Some wounds are not entirely our own. They were passed to us - through parenting, through silence, through the nervous systems of the people who raised us - by people who were themselves carrying what had been passed to them.

This episode is about that thread. Where it comes from. How it moves. And how - in our lifetime, in our body, in our healing - we can choose to end it.

In This Episode

I share the most complete version of my story I have ever told. A mother who was sixteen when she had me - still a child herself. A childhood that left marks that took decades to heal. A breakdown so complete I was hospitalised, diagnosed, and medicated.

The relationship breakdown of my children. And then - slowly, over years - the rebuilding. The therapy. The spiritual journey. The practices. The return of my boys.

The ongoing tenderness around my daughter. And the moment I understood - trulyunderstood - that the cycle ends with me.

 I also explain what intergenerational traumaactually is, the research behind it including epigenetics, and why this generation has something no generation before us has had - the awareness and the tools to look at it clearly and choose something different.

Key Takeaways

Intergenerational trauma moves through families through parenting, epigenetics, and the weight of what is never spoken about.

It doesn't always look the same as it moves through generations - it mutates, shifts, shows up differently in each person who carries it.

Understanding the context of someone's brokenness is not the same as excusing what they did. Both things can be true.

The cycle ends not with perfection but with awareness. With stopping.

With looking.With choosing - imperfectly and consistently - to do something different.

You are not your mother's story. You are the woman who stopped.

This Week's Journalling Prompt

Finda quiet moment. Get your journal. And write to this —

Whatdid I inherit - not just the obvious things, but the beliefs, the patterns, the ways of relating that feel familiar in a way I can't quite explain.

Where did those things come from.

And what do I want to pass on instead.

Come Find Me

If this episode resonated — I would love to hear from you.

📧 ⁠[email protected]⁠

🔗⁠https://linktr.ee/wellnesswondersaustralia⁠

Frommy heart to yours. 🤍 — Nikki

Have you ever been in a moment where something wasn’t’ okay - and instead of speaking up or walking away - you just went quiet. Completely still. Like a mouse. And afterwards wondered why you didn’t’ do something.

This episode is about why. And why it was never weakness.

In This Episode

I share the most vulnerable story I have told on this podcast - my second marriage, the abuse, the daily freeze response that kept me quiet and still in situations that were anything but safe.

I share what it felt like to grieve the man I fell in love with even while fleeing the man he became.

I explain what the freeze response actually is, why the nervous system reaches for it, and why it shows up long after the original threat is gone. And I share what it takes to begin to thaw.

Key Takeaways

The freeze response is not weakness or compliance. It is the nervous system’s most ancient survival strategy - choosing stillness when fight or flight isn’t’ safe or available. Once learned, the freeze doesn’t easily unlearn itself.

It shows up in situations that feel familiar to old threats even when the danger is gone. Leaving an abusive situation doesn’t always feel like relief.

Sometimes it feels like grief. That grief is real and it deserves space.  

The freeze is released through the body - not through thinking or willpower.

Movement, breath and somatic work do what willpower never could. Understanding where the freeze came from dissolves the shame around it.

This Week’s Journalling Prompt

Find a quiet moment. Get your journal. And write to this -

Where in my life do I still freeze?

Where do I go quiet when I want to speak?

Where do I stay still when I want to move?

And then — what would it feel like to respond differently? Just once. Just a little.

If You Need Support

If this episode brought up experiences of domestic abuse or family violence, please know that support is available to you - whether you are ready to leave or not.

In Australia - 1800RESPECT - 1800 737 732

Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Confidential support from trained counsellors who understand.

If calling feels too big - you can chat online at 1800respect.org.au.

Sometimes typing feels safer than talking. That is okay. You can start there.

If you are in immediate danger - please call 000.

You don't have to remember them right now. Just know they're there when you're ready.

You do not have to be ready to leave to reach out. You just have to make one small move. That is enough for today.

Work With Me

If this episode resonated, you can find all the ways to work with me and stay connected in one place.

👉linktr.ee/wellnesswondersaustralia

From my heart to yours. 🤍— Nikki

There is a kind of grief that doesn't get a funeral. No flowers. No one sitting with you saying I'm so sorry. Because from the outside — nothing died.But something has always been missing. And somewhere underneath the functioning and the holding it together — you are grieving it. Quietly. Without words.

This episode is for that grief.

In This Episode

I share the grief I carried for years around my estrangement from my daughter — how I compartmentalised it, stopped trying, and finally released it at a winter solstice fire circle in one of the most profound moments of my healing journey.

