A reflection and a vision

Dear my beautiful Oli Wellbeing community,

I have gone to write this blog so many times over the last year. Now, on the 9th / 10th of January 2026, it finally feels both timely and right on time to share it with you.

Those close to me know that 2025 was a year when many of my anchors crumbled, revealing what truly endured: Oli Wellbeing, my inner strength, my community, and my deep connection to Mother Earth. Even within those though there were moments of unraveling too. There was pruning, there were endings, and there were also births and new beginnings. All of it woven together across the year.

In March 2025, I began my second Master’s degree. Yes, perhaps a little mad, but spirit guided me there, and I’m deeply grateful I listened. I studied Public Health with a major in Indigenous Health, which became a natural extension of my first Master’s in systems change, strategic leadership, and sustainable development, where my focus was working alongside Indigenous communities. It also beautifully complemented my recent work and learning in counselling, traditional herbalism, Indigenous relations and psychedelic-assisted therapy.

At times, being within academic systems felt destabilising. I could feel them crumbling too, alongside economic, corporate, and political systems, with many people holding on for dear life. More on that later, and more on my Master’s journey another time. For now, I’m proud to say the coursework is complete, and in 2026 I move into the final piece: a placement (or internship). I’m genuinely looking forward to this next chapter.

In April 2025, I left one of my heart homes, Oʻahu. One of the hardest moments I’ve experienced in a long time. I had created a dream life, held by a dream community, and I had to walk away from it. A profound lesson in impermanence, detachment, and love. I’m grateful I got to experience that life, even briefly. As they say, it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all.

Why did I love Oʻahu so deeply? Who doesn’t? For me of course it was the Native Hawaiian culture, but also the land’s history, the aloha spirit, the diversity, all the incredible people I met and got to know, the arts, food, ocean, and surf. There were so many highlights: my 94-year-old neighbour and her family, the land I lived on, learning to weave tapestries, community collaborations, surfing my favourite waves and Hōkūleʻa. When I look back, it feels like a vast tapestry, every thread interconnected, supporting deep healing and re-membering. I’ll share more in a dedicated Oʻahu blog soon.

In April, I returned to so-called Australian soil, and it came as a profound shock to my system. I wasn’t ready. There was so much grief and a lot of revisiting old wounds. It took around eight months for my body, heart, and spirit to begin catching up, and even now there are moments when nothing fully makes sense and nothing has fulled landed. I don’t feel like I’ve truly started a new chapter here yet, let alone rebuilt a life. I still find myself in a liminal space, slowly and consciously shaping a sense of “normal” in my everyday life. I’ll explore this more in another blog, as there is a great deal to share about the power of this in-between space. It feels very much like an integration phase after any profound or transformative experience.

I have a complex relationship with this land (so-called Australia), as many of us do. I’ve often felt like an outsider here, and as someone recently reminded me: as a white person on stolen land, if you don’t feel that discomfort, something is off. I am not on my ancestral lands. And I continue to explore my relationship with this land, my ancestral lands and the many lands I have resided on as a visitor also. 

Over the last seven years, I’ve been on a conscious and unconscious ancestral healing journey. Through this, I’ve sought forgiveness, accountability, and some sense of peace as a visitor here. On other lands I have found it even more complex.

Roots and belonging now live more within me, more than in any one place. As a lifelong nomad, I’ve learned to find home internally and across the globe rather than in one fixed location, in one fixed shelter or in one person or peoples. This comes with it’s perks and it’s challenges. It is very freeing, but sometimes I miss the depth and messiness of staying in a community for a long period of time. More on home, belonging, safety and stability soon, because I feel like I have been initiated in all in the last 7 years.

This year in particular tested all of that deeply. I lost many external anchors, Oʻahu, some of my community, my main work, stable income, love, our family home, and at one point even my studies. I was asked to build resilience from within, without relying on anything external. There were moments of deep isolation and moments where people stepped in and held me, even new acquaintances blew me away with their kindness. Long-term friends showed up in quiet, powerful ways. Slowly, a new tapestry of community formed here, and it continues to grow.

So, enough about me. Let’s talk about Oli Wellbeing.

At the beginning of the year, I offered many oracle readings to people around the world. It was profoundly special. My community expanded, and each reading moved me deeply. This work is where I find flow, where I work between worlds, listening and translating.

Through this, I realised the readings were often the doorway into deeper healing work. From there, we would often focus on a specific thread from the reading and go deeper in other 1:1 sessions. This is how the NEW ERA sessions emerged as a special offer when I finished my masters course work, a three-card reading combined with a holistic health analysis, and tangible steps forward. I loved these sessions so much that I made them a permanent offering.

