Erin Riley Social Worker

Erin (they/ them) is an accredited Mental Health Social Worker – and holds a Bachelor of Social Work (USyd) and a Masters of Counselling SW (UNSW). Erin is a non-binary trans person and brings a queer lived experience to their counselling work. Erin has over ten years of clinical social work experience and has worked across inpatient hospital settings and in the community with people experiencing a range of issues. Erin works part time in the custodial setting, supporting palliative care patients in NSW prisons. Erin has spent a great deal of their social work life working alongside clients of a range of identities, cultures, genders and life experience. Erin brings to their counselling work a depth of understanding of the ways in which people’s lives are impacted by their context and experiences and location in relation to systems of power. Erin’s work is underpinned by an ethic of social justice and advocacy, an appreciation of intersectional oppression and the pursuit of dignity in a world where this is lacking for so many. Erin’s counselling approach is collaborative and one in which the person seeking help sets the pace. Erin is interested in the stories people hold about themselves and the world and making space for these non-judgmentally, with curiosity and care. Erin is interested in the potential for counselling to assist people uncover new and liberating stories in the collective pursuit of feeling better about life. Erin’s is influenced by narrative therapy and systemic ideas and has an interest in neurobiology and attachment and is especially interested in moving away from individualising narratives of ‘problems’ – Erin prefers to see these as wider issues and often shaped by the idiosyncratic contexts of people’s lives.