Counselling and Advocacy

Our counsellors aspire to provide a safe and respectful environment in which survivors of torture and trauma can better understand, manage and heal from the physical and emotional pain of their experiences. 

For newly arrived families

Early Intervention support is offered to all newly arrived humanitarian entrants to Australia under the Integration Humanitarian Settlement Strategy. QPASTT offers this service to clients in the greater Brisbane and Toowoomba regions and can visit clients in their home. Referrals can be made directly to QPASTT or by settlement services. QPASTT offers between 6 to 12 months of social and emotional support to individuals and families who’ve experienced torture and/or trauma. Our service is free, strictly confidential, and conducted with qualified counsellors and interpreters.

For Individuals – Adults, Children & Young People

The Adult Counselling Program (ACP) provides individual counselling and advocacy to adult survivors of torture and trauma who have been in Australia for six months or longer. Asylum seekers and holders of Temporary Protection Visas are seen as a high priority in the Adult Counselling Program and can access support from the time of their arrival in Brisbane. An intake assessment for new clients is necessary to access the ACP and given the demand for services a waiting list is commonly in place.

The Children’s Program addresses the special needs of primary school-aged children from refugee backgrounds who have experienced torture and trauma The child-centred approach to healing is play-based and involves children, parents/guardians and school staff in the process. The Children’s Program also includes a capacity building component which currently focuses on strengthening the capacity of primary schools to provide a safe, supportive and inclusive learning environment for children from refugee backgrounds through the ‘Whole of School Approach’.

Individual counselling and advocacy for Young People addresses the special needs of young people from refugee backgrounds who have experienced torture/trauma. The young person must know of and consent to the referral. If the young person is under 18, the referrer will need to obtain parent consent, except in special circumstances. The presenting issue must be related to the young person’s own refugee experience or that of their family.

Youth Suicide Prevention Program - NEXUS - is a suicide prevention program for young refugees aged 12-24 years in Brisbane and Toowoomba. The program goal is to promote wellbeing and build resilience in young people from refugee backgrounds by increasing three major preventative factors against suicide in young people –connectedness, locus of control and perceived academic performance. It involves a series of school and employment related and recreational activities, peer support and developmental groups, identification, monitoring and counselling of at-risk individuals and training of school staff and community members in identifying and referring young refugees at risk.

For Families

QPASTT’s family relationship service – POUCH - provides early intervention, family relationship counselling and advocacy support to Humanitarian Entrants to Australia. This service adopts a flexible and culturally sensitive approach (one of which is using bi-cultural workers) to address a range of psychological and social needs to support positive family relationships. We assist refugee families to manage acculturation stresses, traumatic reactions, grief and anxiety that comes from their experiences prior to fleeing their home country and from difficulties experienced in settling in Australia. This includes families who may have experienced death, divorce, separation and inter-family and inter-generational conflict.