Trauma-Informed Online Counselling & Breathwork with Wendy Matthews

I am an integrative counsellor and breathwork facilitator offering online therapy for anxiety, trauma, emotional regulation and personal growth. My work combines psychological insight, nervous system awareness, and somatic practices to support deep and lasting change.

Why This Work Matters — My Story

Counsellor, Therapist & Breathwork Facilitator | Te Arawa, Hauraki, Ngāti Maru

I didn’t come to counselling and breathwork from a textbook or a neatly packaged life. I came through real life — the kind that cracks you open.

As a teenager I ran away from home. I was drinking too much, trying to numb what I didn’t know how to feel, and figuring out how to survive on my own far too early. At sixteen I was in a serious car accident that left me with internal injuries — my body learned very young what shock, fear, and vulnerability feel like. By that point I was already supporting myself, emotionally and financially, with no real safety net.

I became a mother young. By my mid-twenties I had three children and a constant, quiet panic about how to keep everything going. I didn’t have the luxury of collapsing or being lost — there were small humans depending on me. At twenty-seven, exhausted but determined, I realised I was intelligent and capable of more than just surviving. After a year of scraping together the grades for a BA, I applied for law school and got in.

What followed were years of studying late into the night while my children slept. I was working, parenting, and trying to keep my grades up in a system designed for people who had time, money, and support. While my classmates could study all day, I squeezed everything into the margins of a life that never slowed down.

Against the odds, I made it through. And then I had to fight again — this time for a job. I was up against young lawyers with no responsibilities waiting at home. Still, I established a career and spent fifteen years as a criminal barrister, immersed daily in other people’s trauma, violence, addiction, and despair.

On the outside, I had what many people would call a successful life — financial stability, a respected career, and what I thought was a loving relationship. On the inside, my nervous system was still running on survival. I was always bracing, always holding myself together.

In my early forties, everything finally caught up with me. The relationship fell apart. The structures I had relied on began to crumble. And for the first time, I could no longer push through. I was anxious, overwhelmed, and profoundly disconnected from my own body.

I faced a choice: keep reacting and hardening, or stop and turn inward.

That inward turn changed everything.

I found breathwork, spiritual guidance, and therapy, not as concepts, but as lived practice. Breathwork taught me how to feel without drowning. Therapy helped me see how deeply my nervous system had been shaped by early instability, responsibility, and shock. For the first time, I wasn’t just understanding my story, I was unwinding it in my body.

This wasn’t tidy or linear. It was messy, embodied, and deeply real. But it transformed how I live and how I relate to myself and others.

What I now offer through counselling and somatic support comes from both formal training and the deep, hard-won wisdom of having lived this path, from survival to something that actually feels like being alive.

If you’re here because the old ways of coping aren’t working anymore…
If you’re tired of living in survival mode…
If something in you knows there must be another way…

I understand.
I’ve walked this road. And I walk with others along it.

My Therapeutic Approach

My work blends psychological insight with embodied awareness. Rather than trying to “fix” you, we explore what your inner system is communicating through anxiety, emotional patterns, relationship struggles, or physical tension.

I draw from:

• Integrative counselling and psychotherapy

• Trauma-informed breathwork

• Mindfulness and somatic awareness

• Psychosynthesis and transpersonal psychology

This allows us to work gently with:

• anxiety and nervous system dysregulation

• emotional overwhelm or shutdown

• past trauma and relational wounds

• life transitions and identity shifts

Sessions are collaborative, respectful of your pace, and grounded in safety.

Why Breath and the Nervous System Matter

Many people have spent years in talk therapy without fully resolving anxiety, trauma, or emotional reactivity. That’s because much of what we carry lives below conscious thought, in the nervous system and the body.

Breathwork offers a direct pathway to this deeper layer. When combined with counselling, it allows insight to be integrated physically, not just understood intellectually.

This is where lasting change happens.

Who I Work With

I work with people who are thoughtful, sensitive, and self-aware — yet often feel:

• anxious or emotionally overwhelmed

• disconnected from their bodies

• stuck in repeating patterns

• exhausted from holding everything together

Some come seeking healing.
Others come seeking clarity, presence, or a deeper connection to themselves.

All are welcome here.

Sessions & Availability

I offer online counselling and breathwork sessions so you can access support wherever you are in the world. When I’m locally available, I also work with clients in person.

If you’re curious about whether this approach is right for you, a free 10-minute consultation is available to explore what you’re needing and how we might work together.