about LOUISA
As a woman who has been helped by the lessons of madness and pain, I share what I have learnt through my writing, teaching and counselling.
For much of my life, I experienced mental distress - depression, suicidality, self-harm, anxiety and addictive behaviours. In times of stress, I heard voices and experienced dissociated states of consciousness, and over time I received diagnoses of schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder and dissociative identity disorder.
It took me many years of hard work, but I learnt to befriend these experiences, to make meaning of them, and to heal the pain that caused the self to shatter. Once the fragments of my Self were made whole, I began to communicate more consciously with Great Spirit, via messengers of Light - the angelic realm, inter-dimensional beings and quantum aspects of my soul.
Today I work as a writer, social worker and peer specialist in mental health.
my QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING
I truly believe that people who work as guides, counsellors and healers are foremost qualified by virtue of their life experience and soul calling. Most of my knowledge comes from lived experience, empathic resonance with mentors, and my life-long interest in psychology and spirituality.
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That said, my formal qualifications undoubtedly support my work and are as follows:
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~ Embodied Processing Practitioner certification (2023)
~ Masters of Social Work, Flinders University (2020)
~ Bachelor of Creative Studies (2000)
~ Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (2017)
~ Diploma of Community Services (2013)
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I have also done specialist training in voice dialogue, trauma for voices, psychosis, Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training and Non-Violent Communication. I have been privileged to train with voice-hearing experts such as Professor Marius Romme and Dr Sandra Escher, Dr Rufus May, Ron Coleman, Peter Bullimore, John Watkins, Dr Zohar Berchik and Dr Neil Thomas.
my WORK EXPERIENCE
In 2012 I began to assist others, working first as volunteer, then as a researcher, peer worker and trainer for a consumer-led organisation, Voices Vic, helping people who heard voices in an innovative project called Voice Exchange. Led by Dr Neil Thomas in conjunction with The Alfred Psychiatry (Melbourne), the study supported the efficacy of peer work.
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Between 2014 - 2020 I worked as a peer worker and National Consumer Consultant for Healthscope, designing and delivering training, working with patients, and coordinating innovative, consumer-led projects.
Along the way I gave presentations at conferences, started a series of online videos to help people, and authored two books on mental health: The Little Girl that Nobody Wanted (2013) and Spirit-Gnosis: Hearing Voices (2020).
More recently I worked as a Peer Practice Supervisor for Peer 4 Peer on the Sunshine Coast, and then in January 2023, I turned to full private practice, providing therapy and training for people who hear voices and those who support them. I love to share ideas and collaborate with others to create a truly empowering and holistic paradigm of healthcare.
some things I love....
Cats
Everyday companions and inter-dimensional beings
There's nothing so therapeutic as snuggling up to a purring cat (sorry Dog people!)
Chickens
Teachers of tolerance
Hens are very funny; they have pecking orders and a complex social life. They have their quibbles but at night-time they snuggle up. Strength in numbers.
Ancient Wisdom
Sacred Ceremony
For many centuries. the woman's gift of magick-craft was denied and feared. Now is the time when all women can re-member these ancient arts and practise them to assist with helping the Earth and all her beings.