supervision : lived experience perspective
Types of supervision
Brook RED offers supervision for Lived Experience practitioners, people supervising peers, human service workers and peer workers in the mental health workforce.
Individual supervision
Individual supervision provides a space and a process that encourages conversations and reflections about how we connect with others using our lived experience. You will be supported to reflect on your own values and how they intersect with lived experience workforce and organisational values. A Brook RED supervisor will support you to use your lived experience in different roles across health and community sectors. We will also share knowledge of working in a range of lived experience roles, offering our knowledge and perspective to assist you in finding your own solutions and strategies.
Group supervision
Group supervision is useful for smaller lived experience teams (2-10) and may involve sharing skills and knowledge amongst group members, discussing challenges and rewards of a particular program or lived experience work in general, and activities to support team relationships.
Lived Experience Communities of Practice (CoP)
CoP are for groups of 8 and over participants who gather to share best practices and create new knowledge to advance the lived experience workforce. Activities may include joint activities, information sharing, discussions and relationship building. Brook RED is experienced in establishing and facilitating Communities of Practice for the lived experience workforce.
To discuss your team's supervision needs, please email supervision@brookred.org.au or click the "email us" button
Cost for individual supervision : $132 (GST inc)
for a 50 minute session
Cost for group supervision : $264 (GST inc)
for a 70 minute session, for up to 7 team members
Meet our lived experience supervisors
Emma Faulkner (She/Her)
BSocSc(Psych) | PGradDipSexology | Masters of Counselling
My approach to supervision:
My passion for supervision is born out of the curiosity for the human experience and how we relate to the world around us. Supervision is a guiding light in our practice when we felt lost, overwhelmed or ready to challenge and grow our skills. It is important to be able to talk about how our lived experience is influencing our work and how we want to offer our lived experience to others. Supervision has allowed me to feel more comfortable and confident in my work, and aim to offer this to the people I work with.
Supervision is a space for humans to unpack and explore all things work and life in our work. It is a space for supervisees to reflect on themselves and create a framework of practice that is genuine and unique to them, that values the lived experience perspective. I am passionate about deep conversations and aim to create a space of curiosity to unpack how our lived experience is guiding our values and how it guides how we as individuals offer support. I aim to understand how this shapes our perceptions of mental health and what are the key message lived experience workers want to teach the people they work with. Supervision is a space to feel heard and understood, particularly in a world where change is vital for human experience and growth.
About me:
I have been working in the Brook RED Highgate Hill community mental health centre for over 6 years as a peer worker, running groups and connecting with individuals and communities around mental health and recovery. During this time, I have also been practicing as the Senior Peer Worker, which has allowed me to create change within community, and influence a work force of peer workers who are passionate about creating change, embracing conversations about recovery and using their lived experience to guide principals of practice. I have also created and delivered training about our personal stories and how we can share them with purpose and intent. I am also currently working as a lived experience counsellor and supervisor in the mental health space.
NOTE: Emma is available Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
Eddie Holmes (He/Him)
BSC | BPSC(Hon) | Master of Counselling (UQ)
My approach to supervision:
My approach to supervision is to first create a space that is energising, and safe to just be ourselves. Often through touching base with what we uniquely bring to our peer roles, and why it might be important to us in the first place. Across all of my roles I value authentic curiosity, the lightness and grounding of our shared humour, and the desire to keep changing and growing.
I always love to provide a space to sit with and talk with all the emotions that drive us while in our peer roles. Keeping it okay to not have all the answers, and with the understanding of how peer work can be truly difficult at times. Ultimately aiming to help find that flexibility in ourselves to navigate the complexity of needs between the role, the people we are supporting, and ourselves.
About me:
Passionate to continue making the mental health sector more about the people in it than the idealised or imposed ideas that come from without.
I love getting to know what is truly important for everyone when they come into a lived experienced role. Connecting into the place and the people we work with in a way that makes it truly meaningful, and promotes all of us having a better life.
Over the past 7 years, I’ve been a peer worker primarily based in community centre work with a focus on the value of great one-on-one support. Recently extending into counselling and therapy that is informed by the experience and core tenets of peer work.
Kate O'Keefe (She/They)
My approach to supervision:
I believe the purpose of supervision is to step back and reflect on our work in a curious space free of judgment. Creating an environment where we can explore the unique joys and challenges of working from our lived experiences is of the utmost importance. I believe in challenging from a place that’s compassionate, safe and supportive and has your best interests at heart.
My lived experience of mental health/illness/big feelings and neurodivergence allows me to be very comfortable with a range of emotions and frustrations related to life and work. The pressures of being a human and working in intensely human work has led to more than one life pause and re-evaluation, so I am very interested in supporting others to look after themselves in the intensely personal work we do.
