Location
WWILD-SVP Association has two counsellors who work in Wooloowin, most of the time. We also have one counsellor who works at the Beenleigh Neighbourhood Centre on Mondays, and the other counsellor works at HomeLife Service in Caboolture on Thursdays.
Referral Process
Referrals can be made by anyone – the person themselves, a family member, worker or supporter. Please ring WWILD talk to a WWILD worker who will take the referral, which is talked about at our team meeting. The worker will contact the person to talk about what happens next.
About our counsellors
Jill Olver has worked as a counsellor and trainer at WWILD in the Sexual Violence Prevention Service since 2008. The focus of her work is building the existing strengths of people with intellectual disability to decrease their vulnerability and/or deal with the effects of trauma and sexual assault in their lives. Jill takes an eclectic approach that covers psychology, Narrative Therapy, Sand-tray and Art Therapy. Prior to working at WWILD, Jill worked counselling across rural and regional Queensland, in the Sexual Assault Service in Canberra, Indigenous communities and in refugee camps in Zimbabwe. Jill has university qualifications in Psychology and Counselling.
Victoria Tucker has worked as a social worker in the disability sector for 18 years before moving into the counsellor role at WWILD. Victoria has worked on and off for WWILD since 2010, as one the Victim of crime workers and Acting Manager at WWILD. Previously Victoria has also worked as a social work/community worker and various other roles with people with intellectual and learning disabilities at the Community Living Association. The focus of her work is supporting people to work through their traumatic experiences and with building their own strengths and capacity, and working to decrease vulnerability. Victoria utilises an eclectic approach, similar to Jill, based on the wishes, needs and capacity of the client, and seeing the client as the expert on their life.
About our counselling
• We see the person – not their disability.
• We do not define the person by their sexual abuse/trauma.
• We believe the client is the expert in their own life (not the counsellor).
• We understand we need to take time – to build rapport, assess, identify and work together on goals.
• We adjust our communication style – is our job to be easy to understand, not the client’s job to understand us.
• We are careful about suggestibility and masking, the need to avoid jargon and asking closed questions.
• We can work with the effects of trauma, without referring to the event itself.
• We normalise effects and acknowledge coping strategies.
• We seek to empower the client by identifying choices and options.
• We aim to improve the client’s self-image and self-protection strategies.
• We use a range of creative strategies to concretise abstract concepts such as feelings and enable externalisation.
How to prepare someone for counselling
Read ‘What is Counselling?’ page with the person for more information.
Explain to the person that:
It’s their choice to come to see us or not, and listen to their answer.
They do not have to tell the story of what happened.
Counselling is about helping to understand and deal with feelings, and learn ways to feel better and more in control.
They can bring someone into the counselling room with them if they want to, it is up to them.
If they are not sure they can visit WWILD first, to meet us before they make up their mind.
Call to make an appointment or referral. Counselling at WWILD is free.