Sam is Healthy Mind Centre’s senior social worker who comes with over 10 years’ experience of social work practice. He is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker and a registered member of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW). Sam’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Tasmania, as well as a Masters of Youth Mental Health from the University of Melbourne.

Sam started his social work career working for Tasmanian Health Services, within Community Health. Here he started to gain proficiency in providing counselling to individuals. During this time Sam discovered his passion and keen interest for working with youth and adolescents. Sam began a journey of pursuing more youth focused work, which lead him to employment at Relationships Australia. During Sam’s time with Relationships Australia, he worked with young people and their families, providing practical support as well as therapeutic interventions. Sam provided family therapy, working closely with young people and their families to resolve their issues. Throughout this time Sam also worked within a program that was aimed at providing support specifically to young Aboriginal Tasmanians. This fostered a large learning experiencing for Sam where he began to absorb, understand, and appreciate Aboriginal Tasmanian culture.

Sam wanted to further pursue his interest in working with youth and adolescents which lead him to venture into private practice providing specifically mental health counselling to adolescents and young adults. While Sam’s passion and speciality is centred towards working with adolescents and young adults, he also enjoys working with older adults.

Sam’s approach to his therapy is holistic, whereupon he seeks to understand the many different aspects of his clients to gather a clear assessment of what the major issues are for them on an individual basis. Sam recognises that each person and situation is unique to them and therefore needs an individualistic approach.

Sam’s approach and appearance is casual, which he does in order to present in a way that is more relatable to the clients he targets and specialises in. Sam also may be seen accompanied by his therapy dog, Chilli, which can also provide a more relaxed atmosphere to counselling. Sam is one of a few therapists in Tasmania able to offer accredited animal-assisted therapy within private practice.

While Sam’s style and presentation may not be typical of most practitioners, Sam is committed to professionalism in everything he does and seeks to provide his clients with the most up to date, evidence based therapeutic approaches, along with a comfortable atmosphere which he hopes will put his clients at ease so they can focus on their therapy and recovery.

For potential clients who are interested in working with Sam, and for Sam to offer you the best therapeutic experience, it is helpful for you to understand the types of presentation he works with and what types of therapeutic models he works under.

Client presentations: depression, anxiety, trauma, grief and loss, relationship issues, school related issues, self-esteem issues, body image issues, family-based issues, employment issues, stress, drug and alcohol abuse, self-harm, OCD, PTSD, ADHD, autism, bipolar disorder and many more.

Therapeutic models: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Solutions Focused Therapy, Core Value Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Schema Therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Sam is also very passionate about promoting social work and does whatever he can to support young emerging social workers. Sam regularly takes on social work students here at Healthy Mind Centre and provides professional supervision to social workers outside of Healthy Mind Centre.

If you are interested in becoming a client of Sam’s or are interested in receiving professional supervision from Sam, please contact Healthy Mind Centre.