health and wellbeing practitioners will come together to share a space for people of the Redlands to enjoy on Sunday 21 July at the Redlands Multi Sports Club from 10 am – 4 pm.
Rachel Wilkinson is an experienced holistic therapist, trained in counselling, massage and reiki. Drop in to her stall if you would like to discover how counselling, massage or reiki can support you and your family. On offer are 30 minute sessions of each therapy. PM Rachel Wilkinson Counselling via Facebook messenger or email info@rachelwilkinson.com.au to book in your time.
All pre-booked sessions will receive a free gift!
Relax and restore with Reiki
Rachel Wilkinson began working in health and well-being after studying her Diploma in Remedial Massage in 2000. This was closely followed by studies in reiki, shiatsu, parenting and finally a Diploma in Holistic counselling in 2014. She has worked and volunteered in the Redlands for over a decade. Rachel has weekly coffee meetups at The Coconut Coffee House every Tuesday morning from 8.30 am. She is author of the e-book Hell in a Handbag covering a period of her life where she gave up alcohol and continued parenting, working, volunteering and studying! She is a keen reader, yogi, reluctant housewife and has a very naughty Cavoodle.
Come along and meet Rachel and also the wonderful group of healers, body workers, organic stall holders, crystal collectors, candle makers, mystics and phychics at Redlands Multi Sports Club, 30- 40 William St Birkdale from 10am – 4pm.
