- Psychoanalytic approach
- Breathwork for anxiety
- Perinatal mental health
About Camila
Camila De Oliveira Mendes Leal is an ACA counsellor with ten years' experience, originally trained as a psychologist in Brazil and practising in Australia. She works with adults on stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, parenting concerns, self-esteem and coping with life changes. Sessions are offered in English and Portuguese.
Camila describes a practice informed by psychoanalytic ideas alongside practical regulation skills. She uses breathwork drawn from HeartMath to help with anxiety and stress, and she applies techniques from neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy to help clients reframe unhelpful patterns. These approaches aim to combine reflection on past patterns with tools for managing strong feelings.
Her work includes attention to trauma and the emotional effects of perinatal experience, and she supports people coping with chronic stress and the demands of caregiving. She also notes experience with abandonment and attachment issues, body image and challenges linked to chronic illness. The focus is on helping people understand painful feelings and find ways to live with them more manageably.
Camila frames sessions as a collaborative process where exploration of early patterns and present-day regulation skills happen together. She welcomes someone who wants to look at how past experiences shape current self-blame or shame, while also learning concrete breathing and grounding practices.
Practical steps to begin include completing a short matching questionnaire and scheduling a first session. The subscription model used for sessions can be cancelled at any time.
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Camila draws on psychoanalytic ideas to help people notice recurring patterns and the unconscious links between past events and present feelings. This involves talking through memories, identifying themes, and noticing how old responses show up today, which can help when guilt or shame feels persistent.She also uses breathwork techniques influenced by HeartMath to teach simple breathing and grounding exercises. These are practical tools for managing spikes of anxiety or intense emotion and can be practised between sessions. In addition, techniques from neuro-linguistic programming and hypnotherapy are used to reframe unhelpful self-talk and reduce the hold of repeating negative stories about the self.
Finding the right mix of approaches is part of the work. The therapist will discuss goals, preferences and what feels most useful, and then try different ways of working together to see what fits. This is a collaborative process rather than a fixed treatment plan.
The biography does not list specific session formats, so confirm current online options before booking. Online sessions can make it easier to fit therapy into a workday, avoid travel time, or choose a shorter check-in when life is busy. They also let people practise breathwork and grounding strategies in the moments they need them, and sessions can be scheduled to suit everyday routines.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Additional focus areas
Experience
10+ years
Listed in
Australia
Languages
English, Portuguese
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does she help with?
She works with stress, anxiety, trauma and abuse, parenting, self-esteem and coping with life changes, among other related issues.
How does she approach feelings of guilt or shame?
Her approach combines psychoanalytic exploration of past patterns with practical regulation tools like breathwork and reframing techniques.
How much clinical experience does she have?
She has ten years of experience, including training as a psychologist in Brazil and practice in Australia.
What credential does she hold and where is she based?
She is a Level 4 counsellor with the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) and works in Australia.
Which languages are supported in sessions?
Sessions are offered in English and Portuguese.
Can people outside Australia work with her?
International clients are not currently accepted.
What session formats are available?
Session formats are not specified in the biography; please confirm the current session options before booking.
How are fees and starting steps handled?
Cost varies with location and sessions use a subscription that can be cancelled at any time; to start, complete the short matching questionnaire and schedule a first session.
Online talk therapy is not emergency care. If you are in danger or thinking about harming yourself, use the crisis numbers.