About me:

My name is Kerrie Brennan. I qualified as a Social Worker in 2012 and started working in a community family violence service in the northern metro area of Melbourne, which is where I have spent most of my career to date. I have worked in case management and community development roles before entering into the counselling team in 2021. In 2015, I moved to Central Australia and worked in remote communities in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in a family violence role. I gained an understanding of working alongside community members and harnessed my understanding of intersectional feminism.

I was drawn to this work due to my passion for understanding people’s experiences of hardship and assisting people to heal from trauma. I have an understanding of how interpersonal trauma impacts people due to the generosity of those who have allowed me to work alongside them and have shared their stories of survival.

Narrative practice is a feminist-informed approach that helps me to understand that the way people relate to the problems they face is constructed by the person’s alignment with intersections of their identities, including race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability and age. Narrative practice has allowed me to develop a philosophical framework that assists me to constantly interrogate the presence of power and privilege and its impact on people’s stories. This means that I am committed to constantly interrogating my own privilege as a therapist and my social positioning in our society. I hope to demonstrate this in our work together as a core value of my practice.

Presenting issues I can work with:

  • Family and relationship issues

  • Sexual abuse

  • Childhood trauma

  • Trauma and PTSD including complex PTSD and developmental trauma

  • Depression/Anxiety

  • Self-harm and suicide

  • Identity and self-worth

  • Postpartum issues including birth trauma and transitions

Therapy approaches:

  • Narrative Therapy

  • Internal Family Systems

  • EMDR

  • Polyvagal / Nervous System perspectives

  • Attachment-theory informed

My qualifications:

  • Master of Social Work (University of Melbourne 2012)

  • Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work (University of Melbourne, 2022)

  • Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Level 1 and 2 (2024)

Registrations:

  • Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) (2024)