This page is about who I am as a person, and my work as a counsellor and therapist.
I grew up in the dust of the Mallee (north-western Victoria) in a family of tradesmen and farmers. My passion as a teenager was jazz, and I spent those years listening to the radio and practicing drums in an old shed. Consequently I dropped out of high school and moved to Melbourne, where I made a living as a musician for a few years. It was during that time, however, that my lifelong passion for exploring meaning and happiness really began. I developed a deep interest in spirituality and at 20 entered a monastery. A year later I returned and, while working in a factory for a time, I discovered philosophy. So I worked my way into The University of Melbourne, where I studied and eventually taught it.
Philosophy for me is less an academic and more a practical passion: it is about facing hardship well; it is about finding meaning; it is about being a decent human being; it is about making life good. I decided to study counselling so I could combine the two disciplines, and pursue these concerns in a practical way. This has become my career. Today I am a master's qualified counsellor with decades of experience, and am registered at the most senior level with the Australian Counselling Association.
During my first decade I worked as a counsellor within organisations with the aim of becoming widely experienced and competent. I worked with services as diverse as bereavement, men's relationship counselling, suicide intervention, career coaching, and veteran's support. Across those years I took deep dives into the mainstream approaches to counselling and psychotherapy - humanistic, cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic - developing a broad knowledge-base and skill-set. I engaged in some great projects, such as piloting the first nation-wide, government-funded program in video counselling for rural men, as well as designing and delivering professional training to other counsellors. Alongside all of this, I created a successful private practice in Melbourne offering a philosophical approach to counselling known as Existential Therapy.
These days I focus on my private practice, and on the personal growth side of counselling and psychotherapy. My work is deeply contemplative with some clients - for example helping them define who they are and what matters in life - and very practical with others - for example helping them develop confidence in dating. With many people there is healing and growth work around stuck emotions and patterns. With others I am more of a coach as they pursue life goals. There is a balance of pragmatism and depth in all my work, but it is always shaped by the wants and needs of the individual in front of me ("create a new therapy for every client"). While I have a deep capacity to hear and help with suffering, I am also very warm and positive in my own nature, and talented in helping my clients see their strengths and potential and worth. I think it is this last point - helping people to see and feel these things about themselves, and to grow in them - which has most led to my success as a therapist.
That's enough about me. In 2018 I bought a cottage by a forest in central Victoria, where I now work from home by video and telephone.
I grew up in the dust of the Mallee (north-western Victoria) in a family of tradesmen and farmers. My passion as a teenager was jazz, and I spent those years listening to the radio and practicing drums in an old shed. Consequently I dropped out of high school and moved to Melbourne, where I made a living as a musician for a few years. It was during that time, however, that my lifelong passion for exploring meaning and happiness really began. I developed a deep interest in spirituality and at 20 entered a monastery. A year later I returned and, while working in a factory for a time, I discovered philosophy. So I worked my way into The University of Melbourne, where I studied and eventually taught it.
Philosophy for me is less an academic and more a practical passion: it is about facing hardship well; it is about finding meaning; it is about being a decent human being; it is about making life good. I decided to study counselling so I could combine the two disciplines, and pursue these concerns in a practical way. This has become my career. Today I am a master's qualified counsellor with decades of experience, and am registered at the most senior level with the Australian Counselling Association.
During my first decade I worked as a counsellor within organisations with the aim of becoming widely experienced and competent. I worked with services as diverse as bereavement, men's relationship counselling, suicide intervention, career coaching, and veteran's support. Across those years I took deep dives into the mainstream approaches to counselling and psychotherapy - humanistic, cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic - developing a broad knowledge-base and skill-set. I engaged in some great projects, such as piloting the first nation-wide, government-funded program in video counselling for rural men, as well as designing and delivering professional training to other counsellors. Alongside all of this, I created a successful private practice in Melbourne offering a philosophical approach to counselling known as Existential Therapy.
These days I focus on my private practice, and on the personal growth side of counselling and psychotherapy. My work is deeply contemplative with some clients - for example helping them define who they are and what matters in life - and very practical with others - for example helping them develop confidence in dating. With many people there is healing and growth work around stuck emotions and patterns. With others I am more of a coach as they pursue life goals. There is a balance of pragmatism and depth in all my work, but it is always shaped by the wants and needs of the individual in front of me ("create a new therapy for every client"). While I have a deep capacity to hear and help with suffering, I am also very warm and positive in my own nature, and talented in helping my clients see their strengths and potential and worth. I think it is this last point - helping people to see and feel these things about themselves, and to grow in them - which has most led to my success as a therapist.
That's enough about me. In 2018 I bought a cottage by a forest in central Victoria, where I now work from home by video and telephone.
