Formal Qualifications
Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work (Australian Catholic University, Canberra), Certificate in Sandplay Therapy and Symbol Work. (Expressive Therapies Institute), Graduate Certificate in Developmental Trauma (Australian Childhood Foundation), Ongoing training in Sandplay Therapy (Sandplay Therapy Association of New Zealand and Australia).
Professional Association
I am a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers and bound by its code of practice and ethics.
My work as a counsellor is inspired by the possibility of personal growth through the counselling relationship. This is based on an understanding that this process is uniquely different for each person.
We are all sculpted by our early life experiences and relationships, both good and hurtful, but also by the present and we all have the potential for life long growth.
I find the work with clients who are seeking change and growth a rich collaboration. I work with compassion and a deep respect for those who are on this path.
I have worked as a counsellor for the past 10 years in both the community sector and, more recently, in private practice. I have practiced in adult counselling with an emphasis in cross-cultural and trauma work and my work embodies a psychotherapeutic approach.
I am interested in longer-term depth work with people who may be grappling with a range of personal and relational issues but who are also seeking to discover a deeper sense of themselves and their own unique experience of the life they are living.
I have an interest in Jungian Psychology, inspired by the richness and wisdom of the human psyche’s unconscious processes. How our inner most feelings and personal truths are expressed in our dreams, in our creative acts, our relationship patterns, our spiritual yearnings and the inner tensions and stresses we carry.
I also work in a unique form of counselling called Sandplay Therapy because I feel it allows expression of a person’s life circumstance in a way that might otherwise be too difficult for them to talk about. I have found that Sandplay Therapy is a safe and non-directive activity where a person can work at his or her own pace to express material that is unique to their individual experience.
Quotes
“ The great decisions in human life usually have more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors, than with conscious will and well meaning reasonableness. The shoe that fits one person, pinches another. There is no universal recipe for living. Each of us carries his own life-form within him/(her) – an irrational form which no other can outbid.” (C.G. Jung. 1966)