About
Nina Isabella
Holistic Counselling, is a natural progression following two decades of compassionately supporting women and gender diverse folk through their fundamental life transitions as mamashanti.
I am a mama; yogini; birth attendant and somatic pelvic floor practitioner. Moving and breathing with hundreds of women since 2005 for enhanced fertility; peaceful pregnancy; positive birth; nourished postpartum; inspired parenting; healthful and vital menopause and through it all - lifelong pelvic floor integrity.
In moving through careers from landscape architecture to establishing mamashanti in 2005 and now as the Womanly Counsellor, the unifying thread has been my abiding commitment to honouring the common humanity of my clients.
What I can bring to support you in your process, is the warmth of intuitive therapeutic presence that I have honed for the past 25 years of being in service to hundreds of birthing women and their partners. Bearing witness to the raw and magnificent vulnerability of humanity time and time again, has opened me to the healing that can be experienced when one is held in another's unconditional positive regard.
A Lifetime of
Lived Experience &
Professional Development
I bring breadth of professional perspective and depth of life experience. I have experienced the ache of thwarted fertility; the anguish of prolonged misdiagnosed conditions - PCOS (10+years) and endometriosis (25+ years); living with chronic pain and inflammation and the impacts on my sense of self, self-purpose and self-worth.
I am grateful to have been supported through my significant life transitions, career changes and health challenges. I've mined the gold hiding in the depths of these experiences and have arrived to be of service.
My counselling practice is inclusive, trauma informed and person-centred, this means I regard you as sovereign - the expert in your life and circumstances. I will meet you where you are with empathy; offering wholehearted connection; supported by evidence based, culturally sensitive counselling and psychotherapeutic interventions to support you to love living in your beautiful skin.
Qualified & Registered
Australian Counselling Association
Registered Counsellor L2
Yoga Australia
Registered Senior Yoga Teacher L3
​
Master of Counselling
University of Canberra
As Well As......
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture
University of Canberra
Bachelor of Applied Science - Environmental Design
University of Canberra
Advanced Diploma of Yoga Teaching 1000hr+
Australian Institute of Yoga Therapy
Certificate IV Workplace Assessment Training Melbourne College of Advanced Education
Certificate IV Small Business Management
RMIT University
​
and because I am a constant gardener to my personal and professional development, here's a bit more of what I've been up to:
​
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Russ Harris, ACT Mindfully
LGBTIQA+ Inclusive Practice Training
Victoria State Government Health; Sunbury Cobaw Community Health; WayOut; Healthy Equal Youth; & Country LGBTIQ+ Inclusion Program
Basic Skills in Perinatal Mental Health
Centre of Perinatal Excellence
Abortion, Contraception & Sexual Health: Supporting Client Access
Women’s Health Victoria
Post Abortion Practice & Counselling
Children By Choice
Protecting Vulnerable Children & Responding to Vulnerability
Victoria State Gov Dept Health
Death Doula Training
Denise Love - Life Options Training
Awakened Woman - Conscious Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training
Ramadasa Institute
Professional Application Course
Liz Koch - Core Awareness
Certified BirthSkills™ for Mind; Body & Baby Practitioner
Dr Shari Read - BirthSkills™ for Mind; Body & Baby
Birth Attendant Training Course
Rhea Dempsey Birthing Wisdom
Childbirth Educator Training Course for Health Professionals
National Association of Childbirth Educators
Yoga for Pregnancy Teacher Training
Samadhi Yoga
​
I continue to pursue specialist training and personal research to enrich my capacity to mindfully support women through their life transitions.
Training includes - somatic awareness; applied polyvagal theory; Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupressure, shiatsu, reiki.