About

“I am passionate about supporting people’s journeys towards connection with themselves and others for personal and community, healing and transformation. I believe that deep listening, safe space, supportive community and sacred ceremony can help provide paths to a happier life and a better world.”

About the coordinator: Phoenix Arrien is a workshop organiser and facilitator with over 25 years experience working with people in private practice, corporate and community.

Growing up in Australia along with several years living in the Middle East, Phoenix emerged from a traumatic childhood that has seen her journey from victim to survivor to thriver, now allowing her to be able to be clearly present and deeply support people through the kinds of difficulties or traumas that often require great sensitivity and depth.

This deep presence is coupled with an unshakable belief that people can heal, get through the worst, recover and come out the other side stronger and empowered, proven over and over in sessions, circles, presentations, workshops and retreats.

Please see the testimonials page.

She lives and works in the mountains of the Yarra Valley near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Annual visits to NSW, WA and Tasmania as well as other areas of Australia and overseas, allows her to be available for sessions, workshops and retreats in many places. She also works with people on zoom, skype, facetime, fb chat and phone.

Her training and experience includes Counselling, Somatic Psychology, Jungian Psychology, Inner Constellations, Core Shamanism, Australian indigenous healing, Cherokee and Maori bodywork, Native American and South American healing, dance/movement, Adventure-based Counselling, Process-oriented Psychology, Voice Dialogue, Deep Ecology, Healing Ecology, massage, reiki, writing and meditation.

She has a deep interest in eco-psychology, shamanic traditions, indigenous healing, community and authenticity. And bringing up two amazing sons  

Phoenix acknowledges and is very grateful for the generous training of her main teachers including Aunty Jenny (Australian indigenous healer), Dr Lewis Mehl-Madrona (Cherokee/Lakota healer and doctor), Dr Robert ‘Rocky’ Crocker (Choctaw healer and doctor), Wikitoria (Maori Healer), the Maria Elena’s (South American), Silvia Camasaya (Peruvian shamanic healer), Kevin Turner (Foundation for Shamanic Studies), John Seed (Deep Ecology) and all the others who she have been fortunate to learn from and so assist others.

Phoenix was a manager of the ground-breaking ‘Body-wise’ program at the Western Region Centre Against Sexual Assualt, was head-hunted to conduct meditation classes for the Bushfire Recovery Program for survivors of Yarra Valley’s 2009 bushfires and worked with street kids and youth at risk in the outdoors using nature, challenges and recreation as a medium for change.

A widely published writer including two books and articles in Australian Wellbeing, Natural Health, Women’s Health, The Toronto Star, The Australian, WILD, Chicago Tribune, Dreamscapes, Fodors, Get Up & Go, Porthole, The Jerusalem Post, Outback, Living Now, Kindred Spirit and many more. She has also presented healing and transformation workshops around Australia, New Zealand and the UK and has travelled the world seeking inner and outer wisdom and understanding.

‘Jung inferred that the loss of instinct, the loss of soul…can be restored through reconnection with the sacred aspects of the natural and imaginal worlds.

In our descent to reconnect with our roots in wild nature…we may navigate unknown territory, dark waters, and close, tight spaces. We may even enter in that impenetrable dark night of the soul where all hope seems lost. But Jung urged us to look for the seed in the darkness that will come to fruition and light.

What is broken into pieces can be re-membered and begun anew like the initiate who emerges as a powerful shaman. It is possible, through the process of descent to reconnect with the sacred earth, to restore our souls to their rightful wholeness, both individually and as a culture.

By re-membering our roots in the sacred, by re- establishing right relations with nature and the imaginal, we renew our trust in the power of soul to help us find our way home.’

– Bonnie Bright