About us

I'm Rick, the founder and principal of deep waters healing. I'm passionate about helping people live their lives to the fullest, whether that is by helping with healing from trauma, working through unhelpful thought patterns or healing from trauma and other disorders. Or simply by being there for someone to talk through life's challenges with.

If you've had therapy before, you may notice that I can work a little differently to some other counsellors or psychologists. In part, that's my Aboriginal ways of working. But it's also that I use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy a lot, which sees the therapist and client in an equal partnership - after all, you are the expert in your own life. Clients seem to find that approach helps set them at ease. 

I am a big believer in brief-intervention work. That means I know that people can achieve dramatic changes in a very short time - sometimes just one or two sessions. Many people find value in longer term therapy, but it's not always needed for you to achieve your goal. I also know that the interpersonal relationship is crucial for therapeutic progress - so if you find that the first appointment was off-the-mark for you, I'm happy to refund your fee.

I get great results working with anxiety, depression, substance use, and trauma/PTSD, as well as management coaching and professional supervision. My clinical background includes employee assistance programs, BeyondBlue/Quitline, hospital emergency department, disaster recovery, and drug and alcohol outreach. I have skills in ACT, CBT, hypnotherapy and the 'Rewind' trauma technique, amongst other things 

Before coming to social work, I had 20 years of experience in management roles in State and Federal Government working across a range of issues including disaster response, intelligence and security. I also have a decade of Navy experience including submarines.