Creative Somatic EcoTherapist
For women and youth reclaiming their wild sense of self.
You’re not broken. You’re just tired of squeezing into systems that never fit. I help you calm your nervous system, work with your body—not against it—and remember who you were before the world told you otherwise.
Who I work with
Women navigating body shame or challenges with self-compassion.
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- You may feel like a floating head with a fraught relationship with your body. You want to be happy in your own skin, but don't know how to get there.
Neurodiverse Youth who don't fit well in the 4 walls of a classroom.
- As a neurodiverse woman myself I get it. Not everyones gifts show up on tests. I take kids out of school and help them to develop their natural gifts on the land and in the bush.
Women who have bumped up against invisible blocks to deep happiness.
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- You may not be sure how to navigate around them and need a guide to help when it feels too much.
Women carrying invisible weight.
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- Maybe you’re the one everyone turns to, but you’re exhausted from holding it all together. You long for a place where you get to let go.
Women who have lost themselves.
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- You may have been so busy raising kids or with a career that didn't quite fit your soulself that you have lost track of who you are underneath all that responsibility.
Women healing from trauma.
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- Your body remembers things your mind would rather forget. I help you listen to those signals gently, at your own pace, so you can release without retraumatising.
Mothers and carers.
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- You give and give, but who fills your cup? These sessions are a way back to yourself.
Women in transition.
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- Whether it’s the shifting tides of motherhood, menopause, grief, or starting over, I’ll help you steady your nervous system and find your footing.
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Burnt-out professionals.
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- If you’re running on fumes, I’ll guide you into rest, reset, and nervous system repair.
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Seekers of embodiment.
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- If talk therapy kept you in your head, somatic work can help you drop into your body and discover a new way forward.
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How I work
What is Somatic Therapy?
Soma - the body.
In life when we experience trauma quite often it is too much for our minds to handle in the moment and our beautiful bodies put their hand up and say "Darling I got this...give it to me for now. " And so that trauma which was too much for you at the time gets folded away, maybe in your heart, maybe in your gut.
Energetically it becomes a speedbump in your energy system. The idea is that when you are more mature, when you have better support around you, you can go back into your body and find the speedbumps and dismantle them before they become mountains. Or illness. Your body will hold on to this stuff until it no longer has the capacity and will often let you know by somatising pain.
Normal talk therapy can sometimes just take you in loops around your head. But will not drop down and access the energetic road blocks that your body will willingly share with you and a somatic therapist. This gets to the root instead of just trimming the hedges of the problem only to have it grow out in other places.
Ecotherapy
When we work in therapy, one of the first things we want to do is to help you learn ways to settle your nervous system. Boxed into four walls disconnected from the ground...it isn't as easy to settle as it can be in a beautiful setting or in your favourite nature spot.
This gives us a base camp before we try and tackle Everest. Our road blocks that we need to release before our true mana and personal power flow could be just speedbumps or they could be whole mountain ranges.
One of the best places to access and support this healing is nature. I work in one on one therapy sessions in nature and I also run rights of passage programs for women and youth.
And I even have paddle boards and Kayaks if you would like a session at sea. But usually we are at my studio sitting by the river in the native bush using the power of the land as support for your nervous system and healing.
Phototherapy: Standing in Your Full Power
So many women hide behind the camera. Photos may trigger you on a deep level.
The world has shouted "Not enough...Too Much" for far too long. It gets in your bones and you struggle to embody all that is you. You hide parts you have had culture tell you are not "perfect." It has caused you to dial down parts of your life. To show up smaller.
Here is the deal. That "play smaller" voice is a part of you. She was taught when she was little that being real wasn't safe. That it was better to hide. She may be a mean voice but actually she was doing her best by you. Being forceful to keep you safe. But here is the deal. Playing small may have worked for a young girl...but not for a grown ass woman.
Maybe you have a daughter and you don't want her to suffer as you have. Maybe you are just tired of dialing down your gifts and are ready to stand in your power.
Phototherapy is Hakomi informed therapy that is holistic, loving, and powerful. The end result is a releasing of blocks to your power and a freaking gorgeous set of photos that you will be able to look at any time you start to doubt yourself.