My values that align with my approach to supervision are curiosity, creativity, authenticity, community, and responsibility. I love learning, and I love learning from and with others. I am interested in working with people who are at the beginning of their career and those who’ve worked with their lived experience for many years.
About me:
I have worked in the mental health sector for 20 years, in consumer consultant and service integration roles within clinical mental health services with Queensland Health and in project, training and group facilitation roles in community mental health services. I have experience in providing practice reflection and supervision for individuals and groups.
I have 2 kids, one cat and 2 chickens. In my quiet time, I love to look at the water, wander around the library, read, sew, get creative and look at birds.
I am very interested in how people are looking after themselves in this soul-baring, tough-experience- reliving, brick-wall-head-beating, bureaucratically infuriating yet delightful work. And having worked in some of those systems, I am so invested in keeping us thriving to continue on in these vital roles!
NOTE: Kate is available Monday, Wednesday, and alternate Fridays
Erin O'Shea (She/Her)
erino@brookred.org.au
My approach to supervision:
My approach to supervision is grounded in creating a space where both the supervisee and supervisor can be vulnerable, reflective, and even a little messy. I don’t believe we need to have all the answers — instead, I value a space where curiosity, honesty, and growth are welcome.
The values that guide me as a supervisor are:
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Authenticity
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Curiosity
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Mutuality
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Humour and lightness
I believe supervision should feel supportive, real, and even a bit fun — a space where we can explore challenges together without judgement.
About me:
I am a passionate and experienced peer worker with over 14 years at Brook RED. Over that time, I’ve worked across a range of roles, including:
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Centre-based peer worker
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Senior peer worker
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Centre coordinator
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Workshop facilitator
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Community-based, one-on-one peer support for individuals experiencing suicidal distress
Currently, my work is project-based and includes:
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Providing Service Guidance and Mentoring to Journey Coordinators and their organisations in North Queensland
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Delivering consultation and training to external organisations
What I love most about peer work is being able to offer genuine connection and understanding within systems that too often feel disconnected and difficult to navigate. That same commitment to connection and authenticity shapes how I approach supervision. I aim to walk alongside my peers — not as an expert, but as someone who values shared learning, honesty, and the power of being truly heard.
Sarah Aizad Malik (She/Her)
saraha@brookred.org.au
My approach to supervision:
My approach to supervision is reflective, collaborative, and grounded in recovery-oriented and trauma-informed practice. I aim to create a brave and supportive space where workers can openly reflect on their work, explore challenges, and strengthen their professional confidence. Supervision with me focuses on developing reflective practice, navigating ethical and boundary considerations, and supporting sustainable ways of working in emotionally demanding roles. I value curiosity, honesty, and critical reflection, and work alongside supervisees to explore the complexities of working in mental health and community settings, including navigating systems, supporting diverse needs, and maintaining personal wellbeing while delivering meaningful support.
About me:
I hold a Master of Social Work, which allows me to combine clinical knowledge with the values of peer practice. I have been working at Brook RED for the past eight years, during which time I have worked across a range of programs and roles supporting people experiencing mental health and social challenges. This experience has given me a strong understanding of the realities of frontline work in the community and nonclinical mental health sector. I am passionate about supporting workers to grow in confidence, maintain ethical and sustainable practice, and continue developing their professional identity within the sector.
Outside of work, I enjoy gardening, traveling and exploring the outdoors.
NOTE: Sarah is available
Monday - Thursday
Kezia Schneck (They/She)
kezias@brookred.org.au
My approach to supervision:
To me, supervision should be a time to connect, reflect, and untangle the things in our lives, in our communities, and in systems and the world at large that can influence the ‘how we do it’ and the ‘why we do it’ of our work. I’d like to really get to really know the folks I’m in communication with, and to facilitate a space where we can learn from and with each other. Supervision is a great time to vent, to reflect, to problem solve, to rage against the machine, to explore feelings … and to feel them!
About me:
I’ve been a peer worker for over a decade, most of this time at Brook RED. I have worked in direct service delivery roles, as well as program establishment, team leadership, and organisational admin and compliance. I’ve worked within our community centres, individual outreach, and across a few programs supporting folks who are experiencing suicidal thoughts and feelings (some programs collaboratively delivered with Hospital and Health Services).
I am very passionate about normalising talking about suicidality and self-harm – this is something I’ve experienced a whole bunch, and so do many, many other folks! How do we support people when we’re scared to talk about the subject? I feel this way about many of the “hard” or “taboo” topics that inevitably come up in our lives and in our work.
When I’m not Doing My Job, I spend a lot of time making art, learning new crafts, cooking yum food, pottering around, doing sports, collecting cool rocks (and sea glass), hanging out with my fishies and dog and cat, and generally being a silly goose. I just really like a lot of things, and I love finding joy and wonder in the world around me.
NOTE: Kezia is available
Monday - Thursday