reconnecting you
(and your therapist)
with the wisdom of
your own embodiment
Dr Emily Tunks is the passionate founder of embody being™ - a health psychology, somatic psychotherapy and psychedelic integration practice that reconnects the intuitive relationship between our physical, emotional and relational wellbeing. Dr Tunks (she/hers) offers inclusive, neuro-affirming and evidenced-based somatic psychotherapy to support adults and their therapists embody the lives they wish to live.
As a therapist’s therapist, Dr Tunks delights in sharing health, somatic psychotherapy and psychedelic assisted consultation, training and board approved supervision. To see if we might resonate working together or for training and speaker demonstrations, please find recent conference presentations and international podcast interviews here.
embody being™ acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the Boonwurrung, Woiwurrung and Country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, waters and culture. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
don’t explain your philosophy, embody it
epictetus
about
Dr Emily Tunks (she/her)
Health Psychologist MAAPi
Somatic and Psychedelic Integration Psychotherapist
Supervision. Training. Consultation.
Emily aims to support individuals understand their whole selves - body and mind, so that their health, relationships, vocation and life purpose may thrive, in spite of set-backs and ongoing challenges. Emily is a member of the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc. and is endorsed in Health Psychology (AHPRA). She maintains a commitment to excellence through researching best-practice techniques and her strong understanding of health psychology, clinical psychology, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, somatic (body) psychotherapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, physiology, ecotherapy and psychoneuroimmunology. Both in session and outside, Emily draws on her modern practice of contemplation traditions and is a graduate and teaching assistant of Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy professional training.
Since beginning clinical research in Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAT) for the first Australian study of psilocin for depression (2022), Emily has been a co-therapist in both local and international trials - including MDMA for PTSD in First Responders at Monash University (in collaboration with MAPS) and upcoming IV studies with psilocin at Swinburne University. In the preparation and consolidation of this potent and humbling research, she continues to train extensively with leading international experts in PAT, trauma and somatic psychotherapy. Emily offers a harm reduction framework that deeply respects the healing potential of “non-ordinary” states of consciousness but most importantly, their safe, ethical and useful integration.
Emily co-majored in Psychology and Psychophysiology at Swinburne University, and after obtaining first class honours in 2002, she was awarded a full scholarship to complete a Doctorate of Psychology (Health) at Deakin University. Her doctoral qualitative research investigated Australian specialists' attitudes and practices of death determination methods, end-of-life care and organ donation, which was published in a high impact, international SAGE scientific journal: Journal of Health Psychology (under previous name: E. Macvean).
In addition to private clinical work, Emily has over a decade of multidisciplinary team experience in world-leading pain management and chronic illness hospital units, rehabilitation units, community health settings and university lecturing.
Emily’s 2025 interview with P.U.N.K International Podcast about the Somatic Foundations in Psychedelic Therapy and the Necessity of Therapist Well-Being
Health Psychology and Board Approved Supervision
Emily offers clinical health psychology and supervision, which is a field of psychology that focuses on the overlap between biological, psychological, social and emotional aspects of health and disease, and how to better understand and treat this crucial intersection.
While an established offering in many public hospital psychology units, private health psychology services are much harder to find. This prompted Emily to establish embody being™, now located in two inner Melbourne locations and online. With our improving awareness of neurodivergence, incidents of chronic illness are rising but so is life expectancy. To maximise our quality of life, there has never been a more important time for health psychology in Australia.
Emily discusses the life-changing significance of holistic health care, in a written interview for Australian Unity here.
For more about Health Psychology here in Australia, America and England please see:
“Health psychologists use their knowledge of psychology and health to promote general well-being and understand physical illness.
They are specially trained to help people deal with the psychological and emotional aspects of health and illness as well as supporting people who are chronically ill. ”
— The British Psychological Society
Somatic Psychotherapy
It was the eastern principles (Hakomi: Mind-Body Holism, Organicity, Mindfulness, Unity and Non-violence) that initially drew Emily to find additional ways of supporting people in their therapy: “what I didn’t anticipate is just how deeply these five principles continue to impact me and my practice”.
Through mindful exploration, relationally-based psychodynamic process and contemporary developmental maps, somatic psychotherapy offers the ‘curious of mind’ a multitude of non-pathologising methods to better understand our individual and shared conditioning. Most importantly, it shows therapist and client how to authentically integrate these experiences back into our hearts, bodies and relationships (note that touch is not required).
Somatic psychotherapy will support us to ‘see’ the things that are always present, but we may not have been previously guided on how or where to notice them. It offers elegantly simple but strikingly powerful methods to meet others, so that the unconscious, its innate wisdom and any protective ‘resistance’ is genuinely welcomed like it’s the most insightful part in the room, because it is.
