About Gemma-Lee
THE WOMAN BEHIND THE WORK
Holistic Counsellor & Lifestyle Coach | Sunshine Coast
Hey, I’m Gemma-Lee.
I’m a Holistic Counsellor and Lifestyle Coach based on Australia’s Sunshine Coast, and I’ve been doing this work — the heart-opening, life-reigniting, sometimes-uncomfortable-but-always-worthwhile kind — since 2017.
But my path here wasn’t a straight line.
I spent nearly two decades in business — management, sales, HR, accounts, operations — wearing every hat imaginable across industries from construction to creative work. I’ve managed teams, negotiated with suppliers, balanced budgets, and sat across the desk from people navigating everything from workplace conflict to career crossroads.
That background gave me something I couldn’t have learned in a classroom: a real understanding of the pressures people carry. I know what it feels like when life demands more than you think you have to give. When the stress starts showing up in your body. When you’re holding it together on the outside while something inside is quietly asking for attention.
When I eventually followed the pull toward counselling and holistic practice, it wasn’t because I had it all figured out. It was because I’d lived enough of life to know that the traditional approaches don’t always reach the places that need the most attention.
So I built a practice that does.
The name Phynix By Design came to me in 2017 — my heart was set on Phoenix, and while I waited for the domain to become available, this spelling arrived and stuck. It felt right. In 2023, I registered Phoenix By Design Pty Ltd, bringing both Phynix By Design and Brightwater Wellness Hub together under one company. Two spaces, one philosophy: helping people reignite their lives.
What makes my approach a little different
I don’t believe in handing you a label and sending you on your way.
Too often, people come to me after being told they “have anxiety” or they’re “a perfectionist” or they’re “too sensitive” — as if those things are fixed identities rather than patterns that can shift. I don’t work with labels, because labels have a sneaky way of becoming cages.
Instead, we work through what you’re carrying — together, gently, and at your pace. You get to move forward without it defining who you are.
My approach weaves together traditional counselling with holistic practices — meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, energy work, and more — because you’re not just a mind with a problem to solve. You’re a whole person, and every part of you deserves to be heard.
Think of it less as fixing and more as reigniting what’s been quietly waiting.
What I believe (and how it shapes the way I work)
I believe everyone carries extraordinary abilities within them — but somewhere along the way, most of us started believing we were ordinary.
I believe that what you’re going through is something to work through, not something to be defined by. You are not your anxiety. You are not your grief. You are not your burnout. Those are things you’re experiencing, and together we can move through them.
I believe healing happens when we stop leaving parts of ourselves behind. That’s why my work honours the emotional, the physical, and the spiritual — all of it, all at once.
And I believe that every single day, you have the chance to rise again. That’s the phoenix in all of us.
A little more about me
When I’m not in session, you’ll find me at Brightwater Wellness Hub — the wellbeing space I own and run on the Sunshine Coast, bringing together practitioners who share my belief in whole-person care.
I’m a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. I’ve walked through my own seasons of challenge and transformation, and I bring all of that lived experience into the room with me. Not because my story is your story, but because I know what it feels like to sit on your side of things.
I’m also a perpetual student — always learning, always curious. My training spans holistic counselling, life coaching, intuitive spiritual healing, yoga, and more years of business qualifications than I care to count. (You can explore the full list on my Qualifications & Training page if you’re curious.)
Ready to work together?
If something in you is saying “yes, this” – I’d love to hear from you.