Trauma-informed counselling, coaching, clinical hypnotherapy, and nervous system-based approaches for people seeking lasting personal transformation..

For more than thirty years I've been exploring where psychology, the nervous system, contemplative traditions and modern wellness meet. Through personal practice, professional training, and lived experience, I've devoted myself to understanding what allows genuine and lasting transformation to occur.

Over time, I found myself returning to the same questions.

Why do some insights become integrated while others leave us repeating the same patterns?

What allows a new awareness to become embodied rather than simply understood?

And how do we create the conditions that foster us to reconnect with who we truly are?

Those questions continue to shape both my life and my work.

Over the years, that search has taken me through decades of yoga, contemplative practice, nervous system study, counselling, clinical hypnotherapy, and ongoing trauma-informed training. Each perspective has offered a unique way to the same understanding.

Healing is the return to the True Self.

In my work, the nervous system is the gateway to the True Self. 

When we experience real safety and bring curiosity and compassion to the parts of us that suffer, increased awareness can move beyond the mind and into lived and embodied experience. And safety is at the foundation of my work.

I don't believe transformation comes from fixing ourselves to become someone else.

I believe it comes from cultivating the conditions to remember who we are beneath the patterns we've learned in order to maintain attachments, acceptance and survival.

Professional Foundation

The way I work has been shaped by decades of personal practice alongside formal training in counselling, trauma-informed approaches, clinical hypnotherapy, somatic work, yoga, and contemplative traditions.

Each has offered a different lens through which to understand healing, growth, and human experience. Together, they continue to shape both my work and my own path.

Compassionate Inquiry® Mentorship (currently in progress)

Advanced mentorship in Gabor Maté's trauma-informed approach, integrating attachment theory, somatic awareness, and relational inquiry.

Somatic Psychedelic Facilitator Certification
The Embody Lab

50-hour professional training in trauma-informed psychedelic facilitation, emphasizing preparation, integration, nervous system regulation, ethics, and somatic approaches to healing.

Diploma in Professional Counselling
Rhodes Wellness College

Professional training in evidence-based counselling approaches with an emphasis on therapeutic relationship, ethics, communication, and trauma-informed practice.

Diploma in Life Coaching
Rhodes Wellness College

Training in transformational coaching, values-based change, powerful questioning, accountability, and personal development.

Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist (CCH)
Coastal Academy of Hypnotic Arts & Science

Professional certification in clinical hypnotherapy, subconscious change work, regression techniques, and therapeutic hypnosis.

Mental Health, Addiction & Trauma Studies

Specialized professional training in trauma, addiction, mental health, and recovery-informed care.

Yoga Teacher Training (900+ Hours)

More than two decades of study in yoga, meditation, philosophy, breathwork, mindfulness, and embodied awareness.

Testimonials

  • Ishta helped me find the negative core beliefs that started early in my life. I have deepened my self awareness and learned resources to manage my anxiety, doubts and fears. Because of our sessions I am kinder and more compassionate to myself and others. I am able to be more present for my partner and kids. I am beyond grateful for your support on my journey to be a better father, partner and man.

    Dave

  • I did multiple sessions with Ishta to help process some relationship focused issues. Ishta has a super calming energy. Her questions and observations were incredible. I was able to heal a lot of relationship struggles with her support. I highly recommend Ishta. You will love her! Don’t miss this opportunity to work with her.

    Joss

  • Ishta's positive and holistic approach is inspiring. I quickly felt that I could trust Ishta, which helped me openly explore issues that were holding me back. She taught me ways that helped me become aware of my body and mind, and emotions. In short, Ishta helped me become a healthier person.

    James

  • Ishta is a master at holding space. Whether in person or during her powerful online group sessions, she creates an environment of unparalleled safety and trust, allowing me to dive deep into parts of myself I had long neglected. Her presence is grounding, her understanding is profound, and her gift for healing is truly transformative. Through her skillful use of hypnosis and her intuitive guidance, I felt supported every step of the way, even when navigating difficult life experiences. Ishta’s ability to create safety made it possible for me to explore my subconscious and reconnect with my inner wisdom. I’m deeply grateful for the shifts she has helped me create in my life, both in person and online.

