Our Trainers
Peter Slattery
Many years ago, Peter did a B.A. in Social Science and an M.A. in Psychology. He says he thoroughly enjoyed his time at university and freely admits to having learned something. He also says that the past 30 plus years of working with young people, especially with those having a hard time of life, have taught him a lot more, and given him some ideas about how to make use of what he learned at university.
Today, Peter works freelance across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, with occasional jaunts into Asia, North America, the U.K. and Europe. He continues working with young people in all the places you expect to find them; within all the school systems, as well as within refuges, rehab centres, the many forms that youth programs take and in juvenile justice settings. Having done this work for a long time now, Peter finds himself in demand as a trainer of workers, as a supervisor and mentor, and seems to be constantly invited to speak at conferences both within Australia and overseas.
He has published extensively in both the E and the hard-copy worlds. He says he considers himself extremely lucky, and thinks of his work as an uplifting challenge, a privilege, a joy and often, just a lot of fun.
Feedback from workshops
“I loved all of it – such a privilege to spend this time with you and learn from your knowledge and stories Pete”
“Pete is great – engaging – informative”
“Excellent mix of hands on activities and learning backed up by theories about why it works”
Heather McAlpine
Heather is a Trainer and Supervisor of Relationship Educators and Counsellors, and a Couples and Family Therapist in private practice, Kiama. She is also a Consultant in Team Building, Conflict and Stress Management and Personality style for Government, NGO's and private organisations. For 8 years, Heather worked as Clinical Coordinator for Relationships Australia, Illawarra where she led the Couples Therapy team, and Relationship Education team, and was involved with training, supervision, creative seminars and the media. In 2001, Heather was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study Marriage and Family Education in the UK and US. She is a public speaker and popular presenter on topics such as 'Hot Monogamy,' "Do You Wanna Make Up?" and 'Leaping Relationship Hurdles'. Together with her husband, John, she is the Chaircouple and Trainer Couple of Better Marriages Australia, and has been leading "Marriage Getaways" and Parenting Programs in Australia, Uganda , South Africa and India for over 27 years. In her 'spare' time Heather enjoys long distance cycling, sustained by dark chocolate!
Feedback from Heather’s workshops
“Heather works so hard to include and validate individual participant’s experiences/comments/goals. Her flexibility and compassion is very much appreciated.”
“Very personally relevant. Great transparent presenters and the presenter was highly engaged/engaging and empathetic."
“Heather is an excellent presenter. Makes everybody feel at ease with her empathetic accommodation of everyone and where each participant may be at in their life's journey.”
David Nancarrow
David has worked for the last 17 years in a range of professional roles. He has extensive experience in working with the Education Department and working with school social behaviours and anger management counselling. As a mediator, David has worked with clients who had high levels of conflict, domestic violence and relationship breakdowns. This led him to develop the ‘Core Value’ therapy for anger management, conflict and mental health issues.
He has spoken several times at the Australian International Mental Health Conferences about the success of this therapy. He is passionate about delivering and training professionals in Father Inclusive Practice. He has developed programs for the Education and Youth Justice Department, called ‘My Path’ which is a social behaviour program for teenage males who are not attending school.
As a child consultant David specialized in symbol and sand tray therapy for children of separated families. He has managed a Mental Illness organisation which utilized the Boston Model of Recovery for mentally ill clients. Also, he is the author of two books, ‘What’s for Tea Dad’, a fun interactive cookbook for first time dads and ‘Honey I am Pregnant’, a manual for first-time dads. Both are available as free e-books.
Currently David works delivering Mental Health and Wellbeing training for OzHelp Tasmania and the business sector. David’s goal is to help equip people to be mentally and emotionally healthy to have successful and lasting relationships with themselves and others.
Feedback from workshops
“Fantastic day. Very useful and I’ve got a lot to take away and process.”
“[David Nancarrow’s training]… will help me identify the values that drive my consumers, how they respond to situations involving their values."