My vision is that clients begin with a Clarity Reading or NEW ERA session, laying the foundation, and then move into holistic health sessions as needed.

I now offer holistic health sessions, rather than focusing solely on mental health. This expansion came from two places: my clients’ needs, particularly rising burnout and health complexity and my own learning across herbalism, regenerative leadership, public health, and Indigenous health.

Together, we explore health through a systems lens, considering social, cultural, environmental, spiritual, and relational determinants of health. We look for root causes, not just symptoms, with a deep understanding that health is not solely the responsibility of the individual. When needs fall outside my scope, I collaborate with trusted specialists, including psychologists, doctors, herbalists, Chinese medicine practitioners, and naturopaths. We also work with the systems you are nested within, family, work, community, and environment. This work is relational, integrative, grounded, and deeply human. We heal in community and together, not in isolation.

In 2025, we also continued consulting, something we truly love. We support organisations to bring complex visions to life, design and deliver operational excellence, and ensure teams are well and thriving while continuously learning and adapting. You can explore this work on our website. We are eager to take on more consulting clients and 1:1 clients this year, as well as starting our Group Holistic Health processes.

At the end of 2024, we had hoped to bring a global gathering of Traditional Healers and Indigenous Leaders to life in Oʻahu in 2025. Due to relocation and shifting funding landscapes, this has paused. We’re now building relationships here in so-called Australia and exploring possibilities for 2026 or 2027. If this calls to you, please reach out. We will be building a like-minded team to bring this to life. 

We also wrote much of our book in early 2025 in Oahu, around 70% of a first draft. The pause during study gave me depth and clarity. Returning to it now feels nourishing.

We also relaunched the Oli Wellbeing podcast “Flowing Between Worlds” and we started with a inspiring conversation Kaylene Langford, Founder of Startup Creative and proud Queer Guringai woman,  whose wisdom has shaped both my business and heart. The podcast explores health through Indigenous wisdom, deep listening, and relational healing. It remains connected to our Give Back program, which Kay inspired.

And finally, we launched the Oli Creative Studio;  Weave, Vessel, and Voice, a home for art as medicine. At Oli, creativity is not separate from health and healing. It is health and healing. Art is how we listen to land and sea, honour ancestry, and translate the unseen into form.

So for 2026, there will be a lot going on, we will continue to nurture every facet of the business and see where it takes us. We envision serving a lot more organisations, communities and people this year and we can’t wait.

A reflection and a vision ~ the collective

The collective is noisy. Chaotic. And yes, it may intensify in 2026.

So who do we become and what do we do?

I have a vision that we become islands of coherence.

“Islands of coherence” is a term used in systems thinking, complexity science, trauma-informed practice, and collective care spaces to describe pockets of stability, meaning, and alignment that emerge within chaotic or collapsing systems.

This will look different for everyone, but here are some ideas on how you might co-create islands of coherence.

We find people to make sense of these times with. We tend to our relationships. We share time, wisdom, presence, energy, our gifts, and resources.

We lean in to giving and receiving in new ways. Small acts matter. Daily rituals matter. Being of service matters.

When things feel overwhelming, holding space for my clients brings me back to purpose and presence. It reminds me that I am contributing to the great web of life.

What could this look like for you?

What is giving you meaning or purpose right now?

What are your core values right now? These are a great compass for coherence in these times.

How do you feel you are contributing to the great web of life?

Care for your community. Care for the Environment. Care for yourself. Focus on relationships near and far. We’ve moved beyond individual self-care, collective care is essential now. What could that look like in your world?

Also: remember the magic. Butterflies flapping in front of you. Water on petals. The smell of much needed rain or sun. A furry friend knowing when you need a hug. Strangers who smile. Plants that bloom despite harsh conditions. These moments fuel us.

This also doesn’t mean ignoring the brutality, heartbreak and grief of our times. It supports you to go there. It supports you to honour the paradox of the human experience. To learn to witness and hold it all without collapsing.

In your islands of coherence I invite you to stay informed, discerning, and accountable together. Take in and digest information intentionally, consciously, with spaciousness and with support. These times can actually be incredible mirrors for our own inner and collective work. Where is the medicine in all of this, even if painful?

Also in your islands of coherence, I invite you to get curious together about where you could focus your collective energies right now?

These are just a few ideas, I hope it is supportive in some way, it has been for me. May we all become islands of coherence together in 2026.

Ok thats it for now, thank you for reading my first blog, I loved sharing and I look forward to sharing more long-form writing with you this year.

If you have any thoughts to share please add them below. Also, please feel free to share my blog too.

If you feel called to work together this year, whether it be 1:1 work, group processes or through consulting, you can explore my offerings on my website or reach me at hello@oliwellbeing.com.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

With love and deep gratitude,

Anna :)