about me
Hello! I'm Adeline (she/her)
I’m a highly sensitive person who has loved going inwards ever since I was a child.
“I’M INDEPENDENT” I protected myself by entering a bubble of books, nature, and serenity, unconsciously, disconnected from the world of my family and friends. I believed I was happy being the listening ear for friends, and that I didn’t need sustained love from others.
ANXIETY & HYPERVIGILANCE At 24, the illusion shattered. I realised I had been living a lie for a decade, denying my need for connection. I began opening up to receiving love from others… and found myself inundated with the noise of all the expectations and feelings of society. Everything I thought I knew about myself no longer seemed real, and anxiety, burnout and compassion fatigue became my norm.
PERFECTIONISM Soon after, I began training as a counsellor. It fulfilled a lifelong desire to do work that felt both satisfying and deeply meaningful – for the first time, something truly mattered to me. Despite just getting started, I wanted to be amazing at this work; nothing less felt acceptable. My perfectionism went through the roof, and my self-esteem hit an all-time low.
I never felt good enough, patient enough, or deserving enough.
I was constantly running, and constantly exhausted.
So many parts of my childhood bubble had sustained me for years – journalling, singing, wandering quietly outdoors. I had also started meditating, and then practising yoga, in my early twenties. But as everything seemed to reinforce my sense of not-enoughness, they grew increasingly distant from my life.
Around this time, I found EFT by accident. Very skeptical but curious, I attended a group tapping circle… then took up an extended training… and began seeing an EFT practitioner.
To my big surprise, tapping worked.
I felt my emotional intensity fall as I tapped. Aches and pains shifted themselves to different parts of my body as I tapped, evidence of psychosomatic issues. With the support of EFT, I pinpointed specific events that had shaped my need to be independent, and my fear of showing up only to reveal my weaknesses to others. I found myself letting go of events that had distressed me for a long time.
As I grew to love my inner child...
... I became increasingly dedicated to working with children.
The starting point was teaching in a special education school, where I worked with children with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, and other disabilities. Their no-holds-barred honesty sometimes hurt, but also impressed and touched me.
I began recognising that children spoke a different language. One filtered not by words and cognition, but via play and actions.
This lesson continued to repeat itself. Week after week, the kids I led in forest school showed me the power of becoming confident and resilient at their own pace, supported by a nurturing environment. Similarly, my piano kids could not be rushed in growing their love for the instrument, but they could and were stifled when pressured. When I shifted focus back to fostering their personal connection and respecting their uniqueness, they softened and blossomed.
When I completed specialist training in child-centred play therapy, all the pieces fell into place. The set of skills to support children in a clinical setting are different, but the underlying principles remain the same. Respect, nurture, trust – and the evidence shows that these are effective at making the change we seek for our children.
An ongoing process...
I'm commited to serve and to keep growing.
PGDip Counselling Psychology
Master of Counselling
Advanced Clinical Training, Child Centred Play Therapy (Australia)
Accredited Certified EFT Practitioner
I continue to undertake supervision with one of the longest-standing leaders in the field of child-centred play therapy, Dr. Bill Nordling.
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