Hello, here's a bit of my story...

Arriving here...

 

Being a creative kid, I originally trained as a fine artist and art educator. However, after my children were born, I felt called to pastoral ministry in a local faith community. This led me to explore theological theory, leadership, and pastoral care.

 

After leaving this initial church pastoral role, I studied Clinical Pastoral Education and Values-based Reflective Practice. This began a twelve-year-plus journey in private healthcare as a hospital chaplain, which unlocked my desire for a deeper understanding of our everyday experiences of life and death, habitual coping behaviours, the psychology of belief, and a passion for quality improvement in spiritual care practice. 

 

Under the guidance of my clinical supervisor in 2012, I began training in mindfulness-based body-centred psychotherapy - The Hakomi Method. I also completed further professional development in holistic care methods, including Somatic Awareness, Attachment Theory, Character Styles, Trauma-informed Care, Bereavement, Bio-ethics, Healing Arts practice, and Bio-energetic Healing. These studies helped build a broad therapeutic base for supporting patients and staff in my clinical role. I saw it as a hybrid lens for providing contemporary spiritual care and bereavement support, and I coined the frame of Somatic-informed Spiritual Care. 

 

Later, after experiencing professional burnout and a complex family bereavement, I discovered the life-changing work of Australian Ken Ware and NeuroPhysics Therapy (NPT). I completed introductory studies and continue to integrate this understanding of neurophysiological theory into my somatic portfolio. While understanding the body-mind connection, I began studying therapeutic touch and biofield medicine to support clients in reclaiming calm neural states, reducing physical and emotional pain, and growing in greater embodied self-awareness.

 

In late 2023, I finally said farewell to my beloved hospital work and focussed on developing as a reflective practice supervisor, undertaking Advanced Supervision practice with SupervisionWA to support my supervision and coaching practice in Somatic Informed Spiritual Care. And now, since 2024 I have been growing in the new challenge of chaplaincy and support in the resources sector (which is exploding my neural pathways at an alarming rate) as I become curious about life and work for those in remote areas and the FIFO lifestyle. Having been a FIFO wife for 25 years, my husband is grateful that I now get a first-class seat in comprehending what working away from home holds. This work has helped me to explore workplace safety both in a literal and psychological state. 

 

Prior to my current pastoral and therapeutic endeavours, my career was deeply rooted in the arts. In the 1990s, I served as an Art & Design Lecturer and Community Arts Coordinator while also managing a private art practice. Nowadays, apart from my work in my home clinic and trips to the Pilbara, I specialise in coaching, supervision, and conducting group workshops. These sessions are tailored for spiritual care, industry, and wellness professionals, aiming to help them integrate spirituality and somatic awareness. This integration is crucial for maintaining a sense of purpose, stability, and vitality in their professional lives.

 

This 30-year journey provides an eclectic therapeutic mix from the artist to the lay pastor to the therapist. I explore unique ways to produce greater somatic and interoceptive awareness and cultivate healthy and life-giving expressions of spirituality. And I couldn't have journeyed this path without the support and companionship of mature pastoral and therapeutic leaders and supervisors, to whom I am for ever grateful.

 

I invite you to join me in exploring ways to foster deepening self-care, find healing paths and cultivate a life of creativity and peace.  ​Blessings, Nat Kay 

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Read more about my Beliefs & Spirituality and the Values & Principles that inform my work. 

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*https://hakomiinstitute.com/about/hakomi-mindful-somatic-psychotherapy
**https://www.neurophysicstherapy.global/who-we-are/  

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