We all need a safe space to process our emotions.

Take my hand and I’ll guide you through it.

I understand how you feel

Hi, I’m Sarah Tuckett. I’ve been helping clients with anxiety for 6-years to change the way they feel. As someone who has suffered from anxiety and depression myself and supported hundreds of clients, I understand exactly how it feels. Over 15 years ago now, I experienced a crisis of my own, stuck in a job that drained my soul.

DOES MY STORY SOUND FAMILIAR?

Stuck in a Crisis

Chronic Stress

Anxiety

Depression

Burnout

In 2006, I found myself in the admin job from hell.

After 3 years of trying to find my feet work-wise as a new migrant, I had finally found a permanent job in Australia and I wasn’t going to give up that security come hell or high water. The people and the company were lovely, but I found working for 17 people incredibly stressful, because even if I was doing work for 6 of them, the other 11 would want something too. I could never get everything done. My perfectionism and “I’m not enough” story were in overdrive. I started the job in September and by October I knew it was the wrong job. But I felt like I couldn’t let it go. Even though I knew it was wrong, I suffered through it for a whole year feeling stuck somewhere I knew I didn’t belong. A lot of clients can relate to feeling stuck and fearful of making a change. Perhaps in their job like me, in their relationships or other scenarios.

My chronic stress led into anxiety.

Nearly a year of chronic anxiety and stress caused me to fall into depression. (This is a well-worn path: chronic anxiety leads to depression and exhaustion). I’d never experienced anxiety or depression before and had no idea what the symptoms were. I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I was exhausted, had no motivation and didn’t want to see my friends. I’m normally an energetic, smiley person, but I had no energy and I didn’t even want to make eye contact, let alone socialise with them. I was having outrageously catastrophic thoughts, and I couldn’t work out why.

Matters came to a head one day when my partner marched me to the GP. Luckily, my GP was an Integrative GP so she looked at all of my lifestyle factors: sleep, nutrition, exercise, home environment, genetic and environmental factors, and stress. She told me that in Chinese medicine they think that you have two batteries. You have your everyday battery called “Chi”, and “Jing” which is your long term battery. When you have none of the short-term battery left, you start eating into the long-term one. I had completely used up all my long-term battery. I had no energy left. I needed to put more energy back in that tank. So I gave up the job, took a month off to rest, changed my diet, went back to yoga, and started to recover. It was in Laos in SE Asia where I experienced the magic of Laos massage and it had such a calming effect on my nervous system that I decided to study massage. Eventually this became a business. When I treated clients they would always offload their problems onto me. I’d hear the tension in their voices and feel it in their backs. I’d relax their muscles and their mind in the hour that they were there, but next fortnight they’d be back with the same aches and pains. I realised that their mind was stronger than my thumb. I realised I needed to explore the body-mind connection further.

In 2012 a friend introduced me to Body Psychotherapy.

It felt like my solution to connect the body and the mind together. I finished my Diploma at the end of 2015 but this wasn’t the end of my body-mind studies. In 2018 I graduated from a Masters of Mental Health (Psychotherapy) from UQ, and in 2020 I completed the most fun qualification I’ve ever done – Advanced Clinical Skills in Somatics and Dance-Movement Therapy.

There’s still a lot of stigma around going to see a mental health professional. Some people don’t understand why I work with the body as well, they just want to talk. But it’s my goal in life to educate as many people as I can about the mind-body link so that when they feel anxious or depressed, they think about moving and breathing first, instead of reaching for a pill or a glass of wine.

To this day I continue to learn new modalities and attend professional trainings because I’m still curious about this body-mind link. We still don’t know all the answers, but neuroscience is now backing up what body-oriented therapists have been saying for years.

My qualifications include:

Master of Mental Health (Psychotherapy) – University of Queensland (Dec 2018)
Advanced Clinical Skills in Somatics and Dance-Movement Therapy (2020)
Diploma of Integrated Somatic Psychotherapy (2015) and Advanced Diploma (2019)
Compassion-Focussed Therapy (2019)
Personalised Integrative Therapy (2018)
Embodied Couples Work – Level 1 (2018)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety and Depression (2017)
Yoga Nidra Teacher Training (2018)
Cert IV in Training and Assessment (2016)
Nia Blue Belt (somatic movement therapy) (2016)

I am a Clinical Professional member of PACFA (Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia) (membership no’ 23732) and a Provisional Professional member of DTAA (Dance Therapy Association of Australia)

From my previous careers:

Masters of Environmental Management – University of Queensland
Graduate Certificate in Sustainability – Murdoch University
Bachelor of Arts (Modern Languages) – Manchester University, UK
Diploma of Remedial Massage – QAcademy

I use evidence based, effective therapies including

Body Psychotherapy

Dance Movement Therapy

Compassion-focused Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Learn about how I work

My Personality and Beliefs

My clients describe me as: “Warm and welcoming, genuine and super friendly. Compassionate. You are human, you connect with me on such a down to earth level.” I believe I bring joy to therapy where possible.

I really care about my clients. I think about them all the time. Randomly someone will pop into my head as I’m buying cereal or cat food! I’m really curious about people. I believe in equality and I work people from any gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity and age (above 18).

I’m an eternal student. I’m always studying something! I’ll never stop being curious about the body-mind connection. I love seeing clients transform before my eyes, becoming braver, stronger and more connected to their inner world.

My Vision

My vision is for people to recognise that there is no separation between the body and the mind and realise the impact they can have on their mental experience or emotions by becoming more embodied and changing their breathing and posture.

My Mission

My mission is to help the western world understand the link between the physical body and mental wellbeing, by bringing body-centred therapy and movement to the mainstream, so that they feel calmer, more connected to self and others, and feel vibrantly alive again.