My Connection Statement

I am a counselling psychologist and Director of Sydney Centre for Creative Change.  I support helping professionals battling exhaustion, overwhelm and poor health to feel good and connected to themselves again. Through interactive, online groups I re-introduce people to their creativity with practical, easy exercises that tap into calm, fun, inspiration and insight.  With over 75 short courses online, at Sydney Centre for Creative Change, we are the leading provider of Creative Therapies training in Australia.

About Me - My Biography

A counselling psychologist and adult educator by training, I have always been captivated by art, music, drama and all form of creativity.

Painting the back fence with a bucket of water, making cubby houses for ants and concocting secret potions for my dolls were all part of my happy Sydney childhood. Appreciating the decisions my parents made for me at 14 to take the commerce and French electives, help set me up for running my own business and appreciating cultural complexities.

I have enjoyed wonderful opportunities in my working life to support children and young people with committed and dynamic teams of people over the last 30 years in counselling roles in drug and alcohol agencies, high schools and primary schools and in private psychology practice. Therapeutic change I know to be a two-way process. While my intention is always to be focused on and available to support clients gain insight and make change, the real change happens in the relationship dynamic between us, which means I am also changed by all real encounters.

Teaching at a private counselling college in Sydney for 17 years built my interest in and capacity for running my own training business in creative therapies. Twenty years ago, I set up Sydney Centre for Creative Change to teach psychologists, social workers, counsellors and others working in mental health a range of ways to engage with and help clients using creative therapies. Art, music, drama, play, storytelling and sandplay therapies are all creative therapies that can be used to help children and adults communicate the stories of their lives that words alone can not express. Training other mental health professionals in practical, skills and evidence-based creative therapies and hearing their positive reports of breakthroughs for the clients is one of the most fulfilling parts of my work.

My work as the Director of Sydney Centre for Creative Change involves managing a team of 15 clinical trainers to deliver over a hundred online training events in creative therapies each year.

Passionate about supporting others to find creative ways to express, explore and resolve difficulties, I love sharing opportunities for connection and creativity.

My Expertise

Adult education design and delivery to make learning safe, connected, real, relevant, evidence-based, fun and practice transforming.

Counselling psychology for children, adolescents and adults that draws from 30 years of clinical experience, a range of client-tailored approaches to fostering insight and change and always starts from a place of deep listening and genuine respect and care.

Supervision of mental health professionals who want to grow their personal and professional lives through honest reflection, skill development and supportive feedback in a nurturing mentorship.

Play and Art Therapy for children of all ages who can’t always describe with words their feelings or situations. Creative therapy approaches (including therapeutic games and books, nature-based activities, play therapy, music, drama, art, sandplay and storytelling therapies) that allow for the expression, exploration and resolution of even the most tricky of life’s challenges.

Delivering retreats to life’s front line workers who need rest, restoration and soul nourishment. Ran mindfulness and creativity retreats in Bali for years pre-Covid and can’t wait to get back!

My Passions

I am passionate about training and supporting counsellors in creative therapies and am overjoyed to read their accounts of how receptive their clients are to play and art therapies. Hearing that a child who has been silent in counselling for weeks, is now sharing stories and engaged in therapy is wonderfully fulfilling.

In addition to my work,  I am passionate about ocean swimming, yoga, slow beach walks, improv theatre and my husband’s shortbread cookies.

 

 

My Interests

All things inspiring interest me – captivating podcasts, poetry, sculpture, sea birds (not the ones fighting for chips), playing with three year-olds who have a rich imaginary world they are impatiently awaiting my arrival in and long, uninterrupted dream-filled sleeps.

How I Can Help Other Members

If you’re working in or interested in mental health and creativity, I’d love to chat. There are a range of free and paid events you can also access at Sydney Centre for Creative Change.

I am always looking for dynamic presenters for our free Holding Space for Self and Others monthly webinar so please reach out if you think your work could be a fit (and I will promote it).

I am working online, so you can be anywhere at all.

Why I Became a HerBusiness Member

I joined HerBusiness at the end of 2020 after feeling a surge in business growth and an increase in professional isolation. I am keen to give to and receive support from other women in business and to optimise my current business and build better systems to grow and improve it.

My Member to Member Offer(s)

Members can enjoy a free webinar with each webinar purchased. Valued at $50 for 90min of live online learning.

Simply contact me at  info@sydneycentreforcreativechange.com.au for more details.

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