Vanessa Auditore

Heart & Home began with a very personal experience.

When Vanessa Auditore became the primary carer for her mother, Jan, who lives with dementia, she found herself navigating a world that many families suddenly enter without preparation: finding reliable support, coordinating carers, managing changing needs, navigating aged care funding and trying to preserve the person behind the diagnosis.

Despite Vanessa's professional experience supporting people through complexity and change, being a family carer gave her a completely different perspective.

She experienced first-hand the emotional load of caring for someone you love, the importance of having trusted people in the home, and the difference that consistency, patience and genuine connection can make.

She also saw how easily care can become focused on tasks and systems rather than the individual person.

That experience became the foundation for Heart & Home Retreats.

Vanessa co-founded Heart & Home with Jamee from a shared belief that people living with dementia and other support needs deserve care that feels personal, not clinical, transactional or impersonal.

Families deserve to know that the people coming into their loved one's home understand not only what needs to be done, but who the person is and what matters to them.

Vanessa brings more than 25 years of professional experience across psychology, coaching, therapy, leadership, People & Culture and organisational development.

She holds a Bachelor of Psychology and qualifications in counselling and coaching, and has worked extensively with individuals, leaders and organisations through periods of change, complexity and personal growth.

Her professional approach is informed by developmental psychology, attachment, trauma-informed practice, nervous-system regulation and Internal Family Systems, alongside extensive experience in coaching and therapeutic practice.

Her recent professional development has also included advanced learning in complex trauma, Parts Work, Somatic informed approaches and Polyvagal Theory.

But at Heart & Home, Vanessa's most important qualification is one that cannot be learnt in a classroom: she understands what it is like to be the person on the other side of the care system.

She understands the worry that comes with leaving someone you love in another person's care.

She understands the exhaustion of coordinating support.

And she understands how reassuring it is when a carer becomes someone your family knows, trusts and looks forward to seeing.

This lived experience, combined with Vanessa's professional background, shapes the philosophy behind Heart & Home:

Our goal is to create a small, trusted community of carers and families where continuity matters, relationships matter and people can remain connected to the comfort, familiarity and dignity of home for as long as possible.

Heart & Home is not simply about providing support hours.

It is about helping people feel at home, cared for and known.

Education & Professional Qualifications

• Bachelor of Psychology
• Counselling qualifications
• Professional coaching qualifications
• Organisational psychology expertise
• Trauma-informed coaching and therapeutic practice
• Advanced professional development in complex trauma and dissociation
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) informed practice
• Somatic-informed therapeutic practice
• Training incorporating Polyvagal Theory and nervous-system regulation
• Internal Family Systems (IFS) / Parts Work-informed practice
• Gallup Strengths-based coaching
• Change Management expertise
• Author of Mastering the Psychology of Organisational Change

Vanessa brings more than 25 years’ experience working with people across both individual and organisational contexts, with a strong focus on one-to-one coaching, therapeutic support and personal development.

Her work has centred on helping individuals navigate anxiety, stress, identity, burnout, life transitions and emotional overwhelm, using a blend of coaching, psychological insight and trauma-informed therapeutic approaches.

She has supported clients to build self-awareness, emotional regulation, resilience and a stronger sense of internal stability and direction.

Alongside her individual work, Vanessa has also worked extensively in organisational and leadership settings, including executive coaching, leadership development and People & Culture roles.

In these contexts, she has supported leaders and teams through change, complexity and growth, helping organisations build healthier cultures and more effective ways of working.

Her experience spans:

• Individual coaching and therapeutic practice
• Executive and leadership coaching
• Trauma-informed personal development work
• Supporting individuals through significant life transitions
• People & Culture / Human Resources leadership
• Organisational psychology and development
• Change and transformation leadership
• Strengths-based development and team dynamics

Across all of her work, whether with individuals or organisations Vanessa’s focus remains consistent: helping people understand themselves more deeply, navigate challenge with greater capacity, and move toward a more grounded and authentic way of living and working.

Alongside her professional qualifications, Vanessa brings extensive lived experience as a family carer.

Her experience supporting her mother through dementia and navigating the Australian aged care system was a key catalyst for establishing Heart & Home.

This combination of professional expertise and lived experience informs Vanessa's commitment to care that is psychologically informed, respectful, relational and centred on the individual.

At Heart & Home, Vanessa brings a simple belief to every aspect of the service: