Our Team

Louise is currently CEO of Phoenix, and her background includes earlier work as a clinician, counselling survivors experiencing complex trauma, along with perpetrators of domestic violence. Louise set up a clinical supervision and professional development program for 300 staff across 11 metropolitan and regional sites. She was a founding member and Convenor of the Domestic Violence Action Groups of WA a peak body that successfully advocated for social justice and policy reform, collaborative practice, community education, and the funding of FDV counselling support services, helplines, and men’s behaviour change programs. Louise has been a member of State and National committees addressing social justice challenges with recent appointments to the Advisory Group for the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse and the Reference Group for the WA Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Strategy and is a longstanding member of the WACOSS Children’s Policy Advisory Council.

Louise has completed a Masters’ degree, and a range of post grad studies including an accreditation process in the Shanker Method™ of Self-Regulation with Canadian neuroscientist Dr Stuart Shanker. The Shanker Method™ became the foundational influence and underpinning of the Trauma Transformation program developed for Phoenix.

Qualifications:

Master of Arts Human Services; Grad Dip Counselling; Cert IV Workplace Training & Assessment; Public Sector Management Certificate; Various certified accreditations in the fields of counselling; family therapy; domestic violence; trauma; self-regulation; and dental therapy.

Sally takes a systemic perspective to understand a client’s bio-psycho-social context of their issues and works collaboratively to establish the most effective and least intrusive course of treatment. She is an experienced and accredited EMDR therapist who is passionate about providing this evidenced based trauma treatment approach as an alternative to talking therapy. Sally is also an accredited Interpersonal Therapist (IPT) with experience in providing this intervention for clients whose primary challenge is depression.

Qualifications:

BSC Hons degree in Psychology and Biology; Registered Social Worker since 1990 and recently awarded Australian accreditation as a Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW); Postgraduate Diploma in Alcohol Studies Family and Relationship Therapy 2009 (2-years part time); IPT Accredited 2015; EMDR Accredited 2016.

Working as Senior Counsellor and Supervisor in Family law – Post separation and family Domestic Violence issues for the last 10 years, Claudia is focus on intergenerational trauma and affects in the family system, but also client centred. Her practice has been in the field of child abuse, sexual assault, family violence, emotional and physical abuse and neglect. 

Over the past 15 years, Claudia began her work with out of home care for children, victims of family domestic violence, couples and complex trauma clients in Sydney-NSW. Her theoretical underpinnings were by trauma clinicians in the field of trauma, such as Bessel Van Der Kolk, Dan Siegel, Stephen Porges and Janina Fisher. 

As a clinical family therapist working in the trauma field with children and families, her clinical practice was influenced by Dr Michelle Webster- Australian Emotional Focused Therapist.  Since becoming an EMDR Practitioner in 2021, Claudia is more interested in historical child sexual abuse and the healing of past trauma.  Claudia has a relational style with social awareness and experience in diversity and social inclusion, she run Supervision groups and is a convenor to the Brazilian ACA Chapter- (Australian Counselling Association). Claudia contributed to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse doing Case Management and Counselling for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse – (Royal Commission/Redress) from 2015.  

Qualifications:  

Hons in Psychology; Post graduated in Emotional Focused Therapy (IEFT); Post Graduated in Psychodrama and Group Psychotherapy. Clinical registration with ACA.

Baljit has worked in the counselling field for over 28 years mainly in the not-for-profit sector. Baljit has worked with individuals, couples, and families experiencing a wide range of issues across the life cycle, including mental health challenges, relationship conflict, alcohol and other drugs, and issues of identity. Baljit is an experienced group facilitator and clinical supervisor and is passionate about helping people to have the best life possible despite past negative, painful, and unhelpful experiences. Baljit has a Masters in Social Science (Counselling) and is a dedicated yoga teacher and utilises a wide range of approaches in counselling to assist clients towards achieving their goals. Baljit has most recently, also worked as a Beyond Blue counsellor for Medicare providing telephone counselling support.   

Qualifications:  

Masters in Social Science (Counselling).