Therapy then becomes a true method of assisted self-discovery, which makes the ‘work’ of being both a client and therapist enriching, inspiring and sustaining.
For more information on how somatic psychotherapy differs, see here for Hakomi Trainer Donna Martin’s short example of one practice.
Formal Qualifications
2025 Board Approved Psychology Supervisor (Health Psychology Endorsement)
2023 Advanced Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy Clinical Supervision Year 3
2021/22 Advanced Somatic Intelligence Trauma Training Approach Year 1 and 2
2021 MDMA Assisted Psychotherapy - Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
2020 Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy Professional Training Year 2
2018-2019 Hakomi Somatic Psychotherapy Workshops and Professional Training Year 1
2007-2010 Doctorate of Psychology (Health)
2002 Bachelor of Science – Psychophysiology Honours (First Class)
1997-2001 Bachelor of Arts – Psychology/Psychophysiology
Associations and Memberships
Psychology Board of Australia (AHPRA)
Endorsed in Health Psychology (AoPE)
Member of the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc (AAPi)
Founding and continuing Co-chair of the AAPi Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAT) Interest Group since 2021
areas of focus
If unresolved trauma can store itself in your muscles, fascia, organs, cells and the rest of your physical body, so can joy, gratitude, abundance, love and peace. Your body is also a safe space
Ryan Rose
Emily delights in working together, honouring your strength, trust, curiosity and humour in a compassionate therapeutic relationship. Drawing on her lifelong training and passion for our unique differences, Emily supports adults (min. 25 years of age+) to embody the deeper lives they long to live. Board Approved Supervision or career mentoring for all health professionals can be arranged on a casual or long-term basis.
People come to see Emily when seeking understanding and support for:
chronic conditions such as CFS, POTS, diabetes, IBS, HIV, hypermobility, dysautonomia, autoimmune diseases, long COVID
women’s sexual, reproductive and relational health - PMDD, PCOS, sex, body and relationship inclusivity and diversity
trauma, anxiety and fear, health phobias and panic
chronic pain support including CRPS, cluster headaches/migraine, TMJ, fibromyalgia, post-surgical programs
supervision, support and consultation for the psychedelic or somatic-seeking therapist
burn out, disenchantment with the health system, frustration with traditional “talk” therapy in general
depression and disconnection
existential crisis
support and integration with “non-ordinary” states of consciousness, including near death experiences (NDE), meditation, breathwork and psychedelic harm reduction and integration (only)*
grief and loss
“mid-life” and quarter-life crisis, life transition and adjustment issues
life-threatening illness such as cancer and other progressive diseases
highly-sensitive persons (HSP)/sensory processing sensitivity (SPS)
feeling consistently “stuck”, “heavy” or “just surviving”
other specialised adjustment conditions such as IVF and organ transplantation
Please note: Emily does not provide legal or psychometric reports, Work Cover or TAC claimed services
* In Australia, psychedelic medicines are currently legal only within clinical trials or the Authorised Prescriber access scheme.
approach
Being alongside as you navigate your unique embodiment journey is held with the greatest reverence by Emily. She truly enjoys meeting all “parts” of our inner landscapes using a flexible combination of humanistic, neuro-affirming, attachment and evidenced-based approaches, namely:
Somatic Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (ie. Hakomi) including Trauma Processing
Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy - Clinical Supervision, Harm Reduction and Integration
Systems and Parts work (ie. Hakomi and Internal Family Systems)
Depth Psychotherapy
Interpersonal Therapy
Eco Psychotherapy
Compassion Focused Therapy
Buddhist Psychology
Liberal Feminist Psychology
Motivational Interviewing, Acceptance and Commitment or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy where clinically indicated (stabilisation)
Graded Exposure Therapy for panic and phobia
Trauma Sensitive Psychodynamic Supervision
connect
ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering
there is a crack, a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in
leonard coen - anthem
Emily offers in-person appointments in Brunswick and Williamstown (Victoria, Australia) and secure video appointments online. Medicare and Health Fund rebates are available where applicable. Nature-based/outdoor sessions and online booking options are also arranged for exisiting clients.
For more information, please email a brief introduction and your area of interest to: admin@embodybeing.com.au or call 03 70382343 on weekdays between 8.30am and 5.30pm AEST. Please visit embody being on Facebook for articles and links.
embody being™ is not a crisis or active addiction service. For immediate support, contact your GP and/or click through to relevant listings: https://www.mhvic.org.au/need-urgent-help. For all life-threatening emergencies call 000.