Healing journeys into the depths
Somatic Psychotherapy - Inner Relationship Focusing - Nature Therapy - School of Awareness - Blue Mountains
Welcome, traveller
My name is Rob Engels. I’m a PACFA-certified somatic psychotherapist, ecotherapist and somatic focusing teacher based in Leura, in the beautiful Blue Mountains. I specialise in trauma-informed awareness practices that dissolve the root causes of suffering in the body to liberate the freedom, authenticity and wholeness that is rightfully yours.
As a somatic therapist, my work runs deep. It goes beyond the surface layer of stories, inviting you into an experiential, embodied understanding of your core patterns so that you can tend and safely heal them. Using powerful somatic tools, I help you retrieve and resolve unconscious programming that traditional talk therapy can struggle to address.
With post-graduate qualifications in holistic psychotherapy, I meet you exactly where you are. All parts of you are welcome and all energies are given safe space for exploration. From depression, anxiety, grief, addiction, trauma, and shame, to feelings of not belonging, not being enough or being unlovable, the medicine you long for can be found right there within you. This is the alchemy of somatic work: a new frontier in therapy, which moves us far beyond deficiency stories and shame-based identities into a living, dynamic understanding of ourselves, our relationships, and our world.
As an eco therapist and deep ecologist, I also support people to slow down and heal in nature and to cultivate a deep, embodied sense of belonging to the earth. This work frame-shifts us out of the illusion of separation into an ecological identity where we remember ourselves as part of nature, embedded in the web of life. At the dawn of the sixth mass extinction, this represents a form of radical activism, rekindling a profound love of - and desire to protect - this one wild and precious earth.
And as a certified meditation teacher and Somatic Focusing facilitator, I help you cultivate relationship to states of deep inner rest, clarity, and creativity. From building a beginner mindfulness practise to fostering relationship with inner transpersonal dimensions of your being, the body is the doorway into the depths of you.
My deepest passion is to equip people with life-long tools to do their own deep healing work. Tools that give them agency to turn towards, tend and heal even the deepest and most challenging issues that are invariably rooted in the body. To this end, I founded the School of Awareness, a non-secular space that combines nature therapy, mindfulness and deep somatic work for healing, insight and growth.
Do you want to go deeper in your healing journey?
Many of my clients have felt frustrated by traditional talk therapy or surface-level practises that do not seem to get to the heart of the issues that trouble them.
With qualifications in both holistic psychotherapy, which embraces the whole person, and specialist somatic therapy, which goes deep into the body, I offer approaches that bridge mind, body, and soul. Offering a more direct and three dimensional path to healing.
How can I help?
Heal old trauma
Drawing on polyvagal theory, somatic therapy starts and ends with slowness and gentleness. It teaches you how to map and regulate your nervous system, working with symptoms of freeze, flight and fight in daily life. Ultimately I work with you to build a safe container to witness, compassionately turn towards and heal the parts of you that were split off through traumatic experience.
Inner child & parts work
Early family of origin wounds are carried by the inner child and the family of inner parts. Maybe you suffered abuse, felt unloved, unheard, abandoned or unseen. Inner child and parts work creates a nurturing environment where you learn to come into relationship with the wounded, orphaned and self-critical places within you so they can be held, healed, and called home. This includes working with the inner critic and its weapons of judgement, criticism and shame.
Depression & anxiety
Depression and anxiety are symptoms of deeper processes wanting to happen. Using somatic inquiry tools and inner-relationship processes, I guide you into the embodied experience of these states, so that you can hold, hear and heal the parts of you residing there, liberating the wisdom that they are holding. This combination of compassionate inquiry and deep listening ultimately dissolves the energy of depression and anxiety in the body.
Addiction & emotional repression
The roots of addiction and compulsion lie deep in the unconscious recesses of the body and mind. This makes them almost impossible to address using talk therapy alone. Using pioneering new somatic inquiry tools, and a packaged mentorship model, I show you how to unearth and dissolve these deep programs - and the fabric of repressed emotions that underpin them. This helps you move - beyond addiction into emotional freedom on your journey to recovery.
