Ms Sandy De Bortoli Social Worker

My name is Sandy De Bortoli and I am a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW). I have 26 years of clinical mental health experience working with trauma and bereavement, providing counselling support to adults, adolescents and children. As well as private, I have worked in various tertiary public mental health settings (e.g., inpatient, outpatient, and community) as a clinician, clinical supervisor and team leader/manager. I have provided trauma specialist, evidence-based therapy to individuals impacted by trauma, and have extensive training and clinical experience working with complex cases. As a trauma counsellor, I have worked directly with individuals (and their families/support people) alongside police, medical staff and other professionals providing a trauma‐informed intersectional response to any crisis. I have extensive clinical experience working with victims of crime, pertaining to recent /historical abuse or intimate/family-violence, as well as complex mental health presentations which include depression, anxiety/phobias, personality disorders, bereavement (grief/loss), deliberate self-harm, disordered eating, perinatal and post-traumatic stress disorder. I uphold a client-centred, attachment-focused and strength-based approach to practice and utilise evidence-based focused psychological strategies such as: Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Narrative Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Mindfulness Based Therapy. I am also trained in Creative/Art Therapy which involves somatic work. I have a special interest, and extensive experience, in the treatment of trauma (attachment and sexual assault) as well as bereavement. Working as a trauma specialist for so many years has enabled me to witness firsthand the potential we all have to heal ourselves. In practice I endeavor to provide a collaborative safe space where individuals can freely express and work on whatever it is that brings them to therapy. Referrals can be made through the Medicare Metal Health Treatment Plan or private via email or phone.