There Is a Reason You Make Yourself Small

Holistic Counselling & Shamanic Healing, BASED on the Sunshine Coast

If you hide and don’t take up space, or you undervalue yourself, this is for you.

As a Holistic Counsellor on the Sunshine Coast, I spend a lot of time in sessions observing body language.

Sometimes I notice someone is really hunched over. Shoulders rounded. Head slightly down. Heart closed off and protected.

Your body tells a story before you even say a word. It’s communicating on a subconscious level to the people around you, constantly.

Your body tells a story.

What story does it tell?

When It Wasn’t Safe to Be Seen

Often, it was never safe to be seen. To be big. To take up space.

Having a voice — expressing something polarising or different — meant being shamed or disregarded.

So you learned to shrink. To hide. To take up as little space as possible.

What a fantastic strategy.
Well done. Because it worked.

There was a time in your life when making yourself small was a genuinely effective technique for avoiding harm, conflict, pain — even abuse.

But now you’re a grown adult. Instead of keeping you safe, it’s stopping you from stepping fully into your potential and sovereignty.

This is something I see often in my work as a Holistic Therapist on the Sunshine Coast. The body holds patterns that were once protective — but are no longer necessary.

Sometimes the Story Didn’t Start With You

Here’s the deeper layer.

Sometimes the story held in your body didn’t start with you.
Sometimes it goes beyond your childhood… into your ancestral DNA.

Your body not only tells your story — it tells the story of your ancestors. Their trauma. Their experiences.

It holds the unspoken rules.
The things never talked about.
The secrets that must be expressed through the body because they’ve been hidden everywhere else.

Through Holistic Therapy on the Sunshine Coast, we gently begin to explore this.

When we slow down and really tune into posture, breath, tension, contraction — we gain insight into patterns someone may have been living with their entire life.

And then we ask:

What story does this tell?
WHOSE story does it tell?

Love, Loyalty & the Family System

Sometimes we discover it doesn’t even belong to you.

It belongs somewhere else in your family system.

Through love. Through loyalty. Through a deep desire to belong — you carry it.

If it was never safe for grandma to speak up… perhaps it doesn’t feel safe for you either.

This is where Shamanic Healing or Family Constellations can become powerful.

When grandma’s story is told, witnessed, held, tended to — you can finally stop carrying it for her.

Not by rejecting your family.

But by living more fully, in HONOUR of them.

You Don’t Have to Keep Playing Small

Instead of hiding and silencing your voice, you can shift your reality.

You can say YES to yourself.
Take back your power.
Claim your voice.
Occupy more space.
Truly embody sovereignty.

And all of that can begin with simply seeing what the body is trying to express.

This is the heart of Holistic Counselling & Shamanic Healing on the Sunshine Coast — integrating mind, body, spirit and ancestral healing so you can step into who you truly are.

A Gentle Invitation

So as you read this, and notice how your body holds itself…

What story do you think your body has been carrying?

If this resonates and you’re seeking a Holistic Counsellor on the Sunshine Coast, or you feel called toward deeper Shamanic Healing, I would love to walk alongside you.

Schedule a complimentary 20-min consult call, and we can discuss how Holistic Counselling or Shamanic Healing might be supportive for you.

With gratitude,
Rachel Rose
Holistic Counsellor & Shamanic Practitioner
Sunshine Coast, QLD