This supervisor has been approved to provide supervision under the ACCESS TO SUPERVISION PROJECT.

My name is Ellen (She/They). I have been a Consumer Peer worker for 7 years in various roles. My perspective is formed from my identity as a person who experiences mental health distress, chronic health conditions and living as a Queer person. I'm most passionate about building community and providing access to support for Peer workers in a world where a lot of us work in isolation. I feel most connected when in nature and collaborating with other people with a lived or living experience.

This supervisor has been approved to provide supervision under the ACCESS TO SUPERVISION PROJECT. If you are a supervisee who has received an approval email/letter from the CMHL you may contact this supervisor for supervision for this project, then follow the stated processes for supervision payment.

Peer Cadet co-ordinator within the Victorian Peer Cadet Program. I have had the privilege to supervise three Peer Cadets including supporting them in their development and entry into the sector.

Peer worker at Prevention and Recovery Care (PARC): Including two years experience of Peer cadet mentorship, facilitation of PARC Peer worker community of practice and consulting on interviews (4 years experience).

Peer project worker: Supporting Peer workers to facilitate Lived experience community based recovery groups and lived experience story telling (2 years experience).

Out together LGBTQIA+ Peer support worker: Providing 1:1 peer support to other LGBTQIA+ folks under the NDIS. Within this role I also supported non-identifying people in a range of contexts including forensic settings, young people and people with a disability (2 years experience).

Peer mentor at Queerspace: 1:1 youth mentoring for LGBTQIA+ folks (1 Year mentorship).

Queer chat: LGBTQIA+ peer group facilitated at a university (1 year experience).

I am currently stepping in to a Peer Navigation role at one of our Mental Health and Wellbeing locals. I also support my organisation providing Lived Experience expertise in various ways including on committees. I also offer external supervision.

Consumer Perspective Supervision Training (CMHL) Intentional Peer Support Training (Wellways) Cert IV in Mental Health Peer Work (Mental health VIC & Wodonga TAFE) Alternatives to suicide (ALT2SU) - when conversations turn to suicide training (Discharged) ASSIST suicide training (Queerspace) A number of in-house trainings on Peer work, trauma, inclusive practice, group facilitation, motivational interviewing and advocacy.

Less relevant: Bachelor of Psychological Science with Honours (La Trobe University)

My approach is to provide a space where you feel heard. A space to assist us both to hold on to Peer principles and practices and learn from each other. A space to challenge each other to be creative in finding solutions and to orient towards learning from lived experience workers who have come before us. A place to acknowledge the role of systemic oppression within our services and our roles and the toll it can take on us. This is a space co-created together to assist in the sustainability of your meaningful work.

A note on session structure. I am someone who often experiences anxiety around attending supervision and feeling like I must bring something super transformational to sessions. Like a lot of people, knowing what the plan is really helps me. Because of this, I offer a range of approaches to supervision, of course completely guided by you. Some options include:

No structure: you bring whatever is on top for you to the session, we discuss, reflect and pull apart. Half structured: time for what’s on top and time for reflecting on peer principles or other consumer movement ideas or resources. Highly structured: we start with a prompt, supervision card or a tool of your choosing and see what comes from that