Gold Coast's Woman of the year 2020

About Me

Xenia, raised in the southwest of the UK, then eventually moved to the Gold Coast Qld Australia, where her husband, Simon, and herself has founded the charity At The Ark in 2010. At The Ark supports families through the recovery of child sexual abuse, and domestic and family violence. She also has a private counselling practice called Anchored Counselling.

Xenia became the Heart of Women Awards, Woman of the Year 2020 for her work in protecting children and women and was one of Westfield's Local Heroes in 2020. She is also a published author of four books, an international speaker, and a qualified counsellor.

Her latest book, “Broken To Be Beautiful” is Xenia’s autobiography, it is an impactive book, which seeks to help those who have not only been through abuse, but it will help those who have never been in an abusive situation, she aims to help them understand why someone may stay in one and how someone 'falls' into unhealthy relationships.

Xenia’s honest, candid and raw account of her story creates hope and awareness for every reader. Through the struggle and fight she needed to survive, the warrior that was deeply implanted inside of her, emerged. This is a true story of her battle to overcome domestic violence and discover when all was stripped away, she found what emerged, was a restored woman, able to conquer her past.

She has also authored a 3-book child protection series entitled ‘Brave Little Bear” written to empower families, educators, and other professionals to teach self-protective behaviours. She has a passion to see our future generations armour-plated to create change in the statistics of child abuse.

The three-book series compromises of:

Book 1: Introduces Brave Little Bear, the story and self-protective behaviours to 3-year-olds to 7-year-olds.

Book 2: Brave Little Bears writes to 6-year-olds to 12-year-olds about fear feelings, online safety, body consent, secrets and surprises, plus more.

Book 3: completes the set, and compliments books one and two by speaking to adults, carers, parents, educators, and other professionals about why it is so important to empower children.

Xenia says 'I couldn't teach my children self-protective behaviours because she had no clue of what they were, but now I will protect as many as I can through these books.'

In April 2021, the charity she founded At The Ark, will start a new Hashtag campaign...

#MYBODYMYCONSENT helps us to get this viral and spread the word that we can all say NO! children, teenagers, and adults.

To book Xenia email her at beautiful@attheark.org.au

"I Couldn't teach my own children self-protective behaviours as I was never taught them. But now, I will protect as many children as I can through my Brave little Bear series"

Xenia Schembri

Xenia's Books

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WHAT PEOPLE SAY

I got more than I expected when reading Broken To Be Beautiful. Even reading the introduction to this book gave me goosebumps. Her honesty and openness in every word was compelling. As I continued to read further, I was drawn into the story that could be so many of us – young and in love, trusting, certain everything will work out in the end...

Dr. Dina McMillan, Phd

Xenia merges her personal experiences into any presentation with genuine openness and transparency as well as her knowledge of current and relevant statistical information on the subject of Child Protection and Domestic Violence. Xenia shares her spiritual and emotional journey in a way that brings the subject to everyone’s reality, in a passionate and moving way. The audience was totally engaged with her as she brought her knowledge and experience in a tactful and very real manner, leaving no doubt this is a subject very close to her heart. We had very positive feedback from the Workshop she facilitated.

Pastor Clara Scroggins

Sensitively written, The Brave little Bear’s message reaches out to children in a way that no adult can. I believe Bear’s thoughts “You can be brave, find someone and share” will resonate with other children and encourage them to share. An excellent tool for psychologists, counsellors and parents, dealing with precious little ones who have experienced sexual abuse.