Online Counselling, Performance Coaching, Mindfulness/Meditation Classes
Melbourne-based - providing evidence-based trauma-informed online counselling,
performance coaching and meditation classes
Helping people become unstuck with Gentle Changes
Appointments now available
To make an appointment, please
Call or text: 0480 742 926
or click on the Appointment Portal button below.
Online & in-Person Counselling (Melbourne, Victoria)
Gentle Changes Counselling can help with:
- Counselling — individual support for anxiety, depression, grief and loss including
- Burnout — learning to identify the signs early, and finding an approach to recovery that actually works for you
- Neurodiversity Support/ADHD Coaching — affirmative, tailored care that works with your brain, not against it
- Psychoeducation & Mindfulness — available for individuals, community groups, and corporate organisations
- Performance Coaching — building confidence and managing nerves for public speaking, exams, and high-pressure moments
- Voice Lessons — stress and anxiety live in the body, and the voice knows it. Working gently and encouragingly with you to find, free, and grow your voice.
For people of all ages.
Becoming unstuck
It is a clunky phrase, but I like it.
As we go through life, we develop unique strategies to cope or deal with what happens. Over time, we can become stuck in a pattern of behaving or reacting that no longer works for us.
Becoming unstuck means developing different coping methods and strategies—neuroplasticity in action.
Using the phrase - becoming unstuck - removes the idea that 'we have failed and need therapy'.
We haven't failed.
We have survived with the tools available to us.
Imagine if we could say,
"I'm just a little bit stuck, and I need some assistance".
Take the first step to becoming unstuck.
Book now for online counselling, performance coaching and Mindfulness/Meditation classes.
Approach
My approach to online counselling is holistic, trauma-informed, evidence-based and collaborative. We are so much more than our diagnoses. We are individuals, with likes, quirks, preferences, strengths and we have survived the only way we know how to get us to the present day. Perhaps these old survival strategies aren't working as well anymore.
Let's work together to identify goals and develop a personalised treatment plan that works for you.
Performance Coaching
Does the thought of public speaking or performing make your
- voice clam up?
- heart start racing?
- stomach churn or sink?
Book an appointment for performance coaching to learn some strategies to relax your body so that the physiological impact of stress does not impede performance.
Public Speaking, Singing, Performing, Exam Preparation
UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL WITH GENTLE CHANGES
Welcome to Gentle Changes Counseling
Change is possible.
The patterns you developed to survive made sense — they were the best strategies available to you at the time. But survival patterns have a way of becoming default settings, running in the background long after the circumstances that created them have changed.
Here's what neuroscience tells us: the brain is not fixed. Neuroplasticity — the brain's capacity to form new neural connections — means that no pattern is permanent. Every time you repeat a thought, behaviour, or response, you're reinforcing a neural pathway. Your brain is essentially a pattern-recognition machine, constantly looking for shortcuts. This is how habits form. Your neurons are also, it turns out, tremendous social creatures — they love making new connections, building new relationships, finding better ways to work together.
The work begins with awareness — learning to identify your patterns and asking an honest question: does this still serve me? This is the heart of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. ACT is grounded in functional contextualism — the idea that what matters isn't whether a thought or behaviour is "good" or "bad" in the abstract, but whether it works for you, in your life, in the direction you actually want to move. Some patterns will. Others have outlived their usefulness, like that one song you had on repeat in 2009 that you'd really rather not be the soundtrack to your life anymore.
When you're ready to build something new, that's where we start.
Change takes time. It takes repetition. But it is absolutely possible — and the science backs that up.
Ready to take the first step?
If any of this resonates, I'd love to hear from you. Whether you're navigating something specific or simply feeling like something needs to shift, we can explore what working together might look like — at a pace that suits you, in a space that's genuinely yours.
one of the hardest things we can do is ask for help
Carers
You cannot pour from an empty cup.
Caring for someone you love is one of the most profound — and quietly one of the hardest — things a person can do.
Supporting my mother through her cancer journey was the catalyst to enrolling in a Master of Counselling, and it shapes every session I have with carers in my practice.
Combining ACT, my understanding of neuroscience, and genuine warmth, I offer a space where you get to be the focus
— your grief, your identity, your values, your life.
Mindfulness & Meditation
How can this help me?
Regular mindfulness practice and meditation classes can help the body to lower the base level of stress that we carry around with us. Stress creeps up on us, day by day, and we think it is normal (for us). and it may well be. Learning how to relax the body helps to re-set the brain. The practice of returning to a relaxed state helps us to regulate stress that life inevitably brings our way.
Webinars & Seminars
Beyond the therapy room.
My expertise doesn't stop at one-to-one work. I'm available to community organisations, corporates, and professional groups as a speaker, trainer, and psychoeducation facilitator — bringing evidence-based content to the people and places that need it most.
Topics I deliver include psychological flexibility, emotional regulation, mindfulness and meditation, and the neuroscience of stress, anxiety, and burnout. Whether your team is navigating overwhelm, your organisation wants to build genuine psychological safety, or you're looking for training that actually lands — I'd love to talk about what's possible.
I also offer individual services including online counselling, performance coaching, and meditation classes — all by appointment.
Get in touch to discuss your next event, training day, or professional development session.📧 minna@gentlechanges.com.au
About Minna Ikonen, qualified counsellor
I'm Minna Ikonen — a master's-qualified counsellor, ACT therapist, ADHD Coach, and internationally accredited mindfulness teacher. My work is built around one core belief: that with the right support, people can reconnect with what truly matters and move forward with purpose.
I work with clients as a genuine partner. Together, we explore values, set meaningful goals, and build the capacity to respond to life's challenges with clarity and intention — rather than simply reacting to them. For me, ACT isn't just a therapeutic modality; it's a way of understanding what it means to live a full, flexible, and values-driven life. I use it because I believe in it.
I have a particular interest in the neuroscience underpinning how we think, feel, and behave — and I'm currently deepening that foundation through a Graduate Certificate in Mental Health and Neuroscience. This ongoing commitment to learning isn't incidental; it's a deliberate choice to bring the best, most evidence-informed practice to every person I work with.
I'm experienced in supporting neurodiverse clients, and I tailor my approach to affirm each person's strengths and unique way of experiencing the world — never trying to fit someone into a framework that wasn't built for them. My practice warmly welcomes LGBTQIA+ clients of all ages, and I take seriously the responsibility of creating spaces where authenticity isn't just tolerated but genuinely celebrated.
I also support people navigating grief and loss — holding space for pain that deserves to be honoured, not rushed past.
Grounded in mindfulness, and with music woven into my life, I bring presence, warmth, and calm confidence to every therapeutic relationship.
