Trauma Support Providers

Lisa is a highly skilled, insightful counsellor with over 20 years’ experience working successfully with couples, families and clients of all ages to resolve a wide range of issues. She is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers, with an extensive counselling background in the government, corporate and private sectors. Lisa is a senior practitioner who regularly supervises other counsellors, and has been recognised internationally for her contribution to the development of innovative counselling programs.
Lisa is exceptionally caring and compassionate – she has a wonderful ability to put clients at ease with her warmly professional manner and great sense of humour. She provides a safe, nonjudgmental environment for her clients to express their thoughts, explore their concerns, and work towards their personal goals. Lisa supports her clients by identifying barriers to growth and change, then provides effective strategies to genuinely improve each client’s circumstances. With a newfound sense of clarity and direction, clients can move forward confidently with their lives.
Lisa utilises a vast range of evidence-based therapeutic interventions in her practice, including: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Mindful Self-Compassion, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and Problem Solving Therapy. Of particular note is her advanced trauma counselling skillset, informed by the neurobiological research of Besser Van Der Kolk, Jon Briere and Judith Herman. Lisa works with all clients from a strengths-based perspective, focusing on enhanced resilience and wellbeing.

Accredited mental health social worker utilising the following therapies: EMDR, CBT, ACT, Mindfulness, EFT. Expertise in: trauma, PTSD, mood disorders, depression, anxiety, young people and children, anger management, grief and loss, addiction, relationships and parenting.

Lorna Murphy has been practising in Darwin for 10 years. She focuses on pacing the counselling to suit the individual.
She has worked in community health, prisons, Relationships Australia, medical settings and has been in private practice for 15 years.

Lynda Dolan (www.lyndadolan.com) is a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist in full-time private practice on the lower north shore, Sydney. She assists adults, adolescents, children and families with a wide variety of issues including complex trauma, PTSD, psychological and somatic ailments and coping with chronic illness. Lynda has experience in providing trauma-informed care to survivors of institutional sexual abuse. She understands the sensitivities around confidentiality, privacy, respect for individual client needs, and flexibility in managing sessions and appointments. Her client-centred, integrative approach incorporates a holistic framework which shows that psychological therapy is seen as most effective when the whole person is treated. Lynda has a deep interest in the benefits of hypnosis in treatment. Lynda is also an authorised counsellor for the NSW Victims of Crime Tribunal. Her memberships include Fellow member of APS College of Clinical Psychologists, Australian Psychological Society, Australian Society of Hypnosis, International Society of Hypnosis and Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Lynda welcomes clients who are seeking support as they go through their journey of healing and move towards the future with hope and renewed strength.

Margie has been in practice for over thirty years and has specialized in the areas of individual, couple and family therapy. Much of her practice has been in working with those who have experienced trauma and who are navigating a path beyond those experiences.
Margie's work draws from a person centered approach, bringing a strengths based platform to her attuned and sensitive work with clients.
Amongst the trauma, Margie invites those who work with her to define their own hope as they move forward with their life.

I am a Mental Health Social Worker and medicare provider in private practice, I also work as a interim counselling for victims services and have been supporting people though the readdress. Before private practice I worked as a Social Worker for the past 15 years in a clinical mental health role for Hunter New England Health's Community Health Services. In this capacity of I have worked daily with many mental health issues related to domestic violence, trauma, grief and loss, child abuse and sexual assault, depression, anxiety, self harm, suicide and suicidal ideation, in both an adolescent and adult population.
I am committed to supporting young people, families and adults to bring positive growth and vitality into their lives, and to help them feel willing and able to take on the ups and downs and challenges that life inevitably presents. This means that I use my knowledge and training to tailor counselling sessions to suit individuals, couples or the families I am working with.
In our first session I will spend time getting to know you, what has brought you to counselling, and how we can work together towards your dreams and goals for the future? I am here to listen, to walk alongside and support you, rather than judge you or tell you what I think you should do. I strongly believe that you have the strength and solutions, and through empowerment and perhaps learning some new skills and ways to do things, you can be the person you want to be in the life you want to live.
My approach is compassionate, non-judgmental and holistic, and grounded in principals of Narrative Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Solution-focused Therapy and Family Systems Therapy. My therapeutic passion is utilising experiential and creative modalities such as Play, Art, Mindfulness, use of personal stories and generally a combination of the above. I apply mindfulness as a technique in the majority of sessions I conduct, as well as in my personal and professional approach. I work with an intention to stay present with the person (or people) I am working with, and invite them to become mindful in their own lives.
I have provided counselling and psychological support for individuals of all ages with a range of presentations including anxiety, depression, PTSD, addiction, family and relationship challenges, domestic violence, personality difficulties, anger issues, chronic illness, bullying, grief and loss, body image and the inevitable struggles of life stage transitions.

