Romi Grossberg.
Author, Holistic Counsellor, Writing Therapist, Professional Development & Public Speaker.
I have been called a gypsy, a nomad, a hippy, a bookworm, a rebel, sporty-spice, crossword junkie and the ‘grass-is-greener’ girl. I have been a sports teacher, a photographer, and for almost 20 years now, a Holistic Counsellor.
I am all of these things.
Romi Grossberg's Biography
I have been a volunteer worker since before I probably knew what it meant. It just seemed natural to want to help those less fortunate.
I have volunteered in Israel, Vietnam, Cambodia and Australia. I have been a disability carer, a sports manager, a teacher at isolated schools for migrant children, a life skills coach for street kids, and completed my final Social Work degree placement with the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in India.
Do what you love and the rest will come...
In 2010 I became the Manager of TinyToones Cambodia and my whole world changed. My heart got broken in to a thousand pieces and put back together over and over by the slum’s most precious street kids. I sat by their side through drug addiction, family violence, pain, recovery, relapse, slavery, corruption and poverty. They, ‘my kids’ taught me about unconditional love, respect, honour, determination and friendship. They taught me about family when they chose me as their mum, aunty and big sister.
“You should be a writer,” I kept hearing from friends and colleagues. I was a story-teller, definitely. I loved public speaking and travelled on stages across Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Singapore and even the first ever Tedx Phnom Penh in 2011. I have been interviewed in newspapers, radio and television including the highly-regarded ABC Australia Network with journalist Kate Arnott and by Cambodian Princess Soma Norodom on ‘Emerging Female Leaders’.
In November 2012 I went to Laos for my first writers retreat, purely because it felt right – even though I was broke and terrified. I don’t remember making any decisions since. Things just happened. Writing articles turned into writing books. Do what you love and the rest will come. I met incredible authors who became mentors and I fell madly in love with the pen. Eventually, I tore myself away from my beloved Cambodian family and moved to a small island in southern Thailand to focus on writing my memoir, Hip Hop & Hope. This is when I truly felt I could call myself an author.
On this new island home, I was asked by a well-known wellness retreat centre, “Aren’t you a counsellor?” and soon I was back counselling. Somehow ten years of island life passed but when Covid came and emptied my beloved island, I headed north. Now I live in the most beautiful Thai city – Chiang Mai – an old city surrounded by mountains and waterfalls. By day I work online and in-person counselling, facilitating professional development, workshops, and attending conferences, and by night going to markets, dance classes and to watch live music. Life is beautiful.
Do what you love and the rest will come...
Are you ready to work together?
Holistic Counsellor
It has always been important to me that I am both experienced and comfortable in a variety of counselling specialities so I can provide what you need, the way you need it. I am qualified in various modalities in the counselling and well-being realm including Social Science and Social Work, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and various forms of Mindfulness-based CBT, Anxiety and Panic Attacks, Dealing with Depression, Mental Health in the Workplace and Train the Trainer. I have over ten years’ experience facilitating breathing techniques and meditation.
As a Holistic Counsellor I may incorporate various types of therapeutic modalities and promise to give you practical and grounded guidance with real life tools and techniques to take away. I work with mental health, emotional health, decision-making and trust, career advice, relationship advice, communication skills, societal issues and more, helping you find your voice and trust yourself.
Holistic Counselling: ‘Holistic’ includes the ‘all of you’ and as unique individuals we need to recognise that our cultural, family, religious, spiritual and societal upbringing influence different aspects of us: The way we think, react, respond, feel and understand the world. My holistic counselling sessions are forward thinking, looking at where are you now? Where are you trying to get to? What is in the way? And how can we make the path clear and easy?
Writing Mentorship
I am an author of two books (with a third on the way) and speak at various author conferences internationally. A journal writer since 1984, I have always loved to write and have been facilitating creative workshops since 2013. I enjoy guiding new authors just as much as working with non-writers.
Non-Writers: I teach self-expression, journaling and flow writing in both group and private sessions. I teach tricks, tips and tools toward self-discovery, including how to get out of the head, connect with the body, get in touch with the source – the gut, the centre of all emotions. I even invented a word for it in 2015 – gutism.
Writers: I work with authors, writers, and want-to-be writers at any stage of writing from the brainstorming stage right through – I give advice, tips, and tools (not editing) for books, scripts and projects.
Professional Development
My latest passion is Professional Development and I feel fortunate to be able to empower large groups of people in schools, companies, start-ups, not-for-profit organisations, and at international conferences.
Even though I have been enjoying public speaking since 2011, my PD career took off in 2017. I had been going into schools and teaching adolescents in mental health and emotional well-being, but to fulfill my dream of sharing life skills and mental health understanding with every teenager across the world, this was certainly the slowest way to do it. That’s when I had the light bulb moment to empower and resource teachers and ultimately the whole school.
My second lightbulb moment was the realisation that if we, adults, didn’t learn these skills growing up – understanding mental health, communication skills, burn out, self-care and resilience, then my trainings could be a beneficial and empowering for organisations outside of school settings also. Now I can be hired to school settings, companies and organisations.