Transformation for Recovery
Facilitation for Social Justice
Transformation for Recovery
Facilitation for Social Justice
Acknowledgement of Country
I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, the traditional custodians of the land, the skies and the waters upon which I work. This is stolen land; theisovereignty was never ceded. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and rising and acknowledge any First Nations people visiting this site.
I love the way that Sam is chairing the discussions, she is so super inclusive :)
Conceptual Dialogue Group member
How May I Be of Service?
Co-Design
Adult Education
Adult Education
Co-design is an agile and refining process in which the people who use services collaborate with those who provide them to generate human rights approaches to service delivery. I bring a lived experience perspective to facilitating mental health and suicide prevention service co-design. My approach is informed by the principles of design justice, with attention to hospitality, curiosity, elevating lived experience, embracing discomfort and valuing diverse perspectives.
Adult Education
Adult Education
Adult Education
I develop and facilitate adult education for recovery and social justice. I am confident teaching in person and online, using platforms including Zoom, Teams, Blackboard and Collaborate Ultra. I coordinated the curriculum at a recovery college in Sydney. For TAFE NSW, I teach the Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work and for Southern Cross University, I teach Mental Health. I am a lifelong learner, with a pro-active approach to my professional development.
Lived Experience Governance
Consumer Perspective Supervision
Consumer Perspective Supervision
I offer a lived experience perspective to mental health corporate and research governance. Applying the tenet of 'nothing about us without us', I advocate for meaningful participation at all levels of mental health service and research by people with a lived experience of mental distress. Currently, I am a member of the Wellways Lived & Living Experience Authority, the Deputy Chair of the George Institute Consumer & Community Advisory Committee and a member of the ALIVE Centre for Mental Health Research Translation Combined Governance Committee.
Consumer Perspective Supervision
Consumer Perspective Supervision
Consumer Perspective Supervision
I offer consumer perspective supervision for folks working in designated roles at a systemic level. If you're interested in exploring this with me, I am approved with the Access to Supervision Project and am listed on the Centre for Mental Health Learning's supervisor database. Consumer perspective supervision is a wonderful opportunity for co-reflection, mutual learning and grounding practice in our movement. I am currently completing inside out & associates Australia's 3 month consumer perspective supervision training.
Why Work with Me?
Transformation
Transformation
Transformation
My training in popular education as well as my own lived experience of complex trauma has taught me that healing and renewal are always possible. Having had others hold hope for me through times of mental distress, it is my honour to hold hope for others, believing that they too will navigate a path through their struggles, often in unexpected ways.
Vision
Transformation
Transformation
My vision for a better world is one in which power is genuinely shared, solidarity can be relied upon, self-determination is respected, social justice is achieved, and relationships are built on mutuality and reciprocity. I draw on collective survivor wisdom to work shoulder to shoulder with marginalised people, based on our shared experiences of oppression.
Impact
Transformation
Perspective
I effectively challenge systemic oppression across intersecting domains; holding the door open for others coming after me. I embed recovery-oriented, strengths-based, trauma-informed & person-centred approaches in my practice, creating a safe enough space for people with a lived experience of mental distress to participate.
Perspective
Perspective
Perspective
I take a systemic approach to lived experience advocacy, pedagogy and governance. My perspective is informed by the elders of the international psychiatric survivor movement and the emerging discipline of Mad Studies. Learning from people with a lived experience of mental distress globally, I highlight our strengths, our resilience and our recovery as well as our collective sites of struggle.
Expertise
Perspective
Restitution
I purposefully draw on my own lived experience of mental distress, suicidal ideation and being a member of the LGBTIQ+ community in my work. Self-disclosing, in a boundaried way, role models vulnerability, creates rapport and generates safety. Reflective practice is critical to my work and receiving consumer perspective supervision is central to my development as a lived experience practitioner. I stand on the shoulders of giants.
Restitution
Perspective
Restitution
As a white person who has benefited from unearned privilege, I take an anti-racist stance in my work. I offer restitution to First Nations people by redistributing 3.8% of my gross income to Aboriginal community-controlled organisations on the Country where I work. Recently, this has included the Healing Foundation, VACCHO, Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Weenthunga and the AHMRC.
Thank you Sam! [I am] deeply grateful for your perspective-broadening insights and mindful guidance throughout this mental health course. Your resilience and strength are such a testament to us all. Thank you for your courageous conversations.
Statement of Attainment in Mental Health student, TAFE NSW
I loved how Sam approached the unit and incorporated scenarios and her own lived experience.
Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work student, TAFE NSW
