Meet Geoff
Counsellor & Psychotherapist
Counsellor & Psychotherapist
I wasn't always a therapist. In 2011 I left the financial services industry, a field that I'd occupied since 1990. My career transition was difficult and so, I sought counselling for the first time in my life. After about a year of soul-searching and personal reflection, I secured a role working with complex to extreme-needs young people - for three years - at a residential facility west of Brisbane; this is where my career reskilling began, starting with a Cert IV in Youth Work and including extensive training in therapeutic frameworks such as Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI), trauma informed care and complex trauma neurobiology. I also commenced a Diploma of Counselling.
Throughout this time, I also spent time in Nauru - an Australian offshore processing centre - supporting unaccompanied minors as a residential worker for Save the Children. In 2016, my wife and I moved to Mission Beach in Far North Queensland, a long held dream, and soon after, I established Cassowary Coast Counselling.
My passion today is my private practice, Cassowary Coast Counselling, where I work with children teens and adults. I am a member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) and hold both a Diploma of Counselling and a Graduate Certificate in Gestalt Therapy. In late 2020, I will complete a Master's Degree in Gestalt Therapy.
Alongside my practice, I hold a position with the Office of Public Guardian, an independent statutory agency (Department of Justice and Attorney-General), where I advocate for the rights of children placed into foster care in Queensland.
Throughout this time, I also spent time in Nauru - an Australian offshore processing centre - supporting unaccompanied minors as a residential worker for Save the Children. In 2016, my wife and I moved to Mission Beach in Far North Queensland, a long held dream, and soon after, I established Cassowary Coast Counselling.
My passion today is my private practice, Cassowary Coast Counselling, where I work with children teens and adults. I am a member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA) and hold both a Diploma of Counselling and a Graduate Certificate in Gestalt Therapy. In late 2020, I will complete a Master's Degree in Gestalt Therapy.
Alongside my practice, I hold a position with the Office of Public Guardian, an independent statutory agency (Department of Justice and Attorney-General), where I advocate for the rights of children placed into foster care in Queensland.
I am not a psychologist or psychiatrist
Counselling, or psychotherapy, is a professional activity that utilises an interpersonal relationship to enable people to develop self-understanding and to make changes in their lives. Professional counsellors work within a clearly contracted, principled relationship that enables individuals to obtain assistance in exploring and resolving issues of an interpersonal, intrapsychic, or personal nature. Professional Counselling is explicitly contracted and requires in-depth training to utilise a range of therapeutic interventions, and should be differentiated from the use of counselling skills by other professionals. Source - Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia
Counselling can help where the diagnosis of a mental health condition is not required.is text is to help your site visitors with pressing questions.
Counselling can help where the diagnosis of a mental health condition is not required.is text is to help your site visitors with pressing questions.
My Practice Space
"Gestalt methodology combines an Eastern focus on awareness and being in the here and now, with a Western emphasis on action and doing."
- Melnick & Nevis
- Melnick & Nevis
