Elissa has spent a long time paying close attention to the world around her. That instinct – to slow down, look closer, and actually notice – is what The Quiet Catch is built on.

With three university degrees including a Master of Arts in Social Science, Elissa brings more than 25 years of professional experience as a storyteller, researcher, and performer – spanning journalism, communications, environmentalism, social science, and the performing arts. She is an ecotherapy practitioner working across Shinrin-yoku (forest bathing), blue mind, dark nature, and worlding – evidence-informed practices that use time in nature to reduce stress, restore mental clarity, and support nervous system regulation.

Elissa lives on Bribie Island (Yarun), on the country of the Kabi Kabi and Joondoburri peoples, and has spent 10 years learning this place – its tides and bird life, its ecology and history, its light at dawn and its particular quiet after dark. It is a place that keeps revealing itself, through shifting seasons, changing climate, and landscapes that are never quite the same twice. That quality of attentive, ongoing discovery is what she brings to every tour.

She also knows what it is to need restoration. Elissa lives with a rare autoimmune eye disease that also affects her mobility, as autoimmune conditions and their treatments often do. She has spent the last 8 years doing everything she can to save her eyesight and prevent going blind – and continues to do so. Her ecotherapy programs are deliberately slow – paced for mindful presence not distance covered. Her lived experience has given her a bone-deep understanding of why access to nature matters, what it actually feels like to need rest and repair, and why meeting people where they are – physically and emotionally – is vital. It shapes how she guides.

Alongside her work as an ecotherapy guide and practitioner with The Quiet Catch, Elissa is one half of award-winning puppetry arts company Larrikin Puppets and also Executive Director of Wide-Eyed Wonder Ltd, a non-profit that brings live performing arts to disadvantaged children across Australia. To mark YWCA Queensland’s 125th anniversary, Elissa was named one of YWCA Queensland’s 125 Leading Women for her contribution to community leadership alongside the likes of Kath Walker, Cathy Freeman, Gail Mabo, Kay McGrath, Deborah Mailman, Sarina Russo, Anna Bligh, Sallyanne Atkinson, and Jessica Watson.

On tour, Elissa is simply your guide – unhurried, informed, and genuinely glad you came.