Psychosocial Services provides specialist service in loss, grief and trauma counselling; anxiety and mood (including PTS and Phobias). We have been serving the local area since 2004. The primary value held by our practice is PRIVACY. We are situated at the Fairy Meadow Community Centre, which has accessible access from both front and back. The service holds Advanced Accreditation with the Australian Association of Social Workers, Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement and Association of Contextual Behavioural Science. We also have access to additional local supports where necessary and contribute to local peak bodies. All this means professional service provision of the highest order and we hold a sound reputation within the local community. We are able to provide professional assessment, support and reports, based on an evidence-based recovery model. Upon arrival a service agreement will be developed based on what our clients want to achieve. Psychosocial Services holds values of no blame or shame and we seek to walk along side clients in a recovery journey that is free of stigma. To make an initial appointment please call 0433 462 463 to speak with us about how we can work together to achieve the best outcome possible for our clients who we greatly value. Our clients often say that the service we provide is comprehensive and not like other services they have attended in the past.

Matthew Power, FOT, BCouns, BA, GradDipEd, MACA

Matthew Power is a leading trauma counsellor. He has for many years achieved outstanding results using modern trauma counselling approaches, with an emphasis on mindfulness and emotional safety.

Matthew has extensive professional experience in several counselling agencies, including nine years working for Relationships Australia supporting victims of crime and clients of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Matthew was part of a Royal Commission team that visited Palm Island to establish the work of the Commission there.

As a specialist trauma counsellor, Matthew is particularly experienced in helping survivors with complex trauma related to childhood abuse, including those with addictions and serious mental health diagnoses. In his work with the Blue Knot Foundation, Matthew trains other professionals in the needs of those with complex trauma, including the ""3 Phase"" model of trauma healing that is now international best practice.

Trauma counselling with Matthew starts with safety and stability. This means NOT chasing after trauma memories. Real healing begins when we strengthen our ability to soothe intense emotions, gain the power to keep our mind in the present rather than the past, and grow in appreciation for our own strengths and virtues. Matthew has many ways to help you feel better and better in these ways.

Sometimes, but not with everyone, it is useful to safely and carefully visit memories of what happened to us. By laying a firm foundation in practicing the ability to self-soothe and stay present, Matthew can guide you to have experiences that heal your relationship with memories, rather than being retraumatised by them. The key to this kind of work is observing how our memories are held in “felt senses” in our bodies. Using this bodily awareness we can learn to be “with” intense memories rather than “in” them, and this breaks their power over us. Matthew is an expert in this kind of work.

As the goal of Matthew's counselling is to empower the client, it is always the client who decides how to proceed.

As counselling progresses, Matthew can help you find new ways of being in the world, such as learning to be calmly assertive (rather than passive or aggressive), developing trusting relationships, and reducing the need for drink or drugs because there's now less emotional pain to soothe. You can start moving toward life goals that might have seemed impossible before.

No matter how intense, how distressing and how life disabling things might feel right now, it IS possible to find real healing. It's just a matter of starting, and small step by small step, with the right support, skilfully choosing to move toward a safer, happier, better future. Matthew would like to help you with that.