A place where young women can explore the archetypes of Sacred Femininity while learning how to be badasses in nature. They learn bushcraft, survival skills, archery, and pragmatic lifeskills like carpentry and metal work. All done in an all-girls environment so that they can step forward, not back, when opportunity presents itself.
For young men who often struggle in mainstream education due to neurodiversity or trauma histories. Four walls are inadequate to contain their energy, and nature helps to calm their nervous system and gives them space for their natural genius to shine.
One part bushcraft and one part learning personal leadership and emotional fluency skills. It is a place for building Mana.
My Core Tools:
Somatic Therapy
We tune into your body’s intelligence—often the part that’s been ignored the longest—and follow its cues toward healing.
Hakomi / Internal Family Systems Informed Parts Work
Do you ever feel like you are driving a boat with 10 paddlers all trying to do their own thing inside your head? These are called parts and sometimes they can fight like hungry siblings. We map the parts of you that blend over your true self and your highest good. We get to know them and help those parts of you update their "software" to function in ways that support your goals and dreams.
EcoTherapy
I work with Mother Nature to help you learn regulation skills.
Shamanic Journeys
We slip beyond the veil, to the imaginal realm and work at the level of spirit and with your guides.
Creative Expression
Sometimes words don't cut it, but a paintbrush or crayon can let the subconscious speak volumes.
Body Compassion Work
Especially for those navigating body shame, chronic stress, or weight stigma. We soften the inner critic, explore stuck patterns, and gently return you to yourself—without trying to “fix” what was never broken.
Rarely needed but an important tool to have developed - Compassionate Release of Non-Self Energies -
We have parts of ourselves that sometimes feel like they can be fighting against us. Many indigenous and even the churches talk about low-level energies that can sometimes latch on to a person and act like a parasite to their energy. When your system is carrying something foreign—ancestral burdens, energetic attachments, or lingering impressions—they can drain your vitality. These are different from parts of yourself that developed to protect and support you. They are energetic hitchhikers, and they are nothing but trouble if they are tangled in your system.
Sometimes we pick these energetic drains up when we were young and vulnerable, or when we played with stuff or went places best left undisturbed.
They are lower energy entities that just like to cause chaos in your life and really have no interest in supporting your highest good. They just need to be shown the light and be removed from your energetic system, as it isn't theirs to play with.
The more stressed, or the more time you have spent potentially experimenting with substances without the proper protections in place, the more likely you are to have one of these hitchhikers. Addictions can sometimes be manifested from the hunger of a low-level energy whispering to you and pretending to be you.
This work supports you in gently untangling them from your system and restoring energetic integrity and reclaiming your inner clarity. I have done advanced training with Robert Falconer and use his Internal Family Systems-based methods. This process helps identify and release non-self energies that may be affecting your sense of safety, clarity, or vitality - without force, drama, or fear.
About Me
About Me
About Me
I’m Mandi—neurodiverse, playful, fiercely compassionate, and a mum to three grown humans and one ridiculously floofy Irish Doodle named Gritty.
My journey into healing work has been anything but linear. I trained as a holistic nurse in my 20s while serving in the US Navy—learning how to tend both body and spirit under pressure.
In my 30s, I raised a family, worked as a women’s health nurse consultant, and ran an organic blueberry farm in the lush Akatarawa Valley of Aotearoa.
My 40s brought a creative pivot. I began using photography as a tool for healing body shame, eventually founding the Every Body is a Treasure Trust—a charitable organisation with a big mission:
To stop trauma from spreading to the next generation.
That led me deeper into the body—through somatic therapy, ecotherapy, parts work, and an ever-growing toolkit of gentle, trauma-informed approaches. I now work with both adults and youth to untangle what’s holding them back and reconnect with their soulful sense of self.
In my 50s, I directed my first film, Finding Venus—a documentary exploring the intersection of creativity, body shame, and healing. It won a bunch of international awards (which is cool and all)… but my proudest moments come from the transformations I witness every week in our Natural Leaders youth programme.
I’m still learning. Still growing. Still wildly devoted to the idea that we heal in connection—with nature, with creativity, with each other.
Press Coverage of my work:
Youth work:
Body Compassion work / Film Maker
https://www.thepost.co.nz/culture/350309689/mandi-lynn-wants-help-women-find-body-gratitude