Our Team

Together we rise, with Phoenix.

Our management team at Phoenix is a small group of dedicated people working towards advocacy, capacity building and creating opportunities in the sector to break down barriers and talk about historical child sexual abuse. This is our team and these are our people. Together we rise, with Phoenix.

A road stretching out into the sunset.

Louise Lamont – Chief Executive Officer

Louise Lamont has held senior positions in the community services sector and with State and Federal Government in the fields of family and domestic violence (FDV), child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and family law. Louise is an experienced trainer delivering to allied professionals, and the Judiciary. Louise was a key advisor for the ‘Freedom From Fear’ mass media community education campaign. While working in Canberra, Louise supported the development of Family Relationship Centres, and national social justice networks. Louise has authored publications related to FDV screening and assessment, collaborative partnerships, and best practice for working with FDV.

Read more of Louise Lamont's bio

Louise is currently CEO of Phoenix, and her background includes earlier work as a clinician, counselling survivors experiencing complex trauma, along with perpetrators of domestic violence. Louise set up a clinical supervision and professional development program for 300 staff across 11 metropolitan and regional sites. She was a founding member and Convenor of the Domestic Violence Action Groups of WA a peak body that successfully advocated for social justice and policy reform, collaborative practice, community education, and the funding of FDV counselling support services, helplines, and men’s behaviour change programs. Louise has been a member of State and National committees addressing social justice challenges with recent appointments to the Advisory Group for the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse and the Reference Group for the WA Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Strategy and is a longstanding member of the WACOSS Children’s Policy Advisory Council.

Louise has completed a Masters’ degree, and a range of post grad studies including an accreditation process in the Shanker Method™ of Self-Regulation with Canadian neuroscientist Dr Stuart Shanker. The Shanker Method™ became the foundational influence and underpinning of the Trauma Transformation program developed for Phoenix.

Qualifications:

Master of Arts Human Services; Grad Dip Counselling; Cert IV Workplace Training & Assessment; Public Sector Management Certificate; Various certified accreditations in the fields of counselling; family therapy; domestic violence; trauma; self-regulation; and dental therapy.

Meet the Counsellors at Phoenix

Sally Woods – Senior Counsellor

Sally has over 20 years’ experience working as a social worker and therapist both in Western Australia and the United Kingdom to help facilitate positive behaviour change with clients who have complex mental health problems. She trained in the trauma specialised treatment of EMDR in 2016 and has recently advanced from practitioner level to become an EMDRAA Accredited EMDR Consultant 2022-2027. She is passionate about providing this evidenced based trauma treatment approach as an alternative to talking therapy.

Sally takes a systemic perspective to understand a client’s bio-psycho-social context of their issues and works collaboratively to establish the most effective and least intrusive course of treatment.

Sally has worked for a variety of organisations including voluntary agencies, private residential settings, Edith Cowan University, the WA Drug and Alcohol Office and the UK National Health Service. She currently divides her time working at Phoenix and The Pax Centre.

Find out more about Training

Together with Phoenix Support & Advocacy Service and Phoenix Professional Development and Prevention Services, we offer a number of tailor-made training services to meet the needs of the diverse Community Services sector both state (WA) based and nationally across Australia. Learn more here.

Read more of Sally Wood's bio

Qualifications:

BSC Hons degree in Psychology and Biology; Registered Social Worker since 1990 and now Australian accreditation as a Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW); Postgraduate Diploma in Alcohol Studies, Family and Relationship Therapy 2009 (2-years part time); IPT Accredited 2015; EMDRAA Accredited EMDR Consultant 2022-2027.

Claudia DaSilva – Senior Counsellor

Over the past 25 years, Claudia has worked with individuals and families, supporting relationships and providing couple’s counselling. Claudia has clinical expertise in trauma-Informed practice and Family Domestic Violence. Claudia also provides Clinical Supervision. Working most of her life internationally and in Sydney, she is now a WA resident and feels strongly about giving back to her new community.

Find out more about Online Safety

Every person deserves to feel safe and with a digital environment becoming increasingly part of our daily lives, staying safe online has never been more important. At Phoenix, we believe in empowering survivors with the correct information that can keep them safe, and as most Phoenix clients self-refer to our services, they may be putting themselves at risk through their digital footprint. Find out more about staying safe online here.

Read more of Claudia DaSilva's bio

Working as Senior Counsellor and Supervisor in Family law – Post separation and family Domestic Violence issues for the last 10 years, Claudia is focus on intergenerational trauma and affects in the family system, but also client centred. Her practice has been in the field of child abuse, sexual assault, family violence, emotional and physical abuse and neglect. 

Over the past 15 years, Claudia began her work with out of home care for children, victims of family domestic violence, couples and complex trauma clients in Sydney-NSW. Her theoretical underpinnings were by trauma clinicians in the field of trauma, such as Bessel Van Der Kolk, Dan Siegel, Stephen Porges and Janina Fisher. 