Loneliness & not belonging
As a nature therapist and somatic focusing teacher, I draw on my own traumatising experiences of loneliness and not belonging, helping you find ways to reconnect to yourself, to the earth and the more than human world. Through nature-connection and deep-ecology practises, awareness meditation and deep self-inquiry, this can yield a richer sense of being at home in yourself and in the world
Mindfulness & transpersonal growth
Drawing on contemporary soulcraft practices, meditation teacher training and modern somatic spirituality, I help you cultivate relationship with the transpersonal dimensions of your being: soul, spirit, and earth. This work is broad in scope: from building a meditation practice and learning the art of Somatic Focusing to exploring your life purpose, building a felt sense of belonging to the earth and cultivating an embodied connection to the sacred dimensions of Being through the body.
LEARN SOMATIC ECOTHERAPY
LEARN SOMATIC ECOTHERAPY
PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT: SOMATIC ECOTHERAPY TRAINING
September 4
9 months online
Early bird discount ends: August 4th
Next intro talk: August 7th
Join me this September at Metavision Institute to learn two profoundly powerful tools to self heal and cultivate a deeper sense of wholeness: Somatic Focusing and Nature Therapy.
By the end of the program, you’ll be equipped to work more deeply on your own inner wounds and stuck places, know how to connect to the incredible intelligence and healing capacity of the body, and will have a range of skills to lead yourself and others as a nature and forest therapy guide.
Ways of Working With Me
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Holistic Psychotherapy
Trauma-informed, whole-of-person integrative work tailored to your individual needs and aspiration
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Somatic Therapy
Deep somatic therapeutic work that heals the unconscious drivers of suffering stored in your body. Work with inner wounded parts, heal old trauma, get to the root of the issue in a way that talk therapy can’t
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Learn Somatic Focusing
A powerful somatic tool for self healing, growth, creativity and insight. Have a Somatic Focusing session with me or give yourself a gift for life and learn how to do it on your own:
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Addiction & Repression
Specialist somatic mentorship packages teaching you how to dissolve the unconscious programming underlying issues such as addiction, compulsion, trauma, attachment wounds, chronic pain, anxiety & depression
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Nature Therapy
Ecotherapy, deep ecology and earth-based listening in wild places. Heal and find deep rest in nature, tend your inner wounded parts, gain perspective and remember your deep belonging to the earth and the more than human word
BOOK A SESSION WITH ME
I’m honoured that you’re considering me to be your therapist.
Here’s how you can take the next step:
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS: You’re welcome to book in a free 15min discovery call with me via Zoom. That way we can say hello, you can tell me a little bit about what you’re looking for from therapy, and you can ask me any questions about my approach.
IF YOU’RE READY TO BOOK A SESSION: Choose what kind of service you’re seeking from me and then book using the form on the right. For convenience, I have clustered all 1hr Holistic Psychotherapy, Somatic Therapy and Focusing sessions under the same booking type as they are the same price. You can then let me know at the start of the session what service you are looking for.
Holistic psychotherapy & Counselling, Somatic Therapy, and Somatic Focusing sessions are all $160 for the hour, and can be conducted face to face at my clinic in Leura or via Zoom on Thursdays and Fridays. Bookings are made either by paying a deposit of $40 or paying in full. If paying by deposit, balances are due within 24hrs of the session completing. Please note, the deposit is non-refundable for sessions cancelled within 48hrs of the session starting.
Addiction and Emotional Repression work is offered via two specialist mentorship packages of sessions that can be redeemed and scheduled at a pace that suits you. Start by purchasing Package 1 and then redeem the four sessions at a pace that suits you. Package 1 must be completed before booking Package 2. If purchasing a package is a financial barrier for you, get in touch by email below and we can discuss a payment plan.
PREFER TO MAKE CONTACT BY EMAIL? Get in touch here
PLEASE NOTE:
I don’t work with couples
I am unable to accept the Mental Health Plan
I do work with NDIS clients
You can cancel or reschedule up to 48-hours prior to your session without incurring a cancellation fee. Within 48-hours the full fee is incurred
Acknowledgement of Country
I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which I work, breathe and wander, the Dharug, Gundungurra and Wiradjuri people. I recognise their continued connection to the land and waters, and acknowledge that they never ceded sovereignty. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging, to the lineage of nature-based wisdom they steward and to the dreaming they embody.
