Cenza Messino

I am a Peer worker, Peer Supervisor (trained by CoMHWA) and Nationally Accredited Mediator. I am neurodivergent, queer and from a culturally diverse background, and my practice is grounded in my own lived experience of domestic and family violence, complex trauma, homelessness and being labelled with a personality disorder. I work from a non-biomedical lens, understanding distress as a meaningful response to what has happened to people rather than as something wrong with them. I value curiosity over judgement, self-determination, and relationships built on mutuality and shared power. I am committed to non-oppressive, non-pathologising, intersectional approaches.

My peer work has taken me into prisons, family law and separation services, settings where people's autonomy is most constrained and where systems can compound harm. I also run my own mediation and policy consultancy and work in lived experience consulting and systems advocacy. I trained as a Peer Supervisor with CoMHWA and am endorsed by them. In supervision, I offer a reflective, relational space where peer workers can stay connected to their values, make sense of working inside systems, and look after themselves along the way.

Designated peer roles

• Volunteer Peer Worker, The Freedom Centre (from 2017). My first designated peer role, supporting LGBTIQQA+ young people. Community sector.
• Designated Peer Role, Beyond Blue. Mental health sector.
• Peer Worker, Homelessness Outreach. Homelessness/AOD sector.
• Lived Experience Worker, several Australian prisons. Justice sector, supporting people in custody.
• Peer Supervisor (volunteer team). Supervised a group of volunteer peer workers delivering lived experience services to families going through the family court, including victim-survivor support. Family law sector.

Other lived experience contributions

• Lived experience presenter, including "Destigmatising Empathy" and "Different Wiring, Same Worth: Care Without Conventional Empathy"
• Member, Lived Experience Australia Representative Panel - many lived experience participant contributions to university studies.
• Expert Advisory Group member, SAFE-COMMS, University of Melbourne, working to safely increase understanding of child emotional abuse among parents, carers and health and social service professionals

These days my main focus is lived experience speaking, with a particular interest in destigmatising empathy and challenging how services judge and punish people for the ways they do or don't feel it. I also work with a Western Australia NGO, delivering the review of policies, procedures and guidelines for their family separation and mediation services, and sit on their Lived Experience Advisory Group. This keeps me close to Peer Workers and continually navigating policy, advocating for lived experience perspectives, and holding onto peer values within larger systems.

I am a Nationally Accredited Mediator with my own practice, and a member of the Lived Experience Australia Representative Panel and the SAFE-COMMS Expert Advisory Group at the University of Melbourne. I'm well placed to support peer workers in family services, justice, AOD and homelessness, and anyone navigating being a lived experience voice within an organisation. As my organisational role is WA based and I have recently arrived in Victoria, conflicts with Victorian services are unlikely.

Peer Supervision Training, CoMHWA (trained and endorsed Peer Supervisor)

Nationally Accredited Mediator, trained through the University of Western Australia

Bachelor of Laws

Group Facilitation Training

Member, Australian Institute of Professional Investigators

My approach to supervision is lived experience led, reflective and values based. My role is to walk alongside you with curiosity, helping you reflect on your practice, notice what is coming up for you, and stay connected to peer values such as mutuality and self-determination. I work from a non-biomedical, trauma-informed and neuroaffirming lens, and I bring skills from mediation and group facilitation, including open, reflective questioning and exploring situations from different perspectives, to help you find your own way through ethical dilemmas, organisational pressures and the emotional weight of the work.

I offer supervision because peer workers deserve support from people who understand the role, the impact, including what it's like to hold onto peer values in systems that can pathologise, discriminate, silence or punish you and the very people we work alongside. I am especially passionate about supporting peer workers who have been labelled, misunderstood or experiences reduced, and those working in justice, family services, homelessness or other settings where power imbalances are sharp. I aim to provide a safe, honest and non-judgemental space where you can be yourself, including as a neurodivergent, queer or culturally diverse worker, grow in your practice, and look after your own wellbeing along the way.

Also, I am just a really friendly and approachable supervisor who genuinely wants to sit in discomfort with you, and make your days in these complex, heavy systems feel a bit lighter.