Donna reflects warmth and empathy when working with children and their families.  She has a collaborative and reflective approach, empowering all to make positive changes in their lives, and as a result, strengthening and improving relationships.  She creates an environment which allows children to feel safe to tell their story through their natural language of play, where instead of words, children ‘play out’ their feelings and problems to make sense of their world and hence build resilience.

Donna has dedicated her 30 plus years of practice to providing therapeutic services to children and their families who have challenging needs, with particular experience in grief and/or loss, complex trauma and attachment issues.  She also works with children impacted by life events such as parental separation or divorce, peer and/or social issues, bullying and bereavement which can lead to a wide range of emotional, developmental and behavioural difficulties.  She counsels with the goal of enabling the child to build self-worth, emotional maturity and mastery over their behaviours, which results in long term growth.

Donna works closely with parents and/or caregivers who are an integral part of the therapeutic process.  Keeping parents informed and involved at each stage of therapy and provides parents with support to understand their child’s feelings and motivations and how this might be expressed through behaviour.  Donna has a passion for providing practical and creative strategies to families who are supporting a child or young person with social, emotional, or behavioural difficulties.  Her extensive skill sets and knowledge allows her to provide families with practical strategies that are sensitive and responsive to their child’s emotional, social, behavioural or developmental needs.  These strategies, when applied, lead to healthier and more positive relationships at home.

Donna’s Qualifications

As an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (MHSW), Donna holds a Masters in Advanced Practice Social Work with over 30 years of experience working with children, youth, and families.  Her work has predominately been in schools, hospitals, and not-for-profits, both in Australia and abroad.

Donna’s certifications in this area include Parent Effectiveness Training, Triple P Parenting, and Filial Therapy as well as being a registered facilitator of the Circle of Security Parenting (COS – P) and Tuning Into Kids programs.

Donna is always delighted to integrate Animal Assisted Therapy into her therapeutic sessions to ensure outcomes are optimised.  She believes passionately in the benefits of Dog-Assisted Intervention, especially in supporting children on their emotional regulation and learning journey and feels blessed to have three dogs trained for Animal Assisted Therapeutic work.  These dogs, depending on the client, join her in therapy, and provide a calm supportive environment for change to occur.

On top of her therapeutic work, Donna provides clinical supervision to Social Workers and/or Primary Wellbeing Officers in schools, plus social work/counselling students on clinical placement in the educational field.

Donna is also now one of a small number of clinicians in Australia who is accredited as a TraumaPlay ™ Certified Therapist.