About Us
Photograph of Charlotte Smedley
Dr Charlotte Smedley has over 30 years’ experience working and teaching in the disability and aged care sector in both Australia and the UK. Charlotte completed her occupational therapy and social work degrees in the UK and has worked in a wide range of non-government organisations, hospitals, local councils and community-based services in the UK and Australia including as Director of the Independent Living Centre (NSW Inc.) Charlotte has master’s degrees in Management (UTS) and Disability Studies (Southampton) and was a lecturer at Sydney University in the School of Occupation and Leisure Sciences before gaining her PhD in Social Work at the University of New South Wales. For the last 7 years Charlotte has been working as an academic teaching social work and social research and policy students and retains an adjunct position as she continues to work with her PhD students and maintain the bridge between theory and practice.
Photograph of Nickie Djapouras
Nickie Djapouras has a Masters in Social Work from Sydney University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Couple and Family Therapy from UNSW. Over the last 25 years she has worked over in a variety of social service areas spanning community development work in Redfern, Sydney and Central Australia, mental health group work in specialist health services and individual therapy with adults and children in her private practice. She has supervised social workers in all these settings and strongly believes in reflective practice as the basis for resilient practice. Nickie has worked to empower women leaving domestic violence, and sexual assault survivors and counselled perpetrators to take responsibility for their action. She has trained in a variety of modalities including brief solution-focused therapy, emotionally-focused therapy, psycho-therapeutic approaches and trauma-informed care to create an integrated contemporary approach to social work. Inclusion of people into the greater society is highly valued by Nickie and a tenor of her work with extensive work in mental health and forensic mental health recovery.
Mapping social interactions and equipping a community with capacity to incorporate change is another one of her strengths. Identifying social rhizomes that rapidly grow into new connections has meant that Nickie is at the forefront of change strengthening community resilience. She assists individuals, families and communities to find their strengths, the meaning that drives them and to join with others to put their resources into practise to experience success and joy. Nickie wants to help community find the joy in life now, rather than waiting for the tide to change in their lives. Nickie agrees that life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, but rather, learning to dance in the rain.