About
Joanna Wood
Counsellor supporting women in midlife to live, love and lead with intention.
You’ve spent decades showing up for everyone else. This is your time.
Now it’s your turn to reconnect with yourself, your purpose, and what really matters.
If you’re reading this, something in your life might be shifting or quietly asking for your attention.
You might look capable and calm on the outside. But inside, there’s restlessness, fatigue, or the quiet truth that something needs to change… you're just not sure what that looks like yet.
I know that feeling not just professionally, but personally. I’ve lived through seasons of self-doubt, transition, reinvention, and eventually, clarity. That lived experience shapes how I sit beside the women I work with today.
My Journey
Before becoming a counsellor, I spent over 20 years in leadership roles within the Australian Government, including an international diplomatic post that had been a long-held goal. Think of a fourteen year goal involving my Masters and obtaining one of only eight international education diplomatic postings. It was a fulfilling chapter that brought purpose, challenge, and meaning.
But that’s not the whole story.
Earlier in life, I experienced hardship. I know what it’s like to start over. I’ve navigated complex family systems, rebuilt as a single parent, and carved a path that felt true to who I was becoming. Those experiences shaped me into a person with strength and certainty.
In time, I felt a shift. I wanted more connection. I wanted to be present with my adult daughter, my future partner, my community, and most of all, with myself. The pull wasn’t away from my career, it was toward something that felt more real. I wanted to live a life with purpose, joy and the freedom to choose my next chapter.
Today, I bring together everything I’ve lived, learned, and led. I work with women in midlife who are ready for a new chapter that reflects their truth, not just their responsibilities. I offer a space where your story is honoured and your next steps are supported with care, clarity, and integrity.
How I Work
My style is calm, grounded and client-centred. I bring together evidence-informed counselling, body-based practices, and a deeply relational way of working.
I draw on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Solution-Focused principles, somatic awareness and reflective tools that gently guide insight and action. My work is also shaped by more than two decades in senior leadership, group facilitation and personal development.
Sessions with me aren’t clinical or cold. They are spacious, steady and tailored to the season you’re in.
Whether we’re working together one-to-one or in a small group, the focus is always on reconnecting you with your own clarity, values and self-trust.
This isn’t about fixing you. It’s about walking beside you as you remember who you are, and what matters most now.
Why I Offer Both Counselling and Group Programs
There’s no single way to heal, grow or reconnect.
Some women want private support where they can be deeply seen and held. Others find strength in sharing space with women who understand their world without needing explanation.
That’s why I offer both.
My one-to-one counselling sessions provide a calm, confidential space for deeper personal work. My group programs offer shared reflection, gentle community and meaningful conversation. Both paths are shaped with care, intention and deep respect for your lived experience.
You get to choose the kind of support that feels most aligned for where you are.
All sessions and programs are available online, so you can join from wherever you are in Australia or beyond.
If Something Here Has Resonated…
You’re warmly invited to explore what working together could look like. A free 15-minute connection call is a gentle place to start.
We’ll talk about what’s bringing you here, and whether this is the right space for you right now.
No pressure. No expectations. Just support.
Qualifications
Diploma of Counselling - Australian Institute of Professional Counselling
200 hour Yoga Teacher Training - Sivananda Yoga, Vietnam
Breathwork Training - Australian Breathwork College, Melbourne
Master of Public Policy - Australian National University
Training & Assessment - Canberra Institute of Technology
Professional Membership
What Others Have Shared
These are the words of women I’ve worked with, in their own voice.
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Life-changing clarity and support
Joanna is incredibly culturally competent and her depth of life experience, knowledge and ACT-based guidance have been transformative for me.
Her values work helped me see things more clearly than anything I’ve done before. Her support has genuinely been life-changing.
Anh N, Melbourne
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Wisdom, compassion and direction
I am so grateful I have been able to seek guidance, wisdom and support from Joanna.
Her wealth of knowledge and lived experience of recovery and living one’s very best life has been a source of inspiration to me.
I find her approach accepts you perfectly right where you are and she knows how to help you lay out the next step. Whether that is rest, reflection or all out action.
ALD, Canberra.
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Safe, restorative and nurturing
Joanna provides a truly professional and nurturing counselling experience. Her calm presence and intuitive care create a space that feels both safe and deeply restorative.
Every session leaves me feeling lighter, centred, and genuinely cared for. I highly recommend her.
Amy, Canberra