I explain what ambiguous grief and ambiguous loss actually are and why this kind of grief is so rarely given space. I share how the grief around my own mother dissolved through inner child work — and what it feels like to finally let something go in peace. And I offer a journalling practice to help you begin naming what you have been carrying without words.

Key Takeaways

Ambiguous grief is real grief. The loss of what never was — a safe childhood, an emotionally present parent, a relationship that couldn't survive - deserves to be mourned.

Unnamed grief doesn't dissolve on its own. It sits in the body, shows up sideways, and waits. Ceremony and ritual can reach places that words and thinking cannot.

Releasing the past version of something is not the same as giving up on its future.

You can hold grief and hope at the same time.

Closure is not always possible. But spaciousness is. And sometimes that is enough.

This Week's Journalling Prompt

Find a quiet moment. Get your journal. And write to this —

What am I grieving that has no name. What loss am I carrying that the world around me hasn't acknowledged. What door have I closed inside myself that I haven't been back through.

And if you feel ready — write it a letter. Not to fix it. Just to name it.

Referenced In This Episode

Pauline Boss — Ambiguous Loss Ambiguous Loss: Learning to Live with Unresolved Grief by Pauline Boss

Join The Wonders Circle

If this episode opened something — if you recognised a grief you have been carrying without a name — I would love to have you inside The Wonders Circle.

Guided release practices, ceremony and ritual, inner child healing, and a community of women who understand this kind of grief because they are carrying it too.

This is real healing in a held space.

👉 https://www.skool.com/wellness-wonders-australia-2489/about

From my heart to yours. 🤍 — Nikki

What's the one thing in your life you check on, again and again, just to make sure it's still okay? Your phone. Your bank balance. The lock on the front door. Maybe even a person.

That checking isn't a quirk — it's your nervous system looking for proof that you're safe. In this episode, we go to the root of that search: the root chakra. The foundation of safety, belonging, and our right to simply exist.

In This Episode

I share a personal story about the things I used to surround myself with— photos on every wall, mementos, evidence of being loved — and the unexpected comfort I've found in letting them go. I explain what the root chakra is, what blocks it, and how it shows up in ways we often don't recognise — including inour relationship with money. And I talk about the small, tangible, real-world practices that are root chakra medicine, because this work is more accessible than you think.

Key Takeaways

The root chakra governs our most primal needs — safety, stability, belonging and our right to exist.

When it's blocked, life feels like unstable ground. Restlessness, scarcity, anxiety and never feeling like you belong are all root chakra signals.

This is not a character flaw. It's a wound that made complete sense given what you lived through.

Sometimes belonging isn't found in what we hold onto — it's found in what we're finally able to let go of.

Healing begins at the foundation. You cannot build genuine abundance and connection on ground that doesn't feel safe.

Root chakra work is tangible and real — grounding, nature, nourishing food, a home that feels safe, moving your body, and our relationship with money. These are not just wellness practices. They are medicine.

Healing is not always past tense. Naming a wound you're still working through is not weakness. It's honesty.

This Week's Journalling Prompt

Find a quiet moment. Get your journal. And write to this —

Where in my life do I not feel safe — in the deeper sense. Where am Istill bracing. Still waiting. Still hovering above my own life rather thanlanding in it.

And then — what is one small thing I could do this week to create more safety for myself. In my body. In my home. In the way I relate to money.

For me, it started with letting go — clearing a drawer, donating what no longer served me, realising I didn't need to hold onto things to prove I belonged.

Just one thing. That is enough.

Referenced In This Episode

Rhonda Byrne — The Secret

Come Say Hello

I'd love to connect — links to The Wonders Circle, 1:1 coaching, and everything else are below if you ever want to explore working together.

The Wonders Circle — Monthly Membership 👉 https://www.skool.com/wellness-wonders-australia-2489/about

1:1 Coaching with Nikki 👉 [email protected]

All Things Wellness Wonders Australia 👉 linktr.ee/wellnesswondersaustralia

Until next time. Bye for now. 🤍 — Nikki

Your body already knows how to heal itself.

Not metaphorically. Biologically. It is literally designed to process andrelease trauma. But most of us were never taught to work with it. We weretaught to think. To analyse. To understand.

So here is what this episode is about — that gap between knowing andhealing. And what becomes possible when you finally stop trying to think yourway through and let your body lead instead.

In This Episode

I share the moment everything shifted for me — at a wellness festival, in a group breathwork session, held by a stranger, shaking and crying in a way I never had before.

I talk about the science behind why trauma lives in the bodyand not the mind. I reference the work of Bessel van der Kolk and his landmark book The Body Keeps the Score. And I share what it actually looks and feels like when the body finally gets to do what it was always designed to do.

