Mobile : +61 404 148 541
Mobile : +61 404 148 541
Maybe you've spent years saying yes when you meant no. Shrinking yourself to keep the peace. Carrying everyone else's weight while yours quietly crushed you. If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone — and it's not too late to change the pattern.
Boundaries aren't walls, and they aren't selfish. They're the language of self-respect — a way of teaching the people around you, and yourself, what you will and won't accept. For many of the clients I work with, learning to set boundaries is less about the people around them and more about unlearning years of believing their needs come last.
Together, we'll explore where these patterns come from, why speaking up can feel so unsafe, and how to build the confidence to advocate for yourself — in relationships, at work, and within your own family — without guilt hijacking the process.
I provide this support in Bundoora, Mill Park, South Morang, Epping, Reservoir, Doreen, Mernda, Wollert, Thomastown, Lalor, Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park, Preston, Somerton, and across greater Melbourne — in person and via telehealth. Sessions are available in English and Arabic. As a PACFA-registered Clinical Counsellor with 5+ years of experience and over 1,500 individual session
Please reach us at admin@petuniacounselling.com.au if you cannot find an answer to your question.
It involves exploring where people-pleasing or difficulty saying no comes from, and building the confidence to communicate your needs clearly and respectfully, in relationships, at work, and within your family.
It is not a separate therapy model so much as a specific focus. The same evidence-based approaches used across sessions are applied specifically to patterns of self-sacrifice, boundary-setting, and selfworth.
Healthy boundaries, communicated respectfully, tend to strengthen relationships over time rather than damage them, even though the process of learning to set them can feel uncomfortable at first.
Many clients come to this work after recognising a long-standing pattern of putting everyone else's needs ahead of their own, often after years of feeling unseen or overextended.
Many clients notice small shifts in confidence within the first few sessions, though building lasting change in long-held patterns is typically an ongoing process worked through together over time.
Roula AbuGhazaleh
Clinical Counsellor | PACFA Registered | Petunia Counselling Services | English and Arabic
www.PetuniaCounselling.com.au | admin@petuniacounselling.com.au |+61 404 148 541
Proudly serving Bundoora, Mill Park, South Morang, Epping, Wollert, Mernda, Doreen, and greater Melbourne — in person and via TeleHealth
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