Helping Queenslanders of all ages to Hear, Listen and Speak

I started in administration work when I was 15 years old and have been in some way involved with support roles ever since.  The love of helping people has also led me to study and work in the area of counselling and mental health as a clinician over the past 17 years and I have been lucky enough to have the “best of both worlds” by combining the two roles. I have always gravitated towards organisations that make a difference, and a large part of the connection has been that my internal values also need to align. This alignment has allowed me to work across many environments and an array of locations across Queensland leading me to joining Hear and Say as their Chief Operating Officer in July 2023.  I am very lucky to work with a passionate group of people who want to strive to have the best outcome for our clients, our staff and the organisation as a whole.  My recent appointment as CEO of Hear and Say has allowed me to combine every role, every experience and every learning I have had along the way to lead this incredible organisation into the future.

There is never a typical day for me.  I get up each day coming to work never knowing how the day might end up.  My diary shows all of the booked meetings that I may need to attend but it doesn’t highlight the incidental conversations that I may have with a family in the waiting room or one of our staff in the kitchen or a phone call I receive from a stakeholder sharing some feedback about our services.  Those unscripted interactions are powerful and honestly what get me up each and every day.  I love what I do and the people that I am lucky enough to be involved with each day.

The biggest challenge that I have encountered was being faced with the decision to give up being a clinician in order to continue my career path.  Some years ago, I was faced with the idea that I may need to stop providing counselling in my private practice.  This was due to the demands of my role as an Executive at the time.  I took some time to reflect on the type of leader I was and realised that I was a better leader and executive member because I had the clinical experience that I had.  The balance of both management and therapy gave me a unique insight and set of skills that a lot of people do not have.  I made a few adjustments to practice so that both roles could be better accommodated and honestly it was the best decision that I ever made.  It allowed me to grow both a clinician and leader and to have an understanding of how health can work as a provider from that unique perspective of supporting an organisation and also providing services to a client.

Truly understand the benefit of working across a diverse range of environments and locations.  I am not sure I really understand the benefit of the experiences that I had early on in my career however I know now that each have contributed to where I am today.

I love to be at home with my family.  I spend a lot of time travelling so when I am at home, it is all about my husband and my children.  We chat over dinner and catch up about how the day has gone for everyone.  Our family loves a board game so we have been known to get out an old worn version of Monopoly for a couple of hours, honestly anything where we can spend some time all together.