OUR WELLNESS COLLECTIVE

An integrative, trauma-informed, culturally sustaining mental health practice. 

A space where diversity is not just celebrated but represented.

We believe that connection and compassion are the keys to building the capacity needed for, lasting change. We believe that when individuals heal, their communities do too.

inclusive

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respectful

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multilingual

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inclusive 〰️ respectful 〰️ multilingual 〰️

Our Vision

At Our Wellness Collective, we provide mental health care that is integrative, trauma-informed, and culturally sustaining a space where diversity is not just celebrated but represented.

We are committed to bridging gaps in mainstream mental health care, especially for those navigating the complexities of intersecting identities—embracing the full spectrum of diversity including cultural, linguistic, racial, cognitive, neurological and in lived experiences.

Our mission is to redefine the standard of care by ensuring that our approach and services meet the individual, not the other way around. In doing so, we strive to foster and environment that is both supportive and effective.

OWC - clinic providing mental health services in Adelaide

Integrative, culturally sustaining mental health services for people from all walks of life.

We are dedicated to providing compassionate, respectful, and empowering psychotherapy services that adapt to the unique needs of every individual.

We are committed to bridging gaps in mainstream mental health care, especially for those navigating the complexities of intersecting identities—embracing the full spectrum of diversity including cultural, linguistic, racial, cognitive, neurological and in lived experiences.

To empower individuals, couples, and groups through connection and compassion with the tools needed to build capacity that leads to lasting change.

Approaches and Modalities

    • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

    • Attachment Theory

    • Behaviour Therapy

    • Client-Centred Therapy

    • Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)

    • Compassion-Based Approaches

    • Couples Counselling

    • Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) Principles

    • Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)

    • Exposure Therapy

    • Integrative Behaviour Therapy (IBT)

    • Motivational Interviewing (MI)

    • Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET)

    • Psychodynamic Principles

    • Solution-Focused Therapy

    • Systemic Therapy

  • These incorporate alternative, body-based, holistic dimensions to healing:

    • Analytic (Jungian Framework)

    • Internal Family Systems (IFS)

    • Mindfulness

    • Narrative Therapy

    • Strengths-Based Approaches

    • Trauma-Informed Approaches

    • Somatic Psychotherapy

    • Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy

    • Ecopsychotherapy

    • Multilingual Mindfulness Practices

    • Cultural-Specific Healing Methodologies

OUR WELLNESS COLLECTIVE

How our journey began

The story of Our Wellness Collective is deeply connected to the lived experiences of its founder, Vanessa Irakoze Bendikov. Originally from Burundi, a Central East African country, Vanessa grew up across the diaspora—a journey rich with diversity but also marked by the challenges of navigating multiple often intersecting identities, expectations, and histories.

Her experiences highlight the complexities of cultural integration and its profound impact on mental health, belonging, and self-discovery, which drew her to studies in psychology, later specialising in psychotherapy. As her career evolved, she became increasingly aware of the ways mainstream mental health services were falling short in addressing the unique needs of marginalised communities. This is where the Our Wellness Collective idea started.

She hopes that Our Wellness Collective can be a safe and inclusive space where individuals can gather themselves, heal, reconnect, grow, and find hope for the future.

OWC - providing cultural sensitive mental health services in a safe space

A Sustainable Difference

We believe that expression in ones native language can deepen the impact of talk therapy.

Our Collective provides services in over 8 languages. These are: English, French, Mandarin, Arabic, Cantonese, German, Kirundi and Shona. We are always working to grow this list and highly value this skill in prospective team members.

We believe in a collaborative multidisciplinary approach to therapy and wellness and so build our team to represent all accredited therapy professions in Australia.

    • Abuse Recovery

    • Acute stress disorder*

    • Addiction*

    • Adolescent Mental Health (9 years and above only)

    • ADHD

    • Adjusting to a new country and culture

    • Anger management

    • Anxiety

    • Autism Spectrum Conditions

    • Attachment disorders

    • Body image issues

    • Burnout

    • Carer support

    • Childhood trauma

    • Chronic illness and pain

    • Communication and assertiveness

    • Compassion fatigue

    • Complex trauma

    • Coparenting

    • Couples counselling

    • Depression

    • Drug and alcohol issues*

    • Emotional regulation difficulties

    • Eating Disorder*

    • Family counselling

    • Giftedness and Gifted specific trauma

    • Gifted specific challenges

    • Gender identity

    • Generalised anxiety

    • Grief and loss

    • Health anxiety

    • Identity integration challenges

    • Internet and gaming addiction*

    • Life changes and transitions

    • Low self-esteem

    • Neurodiversity Integration

    • Invisible/Medically unexplained (Psychosomatic) illness

    • Obsessions and compulsions

    • Panic attacks

    • Parenting

    • Pastoral Counselling and Supervision

    • People from immigrant, asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds

    • Perfectionism

    • Personal growth

    • Phobias and fears

    • Pornography problems/ addictions

    • Post-traumatic stress

    • Pre-Marital Counselling

    • Pre and postnatal mental health

    • Relationship difficulties

    • Sexuality and identity

    • Sleep problems

    • Social anxiety

    • Stress

    • Vicarious trauma

Our Values

At Our Wellness Collective, we want to demonstrate our beliefs through what we do and how we do it. The following core values guide and inform our practice:

  • We offer an environment that is compassionate by offering each client, connection, kindness, consideration, empathy, respect and dignity. We believe in socially responsible environments and so we require the same principles from our clients and collaborators.

  • We provide a multidisciplinary team of therapists that share their expertise and perspectives and grow together. We collaborate with our clients to build their treatment journeys and we collaborate with organisations that align with our ethos.

  • We educate and equip our clients with tools and knowledge to become self directed, advocates of psychological safety for themselves and for their communities.

  • We ensure high-quality mental health support that is sustainable and cost effective. We do this through flexible service options for all budgets, in partnership with our clients.

  • We extend hospitality to our clients in recognising, celebrating and representing diversity in the broad sense and have a particular focus on cultural and linguistic diversity.

Highly recommend OWC. Each person I’ve interacted with here has been warm, professional and supportive. I’ve been seeing Vanessa for a while and cannot recommend enough! She’s compassionate, insightful and understanding. Highly highly recommend services offered at OWC, they don’t disappoint.

— C. M.

Begin your wellness journey, today.