Hello, I’m Amreeta Stara.

The person I am today is shaped by lived experience, deep self-reflection, and over a decade of professional work across hypnotherapy and psychotherapy, Positive Behaviour Support (PBS), mental health, education leadership, and disability services. My journey has been one of transformation — both personally and professionally — and it is this integration of lived experience and evidence-based practice that informs the way I support individuals, families, and support teams.

I grew up in a conservative and highly restricted environment, which shaped many of my early beliefs, coping patterns, and nervous system responses. I initially pursued a career in law and worked across corporate law, business, and education leadership. While successful externally, a series of challenging life experiences eventually led to significant anxiety, emotional dysregulation, and burnout. During this period, I became increasingly reactive under stress and disconnected from myself, impacting both my wellbeing and my capacity to show up as the parent and person I aspired to be. Over time, this was reflected physically through chronic fatigue, headaches, recurrent illness, and a persistent state of survival.

This period became a turning point. I stepped away from my legal career and began seeking deeper, more sustainable approaches to healing. A pivotal hypnotherapy experience helped me understand how unresolved trauma, subconscious patterning, and nervous system dysregulation were influencing my thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. I recognised that I had been operating from a long-standing survival state — responding automatically rather than consciously — and that meaningful change required nervous system regulation, self-awareness, and compassion.

Over the past twelve years, I have immersed myself in the study and practice of hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, mental health and neuroscience, ACT-informed approaches, mindfulness, nervous system regulation, and trauma-informed care. This work enabled me to regulate my own nervous system, reconnect with myself, and cultivate greater presence, clarity, and emotional resilience — both personally and professionally. Experiencing this transformation firsthand strengthened my commitment to supporting others to move out of survival mode and into lives characterised by safety, meaning, and connection.

This same integrative, trauma-informed and person-centred lens underpins my work within the NDIS as a Positive Behaviour Support Practitioner, where I support individuals with disability, their families, and support networks through evidence-based, rights-focused practice. My NDIS services are offered separately and can be accessed via my dedicated Positive Behaviour Support website. www.pbsmelbourne.com.au