Welcome to The Us Project

We're Leo & Dan

RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLOR & MENTORS

EVENT & RETREAT FACILITATORS

We help couples rebuild the skills for
thriving Relationships so they can experience
passionate lasting love.

Meet Leo

My passion for relationship work didn’t come from getting it right early on. It came from wanting something deeper — and not knowing how to create it.

For years, I was on a relentless self-development journey — course after course, training after training — trying to become more, have more, and create something better in my life and relationships. On the surface, it looked like growth. But underneath it all, what I was really searching for was depth. Intimacy. Real connection.

In my own past long-term relationship, I experienced what happens when needs go unspoken, boundaries are unclear, and hard conversations are avoided. I didn’t know how to ask for what I needed. I shut down instead of leaning in. I protected myself instead of softening. And I often found myself frustrated — without realizing how much my own defences were shaping the dynamic.

Learning English as a second language meant I had to consciously learn communication from the ground up. Emotional expression, boundaries, and healthy conflict weren’t modelled for me — they were skills I had to study, practice and embody. That process taught me something powerful: connection doesn’t come from trying harder or blaming the other person. It comes from learning how to stay present, regulated, and open — even when it feels uncomfortable.

The real shift happened when I stopped waiting for intimacy to be created for me and learned how to create safety within myself. When I learned how to soften instead of armouring up. How to lean in instead of pulling away. How to be grounded in my feminine rather than resenting the masculine for not leading me where I hadn’t yet learned to lead myself.

Doing that work changed everything.

It’s what allowed me to meet Dan from a place of clarity instead of chaos — and to co-create a relationship built on honesty, repair, and intentional choice rather than autopilot or chemistry alone.

Meet Dan

I didn’t come to relationship work through theory or textbooks.
I came to it the hard way — through burnout, the wrong relationships, and a point in my life where I couldn’t ignore what wasn’t working anymore.

At the time, I moved from event management into FIFO rig work. Not because it was the dream — but because I needed structure, responsibility, and something that forced me to stand back up. The rig gave me discipline. It also gave me a lot of quiet time to face myself.

I’d been in a relationship that was deeply unhealthy. When it ended, it stripped away any illusions I had about how I was showing up, how I communicated, and what I was tolerating. That ending became a line in the sand. I committed to doing the work — not to “fix” myself, but to understand myself. I invested in counselling, learned how to sit with discomfort, and started taking responsibility for my inner world instead of shutting down or pushing through.

That decision changed everything.

It reshaped the kind of man and father I wanted to be. Over time I became deeply aware that our kids don’t learn relationships from what we say — they learn from what we model. Just because we come from broken patterns or blended families doesn’t mean we have to pass those patterns on. 

Working in a highly masculine, bravado-heavy industry, I see firsthand how many men carry pressure quietly. Long hours. Big responsibility. A culture of “she’ll be right.” And while there’s strength in that, there’s also a cost. I see men struggling in silence — especially in their relationships — not because they don’t care, but because they don’t have the language, tools, or permission to speak up without feeling like they’re failing. Carrying it all alone doesn’t make you stronger, it just makes everything heavier.

Eventually, this path led me into the relationship I’m in now with Leo — where I experienced what secure, intentional love actually feels like. Not perfect. Not problem-free. But safe, honest, and built on repair instead of avoidance.

Together, we bring lived experience, professional training,
and real-world tools into the work we do with couples.

Over the past decade, Leo has supported hundreds of individuals and couples as a qualified Holistic Counsellor, mentor, and facilitator — helping people break out of repeating patterns and build relationships that feel calmer, safer, and more connected. Dan brings grounded, practical insight shaped by life, fatherhood, and the realities of pressure, responsibility, and modern relationships.

We’re not interested in surface-level advice or feel-good theory. Our work blends evidence-based frameworks with tools couples can actually use when things get tense, busy, or messy — the moments where relationships are most often tested.

We’ve both completed Gottman Couples Therapy (Level 1 & 2), and we pride ourselves on creating spaces — in sessions, workshops, and retreats — that are trauma-informed, respectful, and emotionally safe. Not intense. Not overwhelming. Just real, supportive, and effective.

When we’re not guiding couples, you’ll find us at the gym, mountain biking, riding our motorbikes, or walking our dog Koda. Together we’re building a life — and a business — we genuinely love.

What drives us most is helping couples move from confusion to clarity — from feeling stuck, reactive, or disconnected to feeling understood, valued, and secure with each other.

Because strong relationships aren’t built on chemistry alone.


They’re built on communication, emotional safety, mutual respect, and the ability to repair when things go wrong.

These aren’t concepts we teach from a distance. They’re skills we practice daily in our own relationship — choosing each other intentionally, having the hard conversations, repairing when we miss each other, and building a partnership that can handle real life without falling apart.

Today,

our work is about helping couples build what many of us were never taught:
- Clear communication. Emotional safety. Mutual respect.
- A relationship that feels like a team — not a battleground.

If you’re ready to stop running your relationship on autopilot and start creating something intentional, supportive, and deeply connected — you’re in the right place.