About Living Well
About Sarah
Face obscured to keep the confidentiality of outdoor Walk & Talk clients
Thanks for being here!
I am an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW) with over ten years of experience supporting people, including as a Mental Health Clinician and Clinical Lead in not-for-profit settings. I have worked with people across the lifespan from a range of cultural backgrounds, faiths, lifestyles, genders, sexualities, neurotypes and clinical presentations. I love working to support each individual to identify their own values and goals and build a life that is meaningful to them.
I have my own lived experience of mental/physical health management, integrating values and faith, trauma recovery, caring for people with mental illness and neurodivergence, and investing in relational growth. My experiences allow me to practice from a place of strengths-based empathy and compassion. Throughout sessions I prioritise building a strong and safe therapeutic alliance without imposing my own values upon others.
When I am not working you might find me spending time with friends and family, playing sport, running at the beach, hyperfixating on a new art/craft project, studying theology or reading a book with a large cup of tea.
What is a Mental Health Social Worker?
Accredited Mental Health Social Workers (AMHSW) are highly skilled, experienced and qualified mental health clinicians. We engage in ongoing professional development and supervision to continue meeting our registration requirements, practice according to the Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics and Practice Standards, and ensure our clinical skills are of high quality.
Mental Health Social Workers approach mental health concerns and interventions from a strengths-based, person-centred, holistic perspective. We develop treatment plans collaboratively with our clients, tailored to their unique goals and life experiences, and draw upon the strengths and expertise of their own lives. As a social worker I ask “What happened to you?” rather than “What’s wrong with you?” in acknowledgement that our pain is often a result of oppressive systems, trauma, lack of external resources and stressful circumstances rather than due to the inherent “weakness” or pathology of the individual.
As “experts in complexity” social workers work holistically to see the different factors and systems impacting the individual’s mental health. We recognise challenges and support you to access your well of internal strengths to help you live life to the full.
Skills & Experience
Throughout my clinical mental health work in not-for-profit organisations I have worked across the following programs:
headspace (young people aged 12-25yo)
Perinatal Mental Health
Suicide Prevention and Risk De-Escalation
Head to Health/Medicare Mental Health (adults experiencing moderate-complex mental health and psychosocial concerns)
Rural psychological therapies via telehealth
Through these roles I have developed skills in:
Individual therapy using Medicare-approved Focussed Psychological Strategies
Providing supervision and clinical leadership
Supporting parents, carers and families of clients
Intake (completing holistic assessments)
Group Work (skills-based group therapy)
Developing and presenting training for clinicians and communities
