Tanya is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker and has worked with children, young people and families for over 22 years. Tanya commenced her career in Department for Child Protection (DCP), working there for 6 years. She then worked for a couple of years at The Second Story Youth Health service before moving into a ‘Keeping Them Safe’ (KTS) Therapist position at Southern Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) for 12 years. This role involved providing therapeutic services to children, young people and families with a specialisation in supporting children and young people in DCP care as well as foster care and kinship care support.
Tanya is passionate about working in the child protection area, as well as recognising the importance of early intervention for families and the vital role that therapeutic intervention plays in families achieving successful outcomes and breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma. This commitment and interest endure throughout her career. This led Tanya to taking a position as a Family Practitioner with Department of Human Services in 2019, supporting families identified as high risk of child protection involvement to address the issues early and get the support they need to avoid DCP involvement. Tanya moved into private practice in 2021 with a focus on early intervention, parent-child relationships and healing from trauma, grief and loss. Tanya joined Connecting Families in 2022, pursuing an interest in again working in kinship carer support.
Tanya has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a Postgraduate Bachelor of Social Work. Tanya’s work is underpinned by a system’s focus, psychodynamic psychotherapy approach, an understanding of the neurobiology of trauma, and the importance of relationships in therapy and for healing.
Tanya is committed to her ongoing training and professional development, having completed a Graduate Certificate in Family Mediation, Certificate in Perinatal Mental Health and being an accredited Marte Meo Therapist, Circle of Security Parenting facilitator, Bringing Up Great Kids facilitator and The Shark Cage facilitator (working with women who have experienced abuse and domestic violence). Tanya is trained and experienced in providing Therapeutic Life Story Work, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and parent-child psychotherapy. Tanya has completed training in Motivational Interviewing, Schema Therapy Training, various training in grief and loss and in trauma-integrated practice, and is soon to commence training in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing).
Tanya has been an active member of the AASW (Australian Association of Social Workers) Child Protection Practice Group since 2019 and a member of AAIMH (Australian Association of Infant Mental Health) since 2019.