Leigh Milne

MY JOURNEY

Having overcome and recovered from the emotional, physical and mental trauma and body shame of my own sexual and family domestic violence experience, I now help empower women to heal and transform their own experience. With a trauma informed approach, I combine a background in paramedical nursing and dermal therapies in addition to psychology, hypno-psychotherapy and somatic sexology. I help facilitate the release of trapped energy in the mind and body from the complex trauma of sexual abuse, PTSD, chronic stress, bullying, neglect, and mental, emotional, physical, gynaecological, and cosmetic surgical scars. This allows the integration of numb, painful, disowned and disconnected parts of the mind/body/spirit to be transformed into wholeness, acceptance and self-love.

WHY WOMEN COME TO SEE ME......To reclaim their Beautiful Spirit

Research has shown that people who experience complex trauma-trauma arising from repeated sexual abuse, physical abuse, mental & emotional abuse, rejection and neglect (emotional neglect and rejection has been found to be even more damaging than sexual abuse) are highly likely to suffer co-morbid problems throughout their lifetime in order to cope. This occurs mostly as a developing child and especially if this is triggered by an emotionally upsetting or traumatic incident later on in life.

The most common co-morbid problems for women are: alcohol & drug abuse, food & eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating, emotional eating), body dysmorphia & body shame issues (obsession leading to regular cosmetic surgery...that never satisfies), somatic body ailments such as IBS, chronic unexplained pain, and discomfort including unexplained sexual pain, numbness, lack of sensation, inability to orgasm), behavioural & psychological issues such as sexual frigidity, inability to trust or maintain healthy boundaries (saying yes, when they mean no, ignoring their gut instinct and putting themselves in situations were they are vulnerable to further abuse (including domestic & workplace violence & emotional abuse), being oversexualised, depression and anxiety, borderline & histrionic personality traits etc...

WHY IS THIS SO

Inbuilt into the survival mechanism of human beings is our need to be accepted socially, by others...by our tribe. Acceptance meant we could look after and protect each other as a group when predators tried to hunt us. Being shunned by the group meant we were on our own, and likely to die. So our brain is hardwired to look, speak and behave in ways that ensures we will be 'liked' by our group. When children are young, they are ego-centric. They think that if someones doesn't like them, rejects, neglects, abuses them, it is because they caused it, because they are faulty, unworthy in some way. This results in feelings of SHAME. When we are shunned, abused, blamed for our sensuality by an abuser because they find us sexually appealing, shamed or laughed at for touching our genitals or the appearance of our genitals or body weight, colour or shape, neglected, or rejected by others, especially at a young age, we feel SHAME.

SHAME is at the root of our emotional and mental distress, because it makes us feel like an unworthy outcast, that our survival is threatened in some way. Sometimes mental, emotional and physical scars cause us to feel SHAME.

SHAME survives in an environment of SILENCE. Healing from SHAME occurs when we bring awareness to our wounds, embrace and shine light on the darkness, embrace our shadow side and let our story be revealed.

"Every SCAR has a story"!.....LET ME HELP YOU TELL YOURS!

Your Physical scars.

Some physical scars can be seen on the surface. Perhaps the scars were the result of accidents, gynaecological and cosmetic surgical problems, childbirth difficulties, and hospitalizations. The nerve endings may be damaged and the formation of scar tissue may add to the loss of sensation in those areas, and in so doing, we can lose mindful awareness of those parts. Sometimes we actively disown those parts of us because we want to avoid feeling certain emotions attached to the formation of that scar, such as embarrassment, anger, fear, shame. Sometimes we avoid or limit activities or wearing certain clothes to avoid 'exposing our scars/stretchmarks/body to others. Sometimes we don't even have to have visible scars for us to disown or dislike parts of ourselves. How many of us avoid intimacy or activities because we don't like parts of our body, or our rolls of unsightly belly fat, cellulite or jiggly thighs? What negative stories have we told ourselves about our unworthiness around that?

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me".... or will they?

Your Emotional & Mental Scars & Current Wounds

Life throws us some tough experiences, especially some involving complex trauma that we were too young or powerless to control or prevent. Those old events in our developing years may have been so repetitive and/or emotionally overwhelming that they have etched indelible painful scars deep within us. Since that time, our subconscious has worked overtime to protect us from being emotionally overwhelmed again by that pain. However, even if we are not suffering from complex trauma or not, life can keep throwing us tough challenges as we mature. We may experience, overwhelming emotional experiences such as unwanted sexual attention, neglect, rejection, workplace bullying, family domestic abuse, bankruptcy, affairs, accidents, deaths, sickness, loss etc...which impacts us negatively.

If we are suffering from complex trauma or more recent emotional overwhelm, we re-experience certain thoughts and emotions that are similarly linked to the sensory triggers in our environment, that send us reminders of the cause of those earlier or more recent painful scars. Our primitive brain goes into overdrive again, trying to protect us from being emotionally overwhelmed. we indulge in all sorts of unhealthy distracting thoughts, habits and behaviours to prevent us from being reminded of the pain of those events or the guilt we feel for being unable to say no.....we eat unhealthily, drink too much alcohol, gamble, work and shop too much, binge on social media, avoid people, events, opportunities, intimacy, shut down during sex...etc Our self-esteem and confidence is diminished, we beat up on ourselves. Our sensory body awareness becomes distorted. We are on constant hyper-alert ready for any threat to our wellbeing, or we feel numb...or empty...or disconnected from ourselves...or off track....or out of control...or lacking purpose or passion for life.....

THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE....I'TS YOUR STORY....YOU CAN CHOSE HOW IT GOES.....

I help women release the scars of trauma, abuse, bullying, chronic stress and negative beliefs about themselves from their mind and body with clinical hypno-psychotherapy, stress & trauma release bodywork, somatic mindful embodiment and scar tissue remediation. I help women integrate, embody and love the lost parts of themselves, establish healthy boundaries and help them restore spiritual, mental, emotional, physical, harmony, sensual intimacy, health and wellbeing.

My qualifications are: Bachelor of Arts Psychology, Grad. Dip. Psychology, Adv. Dip. Clinical Hypno-Psychotherapy, Dip. Hypno-Analysis, Cert Mental Health First Aid, Cert. Suicide Assist, Dip. Past Life Therapy, Cert. Somatic Sexology, Adv. Dip. Dermal. Science., Cert. Skin Needling, Cert. Laser Safety, Cert. NLP, Cert. EFT, Cert. Psychosomatic Face Personality Analysis, Cert. Akashic Records Reading, Dip. Aromatherapy, Cert. Reflexology, Dip. Champissage, Cert. Hot Stone Massage, Cert. Bamboo Massage, Cert. Swedish Massage, Cert. Trigger Point Massage I & II, Cert. Ayurvedic Spa Therapies, Cert. Medical Asst. (RAAF), Cert. Pathology Lab Technical Asst. (RAAF), Cert. Food & Spirit, Cert. IV Training Assessing, Cert. IV Occupational Health & Safety, MICHP