Key Takeaways

Insight is not the same as healing. Understanding why you do something does not stop you from doing it.

Trauma is not stored in the thinking brain. It lives in the nervous system, the tissue, the breath.

Talking helps — but it cannot reach what lives below the level of thought.

Body-based practices like breathwork, somatic movement, and TRE speak the language the nervous system actually understands.

The body that stored the trauma can also release it. You do not need to relive the story.

You do not need to have all the answers. You just need to letthe body move it through.

And that — is extraordinary news.

This Week's Journalling Prompt

Find a quiet moment. Get your journal. And write to this —

Where in my body do I feel my stress, my grief, my anxiety most? And whendid I last give my body permission to actually move that through?

Just notice. No fixing required. That is enough.

Referenced In This Episode

Bessel van der Kolk — The Body Keeps the Score One of the most important books written on trauma and the body. If this episode resonated, this book will change you.

Ready To Go Deeper?

If something in this episode stirred you —if part of you recognised what I was describing — I want you to know there are two ways we can work together.

The Wonders Circle — MonthlyMembership This is where the body-based work lives. Breathwork, somatic movement, TRE, body scan practices — delivered every month inside a community of women doing this work together.

Not curated wellness. Real healing in a held space. If you are ready to stop managing and start releasing, this isyour place.

👉 https://www.skool.com/wellness-wonders-australia-2489/about

1:1 Coaching with Nikki Ifyou are ready for something more personal — a dedicated space that is entirely yours — my 1:1 coaching container might be exactly what you need. Eight sessions together over eight weeks. We go deep. We go at your pace. And you donot have to carry any of it alone.

👉 email Nikki at [email protected]

The lightness I described in this episode — it is available to you. Whatever the right next step looks like, I would love to be part of it.

From my heart to yours. 🤍— Nikki

This one is a little different.

It is raw. It is unfinished. It is me bringing you into themiddle of something still unfolding — because I believe there is just as much medicine in the honest middle as there is in the healed ending.

If you have ever felt stuck in your throat — like the wordsexist but won't come — this episode is for you.

In This Episode

I share my experience of a light language activation sessionwith the gifted Sharna Teresa — what light language is, what happened in my body during the session, and the significant throat chakra block that surfaced.

I talk about the unspoken truth that was named, the exhaustion and integration that followed, an unexpected and beautiful energy exchange with ancient trees in the Kuitpo Forest, a sharpening of my intuition in the days after, and asonic sound healing session with the beautiful Sally Tapcott that began to gently shift what has been so tightly held.

I am not on the other side of this yet. But I am in motion.And I wanted to bring you with me.

Key Takeaways

Light language is a multidimensional energetic language thatbypasses the thinking mind and speaks directly to the body and soul. You don't need to understand it to receive it.

The throat chakra governs our ability to speak our truth, tobe seen and heard, and to express what lives inside us. When it is blocked, the body will find ways to show you.

Healing is not always past tense. Sometimes a sessionsurfaces the wound more than it resolves it. That is still progress. That is still the work.

Integration looks different for everyone. For me it was aforest, ancient trees, and electricity moving through my hands.

Intuition is a language too. Pay attention to what sharpensafter you do deep energy work.

An unspoken truth has weight. You don't always need to sayit to the exact right person. Sometimes you just need your throat to know it is safe to speak.

This Week's Journalling Prompt

Find a quiet moment. Get your journal. And write to this —

Is there a truth I am not yet speaking? Where am Iholding back — swallowing something down that deserves to exist?

What would it feel like to say it — even just here, onthis page, to myself?

You don't have to send the message. You don't have to havethe conversation. But you do get to acknowledge that the words exist.

Let your throat know it is safe here.

People & Places Mentioned

✨ Sharna Teresa — LightLanguage Activation & Psychic Channelling 👉 https://linktr.ee/SHARNA.TERESA

🎵 Sally Tapcott —Sonic Sound Healing & Rainbow Sounds 👉 https://www.rainbowsounds.co/collections/classes?ref=sally_tapscott

🌲 Kuitpo Forest, 94 Black Nursery Road, South Australia 5201

Come Find Me

If this episode resonated — I would love to hear from you.

📧 [email protected]

🔗 https://linktr.ee/wellnesswondersaustralia

From my heart to yours. 🤍 — Nikki

What if the version of you that feels hardest to love is actually the one who needs it most?

In this episode, Nikki gets real about one of the most well-researched and life-altering areas of psychological healing — inner child work. This isn't a buzzword episode. This is the science, the lived experience, and the truth of what becomes possible when you finally turn toward the younger version of yourself and say: I see you. I'm here. You are safe now.

