Jai Friend

Jai Friend is a Mental Health Social Worker and Clinical Family Therapist who provides therapeutic counselling for individuals, children and families. Jai's approach to counselling is grounded in collaborative and strengths focussed principles, where each person is the expert on their life. She believes in the importance of individualising her sessions to suit each person's interests and skills.

Jai specialises in trauma counselling, drawing on a number of therapies for alleviating the way that trauma impacts on the body and mind. These include Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Havening and Narrative Therapy. Jai takes care to work at a pace that suits each person, in accordance with the Three Phase Trauma Recovery model.

Jai’s work with child and adolescent emotional/behavioural problems draws on attachment based family therapies, particularly Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy and Theraplay. She prefers to involve caregivers, providing parenting support as part of the overall process.

Jai’s knowledge and skills have developed over 25 years as a clinician working in child and adolescent mental health, and in child protection, domestic violence and Aboriginal health services. Jai has published and presented at international conferences in the area of attachment and trauma treatments for children and adolescents. Jai is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers, and an accredited Medicare provider as a Mental Health Social Worker. She has a Masters in Clinical Family Therapy, and is a registered supervisor with the Australian Association of Family Therapists.