Only three days into their new role at Your Community Health, Lee shares what Counsellors do and why.
Welcome, Lee! Tell us about your role.
I’m a counsellor at Your Community Health and provide therapeutic support to clients. Our clients here tend to be 30 to 40 or over 65, but anyone can refer for counselling services if they want to improve their social and emotional wellbeing.
How did you come to come to be a Counsellor?
As a genderqueer person myself (I use they/ them pronouns), I’d like to work with trans and gender diverse people to build self-worth and facilitate growth.
I’ve wanted to work in the mental health support sector since I was a support worker as a young person. Then I went to university and learned the theory behind the practice. I studied liberal arts then went on to do a bachelor of arts where I majored in psychology with a minor in sociology. I was fortunate to get into a fourth year graduate diploma of psychology course and completed a thesis on using positive psychology to improve mental health and psycho-social outcomes for trans and gender diverse people.
The following year I had my thesis accepted into my first publication in an academic peer-reviewed psychology journal. I was then fortunate to get into a masters of professional psychology degree and attained provisional psychologist registration and am on the pathway to general psychologist registration.
So there has been a lot of study and practice that has brought me here to Your Community Health!
Why do you think counselling is important?
Therapy can be helpful for anyone who is open and willing. Why? To quote a company that I won’t name – “because you’re worth it!”
What are you looking forward to about working here?
I’m only on day three and so far the staff have all been consistently friendly and helpful in welcoming me to the team. I’m most excited about finding my feet within the organisation and growing my professional experience as a therapist.
You have joined the organisation during the COVID-19 pandemic, what’s that like?
I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to start a new job during COVID-19. Many people have lost their positions as a result of the pandemic. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to use the five years at university I’ve taken to study psychology and be working in a field where I can help my community.
I also think this is a unique time and people are going to need extra support for their mental health, so I’m pleased to be able to help them. Instead of face to face sessions, we will be delivering a lot of counselling support via video or telephone sessions, which will be a bit different – but it’s important we make this adjustment.
If you are interested in using our counselling services, contact us today .