As a clinical family therapist working in the trauma field with children and families, her clinical practice was influenced by Dr Michelle Webster- Australian Emotional Focused Therapist.  Since becoming an EMDR Practitioner in 2021, Claudia is more interested in historical child sexual abuse and the healing of past trauma.  Claudia has a relational style with social awareness and experience in diversity and social inclusion, she run Supervision groups and is a convenor to the Brazilian ACA Chapter- (Australian Counselling Association). Claudia contributed to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse doing Case Management and Counselling for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse – (Royal Commission/Redress) from 2015.  

Qualifications:  

Hons in Psychology; Post graduated in Emotional Focused Therapy (IEFT); Post Graduated in Psychodrama and Group Psychotherapy. Clinical registration with ACA.

Baljit Carroll – Senior Counsellor

Baljit has worked in the counselling field for over 28 years mainly in the not-for-profit sector. Baljit has worked with individuals, couples, and families experiencing a wide range of issues across the life cycle, including mental health challenges, relationship conflict, alcohol and other drugs, and issues of identity. Baljit is an experienced group facilitator and clinical supervisor and is passionate about helping people to have the best life possible despite past negative, painful, and unhelpful experiences. Baljit has a Masters in Social Science (Counselling) and is a dedicated yoga teacher and utilises a wide range of approaches in counselling to assist clients towards achieving their goals. Baljit has most recently, also worked as a Beyond Blue counsellor for Medicare providing telephone counselling support.   

Qualifications:  

Masters in Social Science (Counselling).

Susan Laird – Senior Counsellor

Susan has over 14 years’ experience working as a counsellor. She has worked predominantly in the not-for-profit setting and in private practice. Susan’s work has included but is not limited to, sexual abuse, family and domestic violence, grief and loss, managing anxiety, depression, couples counselling and trauma. Susan has worked across the lifespan and has extensive experience with working with victim- survivors of child sexual abuse.

In Susan’s role as a counsellor, she practices “trauma-informed care”. This is a victim-survivor-oriented approach and is underpinned by principles of safety, empowerment, choice, collaboration, and understanding of culture. It places the victim-survivor as the expert on their own life.

Susan has a passion for victim-survivors to be heard, to be believed, and to be told what happened is not their fault.

Susan has previously worked with Break the Silence, as a telehealth counsellor with 1800RESPECT and she currently divides her time working at Phoenix and the Salvation Army.

Qualifications:  

Susan studied counselling at Strathclyde University in Glasgow Scotland before going on to train as an EMDR therapist. Susan is a registered member of ACA and EMDRAA.

Meet the Administration Staff at Phoenix

Kaye Doolan – Finance Officer

Kaye has over 30 years’ experience in bookkeeping, and 25 years within the construction industry.  Kaye also worked in Local Government for 10 years, as a Records Officer and Revenue Officer, utilising her vast experience to enhance her position with Phoenix.

Kaye has customer service skills from previous work roles such as; a medical receptionist, Chiropractic Assistant and varying other retail roles within her working career, she also has experience as an Office Manager, and has enjoyed volunteering in numerous community committees over the last twenty years.

Kaye enjoys working in her role at Phoenix, and being part of small team.  Kaye understands the importance of our service for our clients and being able to make her contribution to ensuring they receive the best service and support.

Qualifications:

Cert IV Bookkeeping and Cert IV Accounting

Marc Spradbury –   Accountant

Marc has worked in the Not For Profit (NFP) sector since 2000 both as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Child Australia for 10 years, and as the Finance Manager for 7 years for the YMCA.

From 2017 to current, Marc has worked on a contract basis for several NFPs and during this period has provided financial and executive support to Phoenix.  Prior to his employment in the NFP sector, Marc spent 6 years in commerce and 9 years in the auditing profession (including 3 years with Ernst & Young – Botswana, South Africa). In these positions Marc has held during his career, Marc has always taken a strong hands on approach, working with finance and senior management teams to continuously build strong corporate management systems.

The NFP sector has brought a tremendous amount of fulfilment to Marc both on a personal and professional level, and is an industry sector Marc continues to enjoy working in.

Jay Wright – Project Manager and Admin Support

Jay commenced her career in banking and finance after graduating from UWA in 2000, with a double-degree, majoring in Industrial Relations, Management and Asian Studies.  She then moved into an HR Officer role at the Osborne GP Network, now known as Black Swan Health.  During seven years at the Primary Health Network Jay undertook many positions, including that of Aged Care Program Manager and Executive Officer – Planning and Reporting.

Jay moved to part time employment as a Program Officer at the Western Australian Department of Health, providing project and administrative support to members of the Medical Workforce team, within the Office of the Chief Medical Officer for four years.  Jay has experience in events management and enjoys working in the not-for-profit sector and has been a member of the Phoenix team since September 2022.

Qualifications:  

Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Arts UWA 2000

Safety Online

Welcome to the Phoenix Website. We hope you find it useful and supportive when you take that first step towards recovery.

Please be mindful of your safety while browsing and click on the ‘Quick Exit’ button if you need to hide this page quickly. Always delete your browser history when finished and it is safe to do so.

For more advice about internet safety, click on the ‘Online Safety’ option under ‘Clients’.

 

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