Nikki shares her own inner child healing journey — including the moment something she had been bracing against for decades finally softened — and breaks down why this work goes far beyond self-help and into the realm of neuroscience and nervous system healing.

• What the inner child actually is — and where the concept comes from
• The psychology behind why childhood wounds don't stay in childhood
• Why certain situations as an adult don't just upset you — they undo you
• How inner child work creates real neurological change (this is science, not wishful thinking)
• What shifted for Nikki — specifically — after doing this work
• A journalling prompt to help you begin meeting her this week

The inner child is not a phase. She is a living, active part of your psychology — and until she is met, she will keep running the show.

Your nervous system is not overreacting. When you are triggered by something that feels disproportionate, it is responding to something much older. Inner child work gives your nervous system a different reference point.

The body does not distinguish between something vividly imagined and something actually happening. That is the science behind why visualisation and inner child meditation work. It is precise. It is targeted. And it produces real change.

Healing her heals you. Because she is you. She has always been you.

• You say yes when you mean no
• You chase approval — in relationships, in rooms, in the way you show up
• You feel like love and safety have to be earned
• You are only comfortable when you are useful to others
• Certain situations send you somewhere that has nothing to do with the present moment

Today' Journal Prompt:

Tell her what she needed to hear. Tell her what nobody said. Tell her she was never the problem.

And when you are ready — ask her what she needs from you today.

Carl Jung — Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who first named what he called the "divine child" — the part of the psyche that holds both our earliest wounds and our greatest potential. Jung believed integrating this part of ourselves was central to becoming whole.

John Bradshaw — Author of Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child (1990). Bradshaw described the inner child as the part of us frozen in time at the age we experienced our deepest wounds — not metaphorically, but psychologically and neurologically. Groundbreaking work that gave many people language for something they had always felt but never understood.

Dr. Nicole LePera — Known as The Holistic Psychologist, Dr. LePera has brought inner child science to a new generation. Her work explains how an unsafe or inconsistent childhood environment causes the nervous system to build beliefs and behaviours designed to keep a child safe — beliefs that travel with us into adulthood.

Diana from Libio by Diana — Nikki's spiritual coach, who introduced her to inner child meditation as a core part of her healing practice. libiobydiana.com

The Wonders Circle — Nikki's monthly membership community for women ready to do the real work. Inside, you will find guided inner child meditations, self-worth practices, somatic tools, and a community of women walking the same path.

1:1 Coaching with Nikki — If you are at a point where you want someone in your corner — someone to hold the space and walk this with you — Nikki works with a small number of women one on one. Reach out directly at [email protected]

All links, offerings, and resources: linktr.ee/wellnesswondersaustralia

Have you ever been completely fine and then one small thing sent you spiralling?

Have you ever gone quiet mid-conversation — not because you chose to — but because something older than thought took over?

Have you ever filled your evenings with anything — anythingat all — just so nothing underneath could surface?

This episode is about all of that. And why it makes complete sense.

In This Episode

I share the three nervous system states — safe and social, fight or flight, and shutdown — and what each one actually feels like from the inside.

I talk about Dr Stephen Porges and the groundbreaking work of Polyvagal Theory, in plain language that actually lands.I share my own patterns — the numbing, the spiralling, the drives home I don't remember — and what I finally understood about all of them. And I offer you ajournalling prompt to help you start mapping your own nervous system story.

Key Takeaways

Your nervous system has three states —and most of us live between two of them without ever knowing it.

Trauma doesn't live in the memory. It lives in the body. In the automatic responses that fire before your thinking brain catches up. You are not overreacting.

You are not too sensitive. You are a human being whose nervous system learned to survive.Naming the pattern is the first step to changing it.

Curiosity is more powerful than judgement when it comes to understanding yourself.

Try This Now — Coming Back FromShutdown

If you feel yourself going numb, checking out, or just… gone — try this. Slowly look around the room.

Notice five things you can actually see. Not in your head. With your eyes. A corner. A colour. The light through a window. Something on a shelf.

Then feel your feet. Press them into the floor. Notice the weight of your body in whatever you’re sitting on.

That’s it. You’re sending a signal to your nervous system that your body is here — and that you’re safe right now. Not insight. Not processing. Just — I’m here. I’m in my body. I’m okay.

This Week’s Journalling Prompt

Find a quiet moment. Get your journal.And write to this —

Which state do I recognise most inmyself — the spiral, the shutdown, or the numbing?

What is the moment justbefore it happens? What is the trigger I keep missing?

No fixing. No analysing. Just honest observation.

