Online Counselling & Carers Support in Melbourne & Victoria
📞 0480 742 926 | minna@gentlechanges.com.au
Appointments available online.
Book a session or call 0480 742 926 for a free 15-minute introductory chat today. During the introductory conversation, we can explore your needs, you can ask questions, and we can discuss whether counselling support with Minna is the right fit for you.
📞 0480 742 926 | minna@gentlechanges.com.au
Online Counselling & Carers Support in Melbourne & Victoria
📞 0480 742 926 | minna@gentlechanges.com.au
Evidence-based, trauma-informed, neuro-affirming online counselling for adults navigating stress, burnout, ADHD, grief, caregiving responsibilities, and major life changes.
Gentle Changes provides collaborative, practical support to help people become unstuck, reconnect with what matters, and develop strategies that support a more meaningful life.
Master’s-qualified counsellor offering online sessions across Victoria.
Appointments available online. Book a session or free 15-minute introductory call today.
Support for Stress, Burnout, ADHD & Carers
Gentle Changes helps people become unstuck through evidence-based, trauma-informed, neuro-affirming counselling and coaching support tailored to your individual needs.
As we move through life, we develop ways of coping with stress, overwhelm, grief, responsibility, and change. Sometimes those strategies stop working as well as they once did.
You haven’t failed.
You’ve survived with the tools available to you.
Counselling can help you identify patterns that no longer serve you, develop new strategies, and move forward with greater clarity, flexibility, and self-understanding.
My approach is collaborative, trauma-informed, neuro-affirming, evidence-based, and tailored to you as an individual. Not just a diagnosis or label.
📞 0480 742 926 | minna@gentlechanges.com.au
Carers Counselling Support
Supporting someone through illness, injury, disability, burnout, or major life change can be emotionally exhausting.
I provide counselling support for carers navigating:
● Burnout and overwhelm.
● Grief and anticipatory grief.
● Identity changes.
● Chronic stress.
● Adjustment after diagnosis or injury.
● Emotional exhaustion and compassion fatigue.
You cannot pour from an empty cup.
This is a space where your well-being matters too.
Stress, Burnout and Life Transitions
Support for adults experiencing:
● Stress and overwhelm.
● Burnout.
● Anxiety.
● Grief and loss.
● Emotional exhaustion.
● Feeling stuck.
● Life changes and uncertainty.
Together, we work to identify patterns, develop practical coping strategies, and create meaningful, sustainable change.
📞 0480 742 926 | minna@gentlechanges.com.au
ADHD Coaching Support
Neuro-affirming support for adults navigating ADHD, overwhelm, emotional regulation, executive functioning challenges, and late diagnosis.
My approach focuses on working with your brain, not against it. Building practical strategies that support everyday life while recognising your strengths, preferences, and lived experience.
Please note: Gentle Changes does not provide ADHD or autism assessments or diagnoses.
Trauma-Informed Counselling Approach
My work is grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness, neuroscience-informed practice, and trauma-informed counselling.
I work collaboratively with clients to:
● identify values and goals
● develop emotional regulation strategies
● build psychological flexibility
● reduce overwhelm
● improve coping patterns
● reconnect with what matters most
Change is possible.
It takes time, repetition, self-compassion, and support, but new patterns can be developed. Neuroplasticity in action!
📞 0480 742 926 | minna@gentlechanges.com.au
Informed by Neuroscience
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is the brain's capacity to form new neural connections throughout life - and it is the science behind how real change happens. We see evidence of neuroplasticity in people who have experienced brain injury: where function was lost, the brain found new pathways, and those pathways are visible on scans.
The same process underlies every new habit formed, every learned response that replaces an old reaction. Healing is neuroplasticity in action. Therapy works because it harnesses this capacity - gently, deliberately, over time.
Change is possible - and that, to me, is a source of genuine hope.
📞 0480 742 926 | minna@gentlechanges.com.au
About Minna Ikonen
Minna Ikonen is a Master’s-qualified counsellor, ACT therapist, ADHD coach, and internationally accredited mindfulness teacher based in Melbourne. In March 2026, she returned to University to pursue a postgraduate certificate in Mental Health and Neuroscience.
She provides evidence-based online counselling across Victoria and has a special interest in supporting carers, burnout recovery, emotional regulation, ADHD support, grief and loss, and life transitions.
Her approach is warm, collaborative and neuro-affirming - grounded in genuine respect for each person’s lived experience.
