Our People

Tell us a bit about your experience

When I left school, I completed a BA Honours Degree in Psychology at University College Dublin. My real interest was psychotherapy so I went on to study counselling and psychotherapy and worked in drug and alcohol and other addictions. Much of my work was with young people and their families. After we had our children I trained as a Crisis Support Worker at Lifeline and more recently completed my Post Graduate Certificate in Play Therapy.

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Where are you from?

​I am from Ireland and travelled to Australia in my 20’s. Just before I was about to leave Sydney I met my Australian husband and the rest is history.

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What inspired you to work in Play Therapy?

Working in addiction I often wondered what life would have been like for some of my clients if they had been able to get help when they were young. After raising my own family, I felt drawn towards working with children, I wanted to find a way that would truly allow them to safely express themselves. When I learned about Play Therapy and how it reaches children in a way that talking therapy cannot, I knew I had found that way.

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What do you like most about your job?

I am constantly amazed in the playroom as I watch children process their struggles and guide their own growth. I feel enormously privileged that they allow me into their lives to be part of that process. I love helping provide a safe space and developing a relationship where they can feel supported and secure enough to express their feelings, thoughts, fears and worries through the medium that comes most naturally to them – play.

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What kind of play do you enjoy the most?

​I grew up in the countryside and loved to escape down the fields or into the woods, immersing myself in the freedom of nature and my imagination. In the playroom, I love working in the sand with children and being with them as their natural creativity and imagination takes them where they need to go.