Nirelle Bennett – My Story
Supporting your transformation
BASTA! Enough. That’s it. I’m done.
It’s 2 am, and I’m sobbing at my laptop. I’ve spent hours trying to get my sleep-refusing baby to go the f*ck to sleep. Panicked that in a few hours, the report I’m agonising over is due to be submitted to my hyper-critical, micromanaging boss.
Pushing through sleep deprivation and a severe migraine, I’m trying hard to focus on the screen, but all I can hear is the voice screaming in my head – you worthless idiot! You’re nothing but a fraud. A failure. Who do you think you are?!
At Gippsland Hypnotherapy, I specialise in empowering individuals like you to achieve profound transformation.
Everyone deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential.
That’s why I offer a range of flexible, personalised hypnotherapy and coaching services to suit your schedule and budget.
From our first meeting, you can feel confident knowing I’ll develop a course of treatment to create lasting, positive change.
A traumatic childhood
My childhood was dysfunctional, abusive and traumatic. Significant snapshots include – at age 4, lying in bed at 3 am, terrified as my drunk mother and stepfather screamed abuse at each other.
At age 13, terrified, unsafe and desperately alone. I couldn’t keep the family secret any longer. I finally found the courage to speak out. Unaware that life as I knew it was about to explode.
At 14, I called an ambulance for my mother as she lay unconscious because of an alcohol-induced nervous breakdown. I remember thinking dispassionately, ‘I never want to be like you’.
My beautiful paternal nanna was my safe place. She loved, nurtured and encouraged me. Soon after I’d dropped the bomb that blew up my family life as I knew it, I declared to nanna;
‘I’m going to finish school, go to university, get a good job and be in charge of my own life’.
Her shock confused me. I felt my bold plan terribly pragmatic. In hindsight, I realised it was beyond her comprehension. None of my family had ever been to university, and nanna, a 1950s housewife, had to leave her job when she married. She responded, ‘but Nirelle, we’re more of a blue-collar family. Maybe you could be a secretary or a receptionist’.
I remained adamant. I knew what I wanted, and I was going to have it.
But her words planted a painful seed of doubt that grew to cause much destruction in later years.
Time to build a life on my own terms
Finally, at 16, I was old enough to escape, leaving home and school and starting my first full-time job.
After hours, I dedicated myself to my education and career. I told myself stories like ‘I need to be seen to be perfect’ and ‘I need to work harder than anyone else’. I was hyper-vigilant and constantly fearful, certain I’d be exposed as the fraud and imposter I believed I was.
As a result, I worked compulsively hard. Oscillating between working to exhaustion, crashing, and jumping right back on that rollercoaster. My ambition and the success it afforded me also fed every single insecurity I ever had. So, I perfected my toolkit of coping strategies, which were effective until, eventually, they failed me entirely.
And then came burnout
It was while I was working in a Big 4 consulting firm, ‘the job of my dreams’, that my secret fear of being found out and compulsion for overwork came crashing down. It led to burnout, and I ended up in hospital with severe migraines.
When I recovered, my now husband, who always could see through my shit, told me in no uncertain terms, ‘it’s me or THAT job’. As my husband’s a keeper, I promptly got a new job. l also landed the most supportive, emotionally intelligent and inspiring boss of my entire career, for which I’m ever grateful.
A new adventure, a new career and a new country
A few years later, I persuaded my husband that an epic new adventure would be awesome. Before long, with a 1-year-old in tow, I was building a tourism business in Phuket, Thailand. A complete eat-pray-love adventure of a lifetime.
That adventure ended with a stint in hospital with Dengue Fever, followed by an overthrow of the government and a bomb going off in downtown Patong.
Back on the corporate roller coaster
Back in Melbourne for the safety of all, with our second daughter, only 6 months old, I returned to the corporate world, ready to refocus my career.
But, in my sleep-deprived state in the early hours of that miserable morning, I realised I was back on that same damn rollercoaster. Violently ill and desperate to get off. That was when I had my ‘basta’ moment. Basta is a poignant Italian word that translates to ‘Enough, that’s it. I’m done.’
I walked into the office the next morning, handed in that damn report, and I quit. It was the best feeling in the world.
Doing the work to find myself
From there, I began an internal private revolution of my soul.
Sitting at my laptop, composing my story to share with you, I’m grateful I’m now thriving in life and business. I feel secure knowing that I’m worthy, deserving and enough.
This is why I help others who’ve had their ‘basta’ moment transform their lives through coaching, hypnotherapy and speaking. I help them step into a more magnificent and empowered version of themselves so they, too, can thrive in life and business.
It’s my passion, my purpose, my why.
