Zoe Broomhead
Director Life Therapies Victoria
Director Living Life Counselling
B.A. Min (Counselling)
Grad Cert. Developmental Trauma
Cert IV TAE .
M.A.C.A. 10102 (Level 4) CCAA(Clin) 13622
Registered Supervisor – M.A.C.A. & CMCCA
“I love to see change happen for people, watching the progress people make when they have a safe and supported environment to explore, understand, learn, grow and heal.”
What are you passionate about in life and work?
I love to see change happen for people, watching the progress people make when they have a safe and supported environment to explore, understand, learn, grow and heal.
What brings me the greatest satisfaction is that penny drop moment, when a realisation comes that can then facilitate healing, growth and change.
What experience do you bring to your work?
Prior to formalised counselling I spent many years offering emergency care through formal and informal fostering of young people in my home, as my own children grew up. This led to me train as a counsellor more than 25 years ago. I then specialised in developmental trauma, and expressive therapies, which includes sand play therapy, EMDR and TIR, each developing my experience as a trauma informed practitioner.
I am trained in critical incident debriefing, I worked in the 2009 and 2020 fires locally and down the East coast of Australia. I have also spent ten years teaching counselling skills at tertiary institutions and continue to lecture on occasion. Offering, professional supervision to allied health workers, counselling for individuals, couples, families, and corporate workshops.
How did you come to be a Forest Therapist?
Growing up with a father who was a keen ornithologist meant camping, bush walking and sitting still for long periods of time as Dad undertook bird counts. Whilst I loved the birds, counting them was for dad, for me the simple presence of nature took my breath away and I have many memories of simply being still, not knowing it was a “practise.”
When I took young people into my family home a ritual developed for each new person coming in, a meal out and time in nature. Even before I began my formal training as a counsellor, let alone a Forrest Therapy guide; I learnt that these traumatised troubled young people simply did better when I took them out of the four walls and into natural spaces. When I heard of forest therapy and read what it can offer it was simply a matter of enrolling and integrating forest therapy practises into my counselling.
When I was training and walking some of my local tracks. I thought of friends with disability, who I knew innately would benefit from the spaces I meandered in and what forest therapy could offer. This led to my studies focussing on developing Forrest therapy for those with differing ranges of ability. These have become known as “All Ability Walks.”
How did you come to be a Sand Play therapist?
At a time when I was experiencing my own trauma, a colleague invited me over for a cuppa and support. There was no planned sand play session. In my broken place, this colleague gently invited me into the tray, (how we describe working in sand play therapy.) It was transformative. I learned in that moment the true healing of beyond talk therapy. Over the next two years I undertook training in sandplay therapy and Expressive Therapies with a focus on sandplay work.
What do you hope to achieve with your clients?
To offer a safe environment for clients to explore, debrief, work through what it is that brings them to the counselling room. Having learnt the value of education myself I see that counselling can also be educative. Often helping someone to see that how they are responding to their circumstances is normal – can in itself be powerful. It’s then teaching tools and strategies to manage and make any changes they may need to and supporting them as they do.
What are your most favourite things to do in your spare time?
Sitting, walking and being in nature. Reading and swimming, the more outdoors the better. I am currently developing a bush tucker edible garden; at the end of a day I love to wander in the garden seeing what is growing and how. I love bringing plants indoors and enjoy making terrariums and experimenting with propagation, something I have enjoyed since I was a kid. All of these things with my dog by my side.
