Hello, I’m Juliana — a mother, counsellor, and trauma-sensitive yoga educator.
In a nutshell…
AwakenLife was not created all at once. It unfolded — across years of practice, study, motherhood, and quiet noticing.
Today, it is a space for being held within capacity.
A trauma-sensitive container that centres safety, consent, and the wisdom of the body.
This work supports mothers and those who walk alongside them to gently explore healing, recovery, and reconnection. Drawing from mental health, yoga, and nervous system-informed care, I offer a place to pause, soften, and meet life as it is, without urgency or expectation.
This is my story…
I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and during my years in the corporate world, I often found myself caught in the noise and urgency of everyday life. I felt, deeply and constantly, how out of alignment life can become. Eventually, the weight of it all led me to burnout.
In 2016, I booked a one-way ticket to Sydney — and I never looked back.
As I embraced my choices, life unraveled and transformed in many ways.
In 2020, I joined the 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training with The Yoga Institute in Sydney. During my time learning with them, I discovered a way of practising yoga that truly resonated with me — one without competition, without a “one-size-fits-all” approach. I found a deep sense of self-connection and a new way of being present with myself.
A deep devotion has grown in me for supporting women through pregnancy and the postpartum threshold — not as a linear journey, but as a layered, embodied unfolding.
When I became pregnant with my first son, Kai, my yoga studies naturally deepened, accompanying me through pregnancy and into the tender landscape of early motherhood. What had once been practice became relationship — with my body, my breath, and the quiet intelligence shaping life from within.
When the butterflies in the belly take the form of a little person, even the simple act of noticing one’s own belly carries new meaning. Pregnancy becomes an invitation inward — a soft turning toward oneself — where growth is not only physical, but emotional, relational, and deeply human.
This inner journey is not something to be rushed or mastered. It is a map drawn slowly, within capacity, shaped by sensation, memory, intuition, and care.
Before labour and birth, there is already a transformation unfolding. A gentle reinvention begins in the body — in the belly — asking for space to feel, to listen, and to be met with safety. Giving birth is not only about bringing a baby into the world, but about allowing emotions, fears, and sensations to move and be held, rather than carried alone.
I feel deeply honoured to walk alongside women in this season. To support them in embodying pregnancy, and in gently integrating the beyond-imaginable experience of birth — both the arrival of the baby, and the becoming of the mother — held with care, respect, and within capacity..
We can hold more than one truth to our existence.
Motherhood arrived with deep joy — and with tenderness I did not anticipate. Recovering from Kai’s birth asked me to slow down, to listen, and to meet myself in new ways. It is a journey that continues to unfold, inviting me to hold both light and shadow with care.
That experience led me into the study of birth trauma, and into the understanding that memory lives not only in the mind, but in the body and the heart. Learning trauma-sensitive, body-led ways of healing became essential — supporting me through grief, pregnancy, and the birth of my second child, Luca.
This path shaped my work in healing after birth trauma and gave rise to Held Within Capacity — a trauma-informed methodology rooted in safety, pacing, and respect for the nervous system. It is an approach that honours duality, complexity, and the truth that healing unfolds when we are gently held, rather than pushed.
As a trauma-sensitive yoga educator and integrative counsellor, my intention is to create a supportive, compassionate space where healing can unfold within capacity. I walk alongside each person as they meet life with greater kindness, courage, and curiosity.
My work is informed by lived experience, clinical training, and years of embodied practice. I hold a deep respect for the body’s wisdom and for the pace each nervous system requires.
Qualifications & Training
Bachelor of Psychology — Laureate International Universities (IBMR), Rio de Janeiro
Diploma of Counselling — Australian Learning Group, Sydney
Resource Therapy — Resource Therapy International, Sydney
500-hour Yoga Studies Teacher Training — The Yoga Institute, Sydney
Registered Yoga Teacher — Yoga Australia
Pre- and Postnatal Yoga (50-hour Postgraduate Training) — The Yoga Institute, Sydney
Postgraduate Training: Yoga for Trauma, Anxiety, Depression & Body Image (50 hours) — Sarah Ball
