Welcome to The Sanctuary, Lane Cove.

Due to other work commitments we will no longer be running group workshops at the Sanctuary Lane Cove. If you are interested in group work we recommend Phoenix Rising. Click here for their details.

Dragonfly is a magical totem, signifying our ability to transform ourselves as we travel our path of self-knowledge toward enlightenment.

Six times per year, the Sanctuary ~ Lane Cove, with it’s team of highly trained group facilitators, offers small group therapy experiences designed for adults and teens.

In a beautiful, serene environment and with a high level of support, our clients can gently and safely explore their current issues in relation to their past experiences, process them through and make decisions from a place of increased awareness and clarity about what their next steps will be.

Together, by talking and participating in experiential exercises with one another you will see quite clearly and non-judgmentally how you came to be in the situations you are in today.

Then, by using a variety of processes, selected specifically for each client’s unique situation, we go deeper into the events that created the pattern that is still playing out and we support you to identify and release any negative associations, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually you still carry around that event.

Children, who live in chaotic, hostile, icy-silent, hate-filled, abusive or neglectful homes, often go through their lives in a type of hypnotic trance. This is their only option. Their brains go into a kind of numbness or auto pilot because they don’t have the skills or the safety to talk about what’s going on at home with others, much less the ability to do anything about it.

One day you leave home, but this auto-pilot is still turned on and you repeat old familiar behaviours in your work, relationships, and perhaps even with your own children.

One day you might realise all is not well in your world. Perhaps there has been a crisis for you or a loved one and you tentatively begin to reach outside your trance world and talk about your situation. When that day comes we will be here for you.

There is a huge sense of freedom when you first come out of your trance and see your situation, perhaps for the first time, clearly and rationally.

This increased awareness brings with it the possibility of choice. You can choose to behave differently than you have been. You can choose a new path. You can choose where you go from here rather than continuously repeating the same behaviours which create the same unsatisfying life. You can, like the Dragonfly, transform yourself for the next part of your journey.

All of our group processes have the following goals

  • Clearly and non-judgmentally show you how you came to be where you are today by exploring the relationships in the family you grew up in.
  • Create awareness of how unresolved patterns and relationships which began in your childhood to help you fit in and survive, are unconsciously still playing out in the relationships you’ve created since then.
  • Identify self-defeating thoughts and behaviours
  • Give you tools to respond rationally to events rather than constantly be in ’knee-jerk’ reactivity to the events that happen around you.
  • Take control of your life back by acknowledging that the events that trigger reactivity in you are actually old unhealed wounds from your past and the people who trigger you now are in some way reminiscent of the people in your past with whom you have unresolved issues.
  • See the opportunities for healing in every situation that occurs in your life
  • See yourself as the creator of your life rather than a victim in it.
  • Empower you to see the magnificence of who you truly are.

Our workshops include a combination of large and small group processes. Each of you will have a small group of no more than one facilitator to four participants.

All our facilitators at The Sanctuary ~ Lane Cove have been trained in a variety of counselling modalities. We have assembled our team for their diverse experience and training so we can bring you the best of what is currently available world-wide.

The Sanctuary’s team all continue to work on our own personal and professional development so that we can always bring you the top quality counselling experience you deserve. We realise it may have taken you a long time to get to the point where you are ready to come to a workshop. We want to be sure you get the best experience available.

Our combined knowledge and training is in the following therapies;

  • Gestalt
  • Family Systems
  • Inner Child Work
  • Ego State Therapy
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Communication Skills
  • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy
  • Eriksonian Hypnotherapy
  • N.L.P. (Neuro Linguistic Programming)
  • E.M.D.R. (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)

Expressive Therapies including;

  • Art, Movement and Dance
  • Creative Visualisation
  • Gentle Yoga for relaxation
  • Bodywork for Emotional Release
  • Cranio-Sacral Body work

If you have any questions, or would like to speak to one of our facilitators, please call or e-mail. See our Contact Us page for details. We have time for you. All the time you need to decide if what we offer is what your next step might be.

We look forward to hearing from you, take care until then.