For more information about Matthew's counselling work, including client testimonials, go to: www.heartmindfocusing.net

Founder of Brisbane Social Work, Accredited Mental Health Social Worker & Psychotherapist - 14 years experience

Hermina is her official birth name, but she has been called Linda since she the day she was born in the Netherlands 37 years ago (it's a Dutch thing). Linda has been living and working in Australia for the past 8 years. Linda started working in the social work field in 2006 and has had the opportunity to work with hundreds of strong and resilient people in the community in the fields of Mental Health, Domestic Violence and Child Protection.

Linda is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker, which means that the Australian Association of Social Workers recognises her skills and knowledge of years of clinical experience. It also means that she is being monitored to ensure that she stays knowledgeable by doing ongoing training and professional development (even more than psychologists are required to keep their registration!).

Linda helps people with a range of difficulties including depression & mood disorders including suicide prevention, anxiety, trauma, grief and loss & sensory sensitivity issues that include ASD, ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorders. Linda works with all people on these difficulties regardless of age, gender and cultural background.

The frameworks that underpin Linda's therapy are attachment theory, systems theory, neurobiological approach, intersubjectivity theory, the Family Partnerships Framework and the Safe and Together model. When working with children who have experienced trauma from child abuse and neglect, Linda uses the Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy model which involves both the child and parents working together with the therapist. The child gains relationship experience which helps her to grow and heal emotionally. Family members develop healthy patterns of relating and communicating. For adults and adolescents with trauma, Linda uses a mixture of trauma-focused CBT, narrative therapy, mindfulness and EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing). Linda's treatment is person-centred and strengths-based and she will work together with you to find what therapy works best for your situation.

Linda highly values to have a strong relationship with everyone and she achieves this by being genuine, non-judgmental, respectful, humble and kind. Linda ensures that you have the right to choose your own path, she is merely there to help you explore your options. Some options you may have not yet seen, or been open to, before. Linda respects that you are an expert of your own life, and together with some of her expertise, you can be a team and reach goals that you haven't been able to reach before.
Having worked in an Aboriginal organisation for 5 years, Linda understands the importance of working in a cultural manner. She therefore puts emphasis on connecting through culture & family and she uses creative arts and narrative therapy tools when she works together with First Peoples.

Are you struggling with overwhelming anxiety, sadness, anger, grief or emotional pain? You may be feeling lost, detached from others, not getting any joy or meaning from life or be feeling hopeless or overwhelmed. If so, you don't have to continue suffering, I can help.

Beyond treating symptoms, my aim is to help you get to the root cause of the problem and for you to better understand you through identifying the internal difficulties and roadblocks that may be causing these feelings. In so doing, you will feel more confident, have more energy, feel better connected to others and feel a sense of hope.

Many people often wonder what will happen during the first session. To help put your mind at ease I have put some information below:
I will ask you about the problems that have led to you seeking therapy. Specifically, there will be a focus on the emotional aspect of the difficulties you have been having. I will endeavour to:

-make sure that we both have a shared understanding of the difficulties you have been having
-explore some of the barriers that have stopped you from getting the results you have been seeking (these are often hidden or ""unconscious"")
-help you find the pathway to reach the goals you are hoping to achieve.
The pace and intensity of therapy will be tailored to your individual preference and ability to tolerate handle difficult emotions. I typically find that a big part of our work in the early days is around being able to regulate intense emotions such as anxiety.

I usually schedule two hours for the first session. This allows me an opportunity to get to understand the types of problems you have been facing that have brought you to therapy and also gives you an opportunity to see if my approach is the right fit for you. The first session is slightly more expensive than subsequent sessions ($20 extra) due to the extra time.

I have a Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology and have worked extensively with people from all walks of life. I have held senior level positions within public mental health in Queensland and Victoria in child and youth and adult mental health. I particularly enjoy working with those between the ages of 17-40, and those with chronic anxiety and trauma

If you would like more information about how I practice please head on over to my website www.drjamie.com.au or if you would like to ask me any questions or have a chat before deciding if I can help you, please feel free to call (0419 199 259) or email me at [email protected]