Referenced In This Episode

Dr Stephen Porges — Polyvagal Theory ThePolyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges (for those who want to go deeper into the science)

Join The Wonders Circle

If this episode resonated — if you recognised yourself in any of these patterns — I would love to have you inside The Wonders Circle.

This is where we do the real work.Nervous system regulation, somatic practices, breathwork, inner child healing —all of it in a community of women who get it. Because they are living it too. This is not curated wellness. This is real healing in a held space.

👉 https://www.skool.com/wellness-wonders-australia-2489/about

Come say Hi on our Socials - I'd love to hear from you.👉 https://linktr.ee/wellnesswondersaustralia

From my heart to yours. 🤍 — Nikki

This episode is about the moment things finally flow.

If you have ever had that feeling — that quiet unshakeable knowing that you are meant for something, that your purpose is close but just out of reach, that no matter how hard you push you can't quite get there — this episode is for you.

Today I share my own sacral chakra story. The blocked years. The stepping stones. The deep clearing work that finally shifted everything. And the completely ordinary Thursday at my desk when my purpose simply dropped in. Not forced. Not figured out. Just arrived.

In This Episode

I explore what the sacral chakra — Svadhisthana — actually governs: belonging, creativity, pleasure, joy, emotional expression, flow, and our relationship with receiving.

I share my journey from knowing my purpose was there but not being able to reach it, through the stepping stones of Wellness Wonders Australia and my three reflection journals, to the deep inner child and chakra clearing work I did with my spiritual coach Diana from Libio by Diana.

I look at what blocks the sacral chakra and what it actually takes to open it — because you cannot think your way into flow. And I share what a fully flowing sacral chakra feels like.

Key Takeaways

When the sacral chakra is open — life flows.

When it is blocked — you push. It begins forming in our earliest years, and when those experiences teach us that feeling is dangerous or belonging is conditional — it closes around that.

Trauma held in the hips and lower belly directly impacts it, which is why somatic work is so powerful.

You cannot intellectually unblock an energy centre that closed in response to felt experience.

The stepping stones are never wasted. Flow is what arrives when the blocks are cleared and safety is finally felt.

Your purpose is not lost — it is waiting for the conditions to flow.

Signs Your Sacral Chakra May Need Attention

Creativity that feels blocked.

Difficulty experiencing pleasure or joy.

A persistent sense of not belonging.

Emotional numbness or overwhelm.

Difficulty receiving love, help, or abundance.

Life feeling like something you push through. And that restless knowing that something is there — just out of reach.

This Week's Journalling Prompt

Where in my life have I been pushing instead of flowing? What would it feel like to stop forcing and start allowing? And what might be waiting for me on the other side of that?

Mentioned In This Episode

Diana — Libio by Diana — my spiritual coach and one of themost pivotal people in my healing journey. If you are ready for deep inner child healing, chakra clearing and somatic work with an extraordinary practitioner — I cannot recommend her highly enough. — Libio by Diana 👉 www.libiobydiana.com

Join The Wonders Circle

This is exactly the work we do together inside The Wonders Circle every month. Your purpose is not lost. And you don't have to find it alone.👉 https://www.skool.com/wellness-wonders-australia-2489/about👉 https://linktr.ee/wellnesswondersaustralia

From my heart to yours. 🤍

- Nikki x

This episode is a personal one.

In fact it might be the most honest thing I have ever said out loud.

In this episode I share my story — the real one. Not the polished version. Not the highlights. The full, layered, sometimes painful truth of the journey that brought me to the work I do today and the woman I have become.

If you have ever found yourself stuck in the same patterns, numbing something you couldn't name, or wondering if it is too late to choose yourself — this episode is for you.

In This Episode

I share how a traumatic and abusive childhood shaped my nervous system in ways I wouldn't understand until decades later. How I built a life that looked whole on the outside while something remained unresolved underneath. How mychoices after my first marriage reflected wounds that hadn't yet been reached.How a drinking habit kept me functioning on the outside and stuck on the inside. And how one relationship became the wake-up call that changed everything.

This is not a story about the people who hurt me.

This is a story about what it took for me to finally stop. To sit in the hurt. And to choose myself — fully and without apology — for the very first time.

Key Takeaways

You can be loved by someone and still not know how to receive it. You can be safe on the outside and still be braced on the inside. The nervous system doesn't update just because the circumstances do.

Unhealed wounds don't announce themselves. They just quietly drive your decisions — until you do the work to understand them.

The stories we tell ourselves about why we do what we do feel completely reasonable from the inside. Writing them down is often the first step to seeing them clearly.

Hitting the bottom is not failure. Sometimes it is the most necessary thing that could have happened.

Healing doesn't begin when life gets easier. It begins when you stop running from what is hard.