Meet the woman behind Your Wellbeing
Sitting with
T H E F O U N D E R
of Your Wellbeing
Danielle Calfas
Before becoming a social worker, Danielle was a passionate and recognised dance teacher.
This is where her story begins.
Dance was her first love and it turned into a passion of guiding and supporting youth through dance. Danielle entered schools in the National Dance Story Festival “Wakakirri” and won numerous awards.
“I had a knack for telling a story through choreography and dance. Looking back now, maybe it was a way of processing my own high school struggles”.
Danielle created dance pieces to reflect social issues teenagers face during their high school years - bullying, navigating relationships, mental health struggles, low self esteem, academic pressures, self harm and suicidal ideation.
“The kids were so passionate about re-telling the stories I created through dance because it resonated with them. It was a way to process what they were going through. It was like movement therapy for me and for them”.
After receiving a diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis (a progressive inflammatory autoimmune condition), Danielle was forced to take her work and passion in a different direction as she navigated life with chronic illness/pain.
“I would teach a one hour dance class and afterwards would be in recovery mode for 24 hours with pain and inflammation flare ups. It wasn’t something I could continue to do.
Danielle recognised that at the time of her diagnosis, her lifestyle was far from great and she was quite unhappy.
“During the early stages of my diagnosis, I was in a lot of pain, not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, spiritually. I was beyond lost, coping in unhealthy ways and all my trauma, all my emotional pain, was manifesting in my body. I needed to make some changes. I need to completely turn inward, so I decided to start that journey in the therapy space and that was the beginning of my healing”.
Danielle hit rock bottom. It was at that point she made the decision to put her focus onto her health, wellbeing & career.
As Danielle made changes in her health and lifestyle, she made the hard decision to step away from dance teaching and find a new passion.
Danielle obtained a Certificate IV in Youth Work and a Diploma in Community services. She moved to the South Coast and attended Wollongong University as a mature aged student studying for a Bachelor Degree in Social Work. At the same time she was going to therapy once a week and completely re evaluated her life.
“Talking about how you feel is amazing but in a lot of circumstances, it’s not enough on its own. I needed support to make active change. I needed information and resources. Not just around my mental health, but around study, career, relationships and my physical health. I needed to learn how to manage my physical pain and how to manage my anxiety, living with a chronic illness - the list of support I needed went on”.
Danielle states that she had to do a lot of ‘figuring it out for herself’. This led to years of holistic healing.
“As time went on, I changed pretty much everything in my life. I changed what I was putting in my body and the products I was using. I changed the ways I was coping, the people I spent time with and even where I lived. I changed my entire environment and lifestyle by stripping all of the layers of who I once was because it wasn’t serving me.
“To get the guidance and support I needed on a holistic level, I saw many practitioners in all different fields. This became extremely challenging to manage and put a big hole in my wallet. I took it upon myself to ‘do the work’ outside of the traditional therapy space”.
This motivated Danielle to do her own research into holistic health and healing while studying for her social work degree.
“This is why I had the vision for my practice. I wanted to give people who are struggling to navigate the world we live in with all its complexities (even more so now post pandemic) with a completely holistic approach to mental health care. To provide a one-stop shop for people to be supported in their physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health because it is all relevant to our healing journey".
Danielle has developed her own holistic approach to therapy that she provides at Your Wellbeing.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Social Work (Wollongong University)
Diploma in Community Services (Loftus TAFE)
Certificate IV in Youth Work (Loftus TAFE)
Certificate III in Entrepreneurship and New Business (NEIS)
Certificate III in Fitness (AIF)
Professional Associations
Australian Association of Social Workers
Training & Clearances
Mental Health & Psychological First Aid (Lifeline Australia)
DV Aware (Lifeline Australia)
Current Working With Children Check
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