Amy Benjamin
Holistic Counsellor & ACC Group Clinician
Amy predominantly works as an ACC-registered Group Clinician in partnership with Jessica Dziwulska from Brighter Life, supporting the facilitation of Trauma Sensitive Yoga groups (in-person and online) and Tools for Transforming Trauma day retreats in Auckland and online.
Amy has over a decade of experience supporting adolescent and adult clients in private practice, in both individual and group settings, with referrals from organisations including Youthline, The Grief Centre, Clearhead, AUT, and Aoake te Rā Aotearoa (supporting individuals bereaved by suicide). She has a strong focus on relational, trauma-informed, and client-centred care. Amy works closely with referring clinicians and clients from first contact to support safety, clarity, and informed participation. Her triage process includes a structured client questionnaire exploring emotional experience, regulation, body awareness, relational capacity, and overall wellbeing to assess readiness for group participation.
Throughout the groups and retreats, Amy remains actively involved, offering consistent clinical oversight, emotional containment, and therapeutic support to enhance cohesion and psychological safety. She maintains communication with referrers regarding engagement and any emerging clinical considerations, supporting continuity of care and integrated treatment planning.
A unique aspect of Amy’s background is her passion for ecotherapy and somatic, nature-based therapeutic practice, and through her business, The Outdoor Counsellor, she offers therapeutic walking and outdoor counselling sessions, integrating somatic and nature-based approaches to support emotional regulation, wellbeing, and reconnection with self through connection with nature.
She is not currently accepting referrals for one-to-one counselling, as her focus is on group-based work and creating community spaces that support co-regulation, connection, and belonging.
Ecotherapy and nature-based therapy
Ecotherapy intentionally brings the natural world into the therapeutic process, recognising that connection with nature can also create opportunities for deeper connection with ourselves. Through therapeutic walking, sensory awareness, movement, creativity, reflection and connection with place, we explore our relationship with our bodies, emotions and inner experience.
Nature can offer space to slow down, notice what is happening within and around us, and explore themes such as grounding, change, resilience, boundaries, belonging and growth. These practices can support nervous-system regulation, self-awareness, connection and wellbeing, while helping people discover accessible ways to draw on the natural world as an ongoing resource in everyday life.
