Meet Jackie

Support Worker

Hello! I’m Jackie (she/her) and I’m an experienced support worker and mental health caseworker. I’ve worked in public mental health services, hospital settings, for NDIS providers and for human rights organisations.

I use a strength-based and person-centred approach to support that is trauma-informed, anti-pathologising, and queer- and trans-affirming. My background in human rights advocacy means I bring strong values of equality and justice into the work that I do, and an understanding of the complex ways in which systems of power and oppression impact wellbeing.

My nature is gentle, kind and non-judgemental. I aim to create a private space based on consent and respect, where people feel safe to unmask, move at their own pace, and be fully themselves.

Being neurodivergent myself, I know what it’s like to find some things difficult that seem to come easily to others. As a queer woman and survivor, I know how deeply it matters to feel safe, empowered, understood, and accepted in support and healthcare settings.

My goal is to support and empower folks to live rich, meaningful lives, and move through the world fearlessly, in ways that feel authentic to them.

In my spare time, I love cooking new recipes, wandering through independent grocery stores in search of yummy ingredients, reading books, drinking tea and spending time with chosen family.

Jackie has availability for support work sessions with existing and new Nearish Support clients.

book online
referrals
the nearish team

Areas of interest:

  • Trauma and recovery

  • Sexual, Domestic and Family Violence (SDFV)

  • Healthy relationships

  • LGBTQIA+ health and wellbeing

  • Grief and suicide bereavement

  • Stress and burnout recovery

  • ADHD and neurodivergence

  • People from migrant, refugee, and asylum seeker backgrounds

  • Professionals in the social service, not for profit and sex work industries

Professional Experience:

  • Psychosocial support

  • Disability support work

  • Mental health casework

  • Group facilitation

  • Client advocacy

  • Service and program design

Training:

  • Mental Health First Aid Certificate

  • Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST, Livingworks)

  • Foundations for Building Trauma Awareness (Blueknot Foundation)

  • Working with People from Refugee Backgrounds (STARTTS)

Advisory Boards:

  • Sexual Domestic and Family Violence Advisory Board, ACON

  • Advocate Advisory Group, FullStop Australia

  • Program co-design / advisor - Adult Survivors Program, PARVAN NSW Health

Book online

“Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives”

— Dr. Bessel van der Kolk MD, The Body Keeps the Score (2014)

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare”

— Audre Lorde (1988)