About Me

Welcome, I’m Tristan

Women come to therapy for many reasons — during periods of transition, after years of coping alone, or when something inside quietly says, I can’t keep going this way.

You may be navigating changes in relationships, work, health, identity, or simply a growing sense that something needs to shift. Often, it’s not about one event, but an accumulation — of stress, self-abandonment, emotional fatigue, or old patterns that no longer fit.

Tristan Stein Therapy & Wellbeing offers a place to pause, steady yourself, and gently reconnect with your inner wisdom and knowing.

In a world that rewards pushing through, this is a space to soften and deepen to reclaim your inner strength, clarity and agency.

 

 

My role is not to fix you, but to support you to reconnect with your inner resources, heal parts shaped by shame or self-denial, and learn to honour your true needs, feelings, and boundaries. Together, we work toward recovering your authenticity, vitality, and sense of self-trust.

My approach supports you to:

  • recognise emotions as meaningful messengers

  • calm and support your nervous system

  • develop self-trust and emotional wisdom

  • work with yourself instead of against yourself

  • prioritise gentleness, compassion, and integrity

I am committed to honouring your unique voice — what has hurt you, what matters to you, and what brings you alive. 

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I’m Tristan, let’s chat

How I Work

I work collaboratively with you to find ways forward that best meet your own unique challenges and goals.

My approach to therapy is warm and non-judgemental, drawing on relational, experiential and emotion-based models which form the foundation for helping people to connect with themselves and others in new ways – ways in which people describe feeling more real and alive.

Emotion-centred

“Your own emotions are the key to your recovery.”
Karla McLaren

I have learned through years of self-discovery and working with clients that transformational change and wellbeing stem from connecting with our true feelings. Emotions are our internal compass – the foundation of our vitality, values, and compassion. Deepening connection with our emotions allows us to appreciate our uniqueness, act on our own behalf when facing life challenges, and create an authentic life.

Experiential

“You’re not trying to figure it out, you’re trying to enter into what’s there.”
Eugene Peterson

When we suppress or avoid feelings, they don’t go away. Instead, they get stored in our bodies, and can lead us to feel triggered without knowing why. Thinking about feelings is different to feeling our feelings (connecting bodily with our feelings). Healing involves feeling what is there to untangle emotional experiences and rewrite old stories, allowing new possibilities to open up and a renewed sense of vitality and aliveness to emerge.

Relational

“Our ‘true self’ emerges by fully experiencing and processing our emotions in the presence of a ‘true other’.”
Diana Fosha

We are wired to heal, but change can be daunting, and sometimes we need a steady and caring “true other” to accompany us through the process. Through authentic and intuitive connection, I create space for what previously felt too overwhelming. By honouring your experience in a way that feels safe and supported, you can begin to trust yourself and develop the confidence to handle whatever comes your way in life.
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Guiding Principles

Like you, I am living, feeling, and learning from my human experiences. I am deeply inspired by clients, and it is always a privilege to witness them create more connected and fulfilling lives. I am also forever grateful to the “true others” in my own life who have supported me to find my unique voice, and who believed in me.

I do…

Invite human-ness and being real
Prioritise your sense of safety and connection
Know you have the capacity to heal, however broken you feel
Believe there are untapped resources and capacities within you waiting to be uncovered
Honour the wonder and joy, as well as the pain
Work with approaches that focus on the body/brain connection
Commit to my own growth, through ongoing professional and personal development

I don’t…

Focus on labels or pathologising you for the creative ways you learned to cope
Believe in Band-aid fixes
Adopt a “neutral” stance
Favour a manualised, one-size-fits-all approach
Tell you what you “should” be doing
Position myself as an “expert” on you – our work together is a collaboration
Believe you need to be “fixed” – you’re not broken, you’re human

Education

M.A. Counselling & Psychotherapy
M.A. Arts
B.A. Law
B.A. Arts

Associations

PACFA: Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (Clinical Member, Registered Clinical Counsellor®)

ARCAP: The Australian Register of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (Clinical Member)

AEDP Institute: Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy Institute

Advanced Training

I regularly participate in clinical supervision, consultation groups, and postgraduate training and workshops. I am committed to your emotional wellbeing, and my own. My undertaking to you is that I will keep growing and developing professionally and personally.