Bloom is in essence a place created with the purpose of emphasising the integration of mind, body, and spirit. A place where therapy doesn't only focus on alleviating symptoms but also works towards facilitating comprehensive wellness and resilience. It is from this holistic approach that I believe the deepest and most enduring healing can occur.
JESS TOLLEMACHE
who are we?
Bloom Health Clinic is the passion project of founder and Clinical Psychologist Jessica Tollemache. At its core, Bloom Health Clinic is a creative extension of Jess. Her personal experiences, how she has developed as a practitioner, and how she continue to develop, have set the tone for how she invest in Bloom, nurtures our clients, and supports our team.
Hello I’m Jess!
Firstly I would like to thank you for finding your way to our clinic, and for your interest in our origins. This piece was actually quite a challenge to write as I feel so many experiences have underwritten my passion to create this space and ultimately lead to the birth of Bloom Health Clinic.
I will begin by acknowledging that the story behind my why did not begin when I embarked on my journey to becoming a psychologist. In fact, where it began is intrinsically linked to who I am: the member of a family with significant mental health challenges, versed in the needs of others, and well-practiced in the art of shouldering suffering. Born and raised in South Africa my family immigrated to Australia in 1999. Navigating immigration in my early teens was one of my first experiences of recognising the impact of connection, and separation in connection, on wellbeing. Growing up with bipolar, schizophrenia, and anxiety in my family, further highlighted the importance of connection and a whole person approach to health. I found myself drawn to other people’s stories and compelled to connect, from here it felt only natural to pursue a career in psychology. Through that process, I unwittingly embarked on a journey of incredible growth both in my personal life and as a practitioner. I came to learn that self-care, connection, and who we are, are vital ingredients in our ongoing growth and development.
Following the completion of my studies I entered private practice, working in other clinics. I was quickly humbled to experience the power of connection within my therapeutic space but was also faced with the reality of working within the clinical treatment model. Traditionally in the school of psychology we are taught the importance of boundaries with clients, the importance of conveying our expertise’s while at the same time withholding our personal experiences and maintaining separation. In theory this made sense, but intuitively it was challenging not to feel like a piece was missing from this well established formula. Over the years this feeling only grew as I came to experience that the greater the separation in the treatment dyad, the more limitations in opportunity for connection and meaningful growth. I quickly came to accept that who I was with my clients, not necessarily my expertise, was where the true opportunity for healing lay. This shifted me heavily into attachment based paradigms and person-centred approaches to treatment, I began to value my humanness and allowed this to guide exploration of the challenges my clients faced. While continuing to navigate the delicate balance between therapeutic connection and clinical red tape, outside of my role as a psychologist I had embarked on my journey to motherhood.
My desire to create a space that embraces our humanness, that values who a person is, not just what a person knows, is intrinsically linked to who I am and the experiences I hold. The need to create a space that considered the whole person, that could hold the whole person, and that was committed to doing this compassionately through connection, had never felt more important to me; and so Bloom Health Clinic was born.
Jess Tollemache
Becoming a mother, and growing my family, was another profound experience and driving force for creating Bloom Health Clinic. I fell pregnant a few years into my career and although my pregnancy was relatively easy my birth experience was not what I had expected. This experience left me with a visceral understanding of the negative outcomes that can occur on overall wellbeing when we are unable to bridge the gap between clinical treatment and authentic connection. I went on to experience secondary infertility and the loss of my second child. I was blessed to finally fall pregnant with my third child who made it safely to my arms. This journey was one of profound learning and growth and further solidified my yearning to create a space to move more holistically into the field of Psychology, to expand the offerings available to my clients, and to bridge the gap between clinical treatment and authentic connection.
I find myself today with two beautiful children, a caring husband, and a practice that has become an extension of my journey. It is for all these reasons and more that Bloom is so much more than just a business, it is a tangible piece of me, a place of ever adapting growth now shared with those who choose to embark on their own journey of healing. It is with this that I hope Bloom Health Clinic becomes an equally valuable place of healing for all those that choose to find solace in our space.
Our Brand Story
The logo for Bloom Health Clinic is a composition of three flowers: the Water Lily, the Daffodil, and the Morning Glory. These flowers represents the birth month of each of my three children. They are arranged in the order of their conception, my angel baby in the centre, with each sibling flower facing inwards in embrace.
The name Bloom Health Clinic steams from the visual of these three birth flowers and is rooted in the ideal that each of us is on a journey of growth, at any point ready to embark on our next season of development. It represents the authentic belief we hold that each of our clients have an inherent ability to bloom into the life they are destined to live.
Ultimately at Bloom we already see you as whole, and we will forever hold space to support you in your discovery of this innate reality. You are whole, we are simply here to help you remember.
Find out more about us.
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