Kate has completed a Bachelor of Psychological Science and a Masters of Social Work and has been an accredited social worker since 2017. She is also a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). Following completing her University Studies and after gaining some experience in the field, Kate found a passion in supporting Children/Youth and their families and completed the Developmental Psychiatry Course through Mindful to further develop her knowledge and skills in infant, child, youth and family development and build competency in assessment, diagnosis, formulation, and treatment planning.

Early Career: Kate started her career working within the early models of therapeutic residential care for children within the out-of-home care system in Victoria. She enjoyed taking on a case management role and learning the ins and outs of supporting the whole system to support the child. Following this, she began working with the local Aboriginal Cooperation, where she played a key role in developing therapeutic programs for children, youth, kinship carers, and parents, both within their out-of-home care programs and their Strengthening Families program. It was here that Kate found mentors who supported her in developing an understanding of supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which led to Kate’s relocation to the Northern Territory and working with remote communities.

Northern Territory: Kate worked for 5 years as a school counsellor with the Northern Territory Government, primarily supporting remote and rural communities. During this time, Kate lived out in a remote community and learnt firsthand what it meant to support and play a part in the community’s self-advocacy and self-determination around their mental health needs. Kate has developed a skillset in creative therapies, including music and art-based therapy, as well as supporting people in whole school/community, small groups and individual counselling. Kate worked with individual students as well as families and schools/whole communities to support children and youth around their mental health and wellbeing, barriers to education, advocating for learning adjustments and providing professional development for staff and parents to support their students/children. Kate primarily used solution-focused, goal-driven brief interventions to support her clients in achieving their goals. Kate would also support communities following a critical incident, such as death, natural disaster or a serious incident that had caused a disruption to the school/community and would support around topics such as grief and loss. Kate was lucky to have the opportunity to support the development of policies within Education around whole school wellbeing initiatives and curriculum, such as the Keeping Safe Curriculum, Trauma Informed Education (BSEM), Lovebites and the Respectful Relationships Curriculum.

Kate has also worked in homeless services, case management and domestic and family violence. Kate has extensive experience in supporting both people who are experiencing violence through in-person and telehealth counselling and case management, but also supporting people who use violence to make changes to their behaviours so as to keep others safe. Kate has enjoyed supporting families escaping violence to have their needs meet through connection with service providers, case management and immediate mental health support before supporting the family to heal together and develop an understanding of what a safe home means and feels like.

Kate has experience in leading teams in clinical mental health interventions, including counselling and clinical care coordination/case management. She provides oversight and supervision and enjoys supporting multidisciplinary teams to provide goal-driven wrap-around supports for clients.

Since the beginning, Kate has always had an interest in creative therapies and how they can work in conjunction with her other trainings in areas such as CBT, DBT, ACT, etc. From this Kate researched and learn skills in music and art therapy and has completed both the Rhythm2Recovery and Drumbeat training. She also developed a keen interest in alternative ways to engage people, which led her to Animal Assisted Therapy. Right as Rain Wellbeing Services are excited to introduce their therapy dogs Winston and Cheeto. Kate has been working with Winston for 5 years and with Cheeto for the last 1.5 years to develop their skills in this area and has watched the joy and security they can bring to her clients. Winston has now decided he enjoys his time as a couch potato, but still supports clients occasionally. However, Cheeto is slowly learning and enjoying his work as a training therapy dog and looks forward to having the opportunity to support our clients while he continues to learn before gaining his accreditation.