    Fleur

  • I have been blessed to find Ishta.. I have worked with a few other therapists and have finally found one I feel completely safe and transparent with on every level. Because of the profound safety I feel in my sessions, I have been able to work through some significant trauma pieces in my life that I have not been able to open until now. I don’t feel alone and Ishta has shared resources that I use all the time that help me as I unlock and release these old tired pieces. As a result I have set healthy boundaries and claimed more peace and freedom in my life. Thank you Ishta for your support and safe space. It means everything to me.

    Bethany

  • Depth. Connection. Discovery. That's a 3 word summary that comes to mind after a year of working with Ishta. I started sessions with Ishta for my wellness but to my surprise it grew far beyond those initial expectations. I discovered my breath here -- breathing into discovered space in the body and the mental and emotional body to make profound connections. My heart is more open than ever. Thank you Ishta.

    Roland

  • I wasn’t ready to move forward with therapy. I wasn’t ready to face the past and the possible emotions that would come with it. But when the time came for it, I would say that it was serendipitous that Ishta came into my life. While suffering a family trauma in late 2023 that had me fly across the country within days it would eventually force me to revisit those childhood traumas that I hadn’t really dealt with. The irony and complexities of the situation were certainly bringing the anger bitterness to the surface. It was that fateful moment when I just happened to open my IG and see a post in her feed, whom I have already been following for a short while, asking if we have a “safe place” to go to when dealing with our trauma. The question was certainly perfect timing. And it almost felt like she was feeling the energies of my trauma, both past and present brewing together, all the way from the West Coast as if she was using Cerebro. I was a little caught off by how the message resonated to that moment but without a second thought I responded that I had no “safe place” and don’t think I ever had. So, with an open tortured mind, an open heart that had been broken at a young age, and with open arms, our journey began. Its been 7 months since then and my sessions with Ishta has been a journey that has been a blessing. My first session I felt closed off and shy but with every session I felt she created an environment that is relaxed, safe to open and share, that resonated with empathy and care. She had me get away from seeking external validation and focus on building validation within. Therapy doesn’t remove the trauma but allows us the tools and safe place to talk about it and work through it. To give us the tools to heal so that we aren’t carrying the weight of that trauma into our futures. And though there is still work to do having Ishta in my corner gives me more hope. She has given me the strength to remember my boundaries and that it’s ok to enforce them, that the right ones would never challenge it. She lets you see that therapy is a “safe place” and to be able to see yourself in a different light, to see the light inside you shines but just needs to shine brighter, the importance of doing the inner work of healing and how important it is to protect that from those who don’t. She had me envision what I want for my future, who I want in it, what I want it to be, how I want it to feel. I know what that is clearly and it is a nurturing place of peace, love, happiness, a home. My place in the sunshine, both internally and externally, that is a safe place. And because that vision is so clear Ishta gives me the tools to build it and protect it from anyone that would compromise the haven within. If you have trauma and looking for a light to shine the way, someone who embodies kindness, and a safe place, I highly recommend her. The journey isn’t easy, it’s not supposed to be, but she can help you build that safe place you need.

    Michele

  • I found Ishta during a difficult and transformative time of my life. I was recently separated from my long time partner and experiencing a lot of distain and negative communication that led to feelings of depression. I was also leading an organization that came with a lot of performance stress and hidden stress that was compounding negatively on my mind and health. Through our one-on-one counselling sessions, I was able to open up and discuss my feelings with her, which is hard for me and something I have never done before. She gave me the support to allow me to search my feelings and understand who I am and what I really wanted out of life. I was able to understand the importance of caring for myself as a priority, set goals to improve myself mentally, and look forward to a new chapter in my life all the while being thankful for the life experience i went through during my difficult time. We also shared the importance of practising our Ingenious ways through prayer and ceremony. I am very grateful for the time I spent with Ishta and now enjoying my journey moving forward in a good way in my next phase of life.

    Robin