David Cherry
David Cherry is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist who has been working for over 35 years. David has worked as a Family Court Counsellor and worked in residential care for 14 ½ years with children and young people who could not live at home because of concerns about abuse and neglect. David has extensive experience in providing assessments of individuals, couples and extended networks to parent their children and in planning interventions to assist families to effectively parent their children. David has worked with many different organisations to help prepare their staff to cope in difficult working environments as well as in providing support for individuals and groups after difficult incidents. David was a volunteer with the Victorian SES for 4 years where he was involved in road crash rescue and searches among other duties.
Feedback from workshops
“Excellent facilitator that created trust and respect between participants”
“I was amazed and delighted to learn so much about ‘language’ use in conversations with clients”
“Very relevant, useful information with practical ways to implement in the workplace”
David Burfoot
David Burfoot BA MPS: An accomplished presenter, trainer and advisor who provides integrity, ethical governance and cultural change advice and training to not-for-profit, public and private sector bodies in Australia and abroad. As Senior Advisor to The Ethics Centre, David has worked with many of the top 50 ASX listed companies (including CSL, BHP, Telstra, AGL and the NAB), government regulators and some of the most well-known non-profit organisations. This included project managing some of the Centre’s most high-profile engagements, including the governance review of Cricket Australia after the ball tampering incident in 2018 and the governance review of the Australian Olympic Committee in 2017. David’s employers have also included the United Nations Development Program, Deloitte, the Independent Commission Against Corruption and Sydney University.
Feedback from workshops:
“Best session by far...on the mark, topical and without the waffle in other sessions. Love to hear a talk about the value of compliance versus ethics.”
“Best presentation on ethics I’ve heard for a long time.”
“Reasonable information presented with high energetic impact”
“David Burfoot and the Ethics Centre crafted a tailored presentation for our team at short notice that addressed the current concerns we were facing in our business. The presentation was engaging, thought provoking and collaborative. Our team benefited immensely from the session and we will continue to work with The Ethics Centre to build on the core foundations of Ethical thinking, as the benefits translate not only to our business outcomes, but also fosters engagement in the workplace and wider community.”
“Just wanted to thank you for an energetic and engaging session on Saturday. I received lots of enthusiastic and positive feedback on your session …Thanks again for supporting and informing our members.”
“The session on Ethical Leadership that was part of our Executive Leadership Program for senior Local Government officers was terrific, people said they learnt a lot about how to embed ethics into governance structures.”
Tracie Richards
For many decades Tracie has been gathering qualifications, skills, and wisdom, all whilst cultivating many passions! Witnessing families re-connecting deeply with their children, seeing children delight in healing play & seeing teams of therapists develop and flourish in the brave work for the many wounded children, adults, and families within our community.
Within many of the communities that Tracie has worked across, from a trauma informed framework she is able to develop relationships that matter. From this premise working with families that have struggled with intergenerational abuse and neglect, poverty, limited social capital and dysfunctional family systems the work has at times, been challenging, and at its best, it is a hard-working machine, sometimes it's just lunacy and fun but it is always a privilege to work alongside families.
Privately Tracie is developing new skills as an Apiarist (beekeeper), her big family, big friends, her old dog and the garden make for a great work life balance.
Elizabeth Try
Over the years, Liz has established a vast suite of qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience. Her passion for diversity has been a driving force and has led to her involvement in community development, research and advocacy work, particularly for special needs groups such as people from culturally & linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal people, people living with a disability or with a mental illness, juvenile justice clients, long term unemployed to name a few.
Liz’s career focus over the past 20 years has been as a vocational educator. It is her belief in the power of education and a belief in the power of learning from others and self that drives her passion for group work. Paramount to her view around education and training she lives by the belief that “what is important, as well as what you learn in a group environment, is how you felt while you were learning.” Respect, inclusiveness, personal development and social interaction are some of the important aspects of her practice.
What further keeps the passion burning is the impact she knows she has had on lifting the dreams of so many students young and old, from many diverse backgrounds and sectors of the community, in achieving their goals.
Feedback from workshops:
“You may not know this, but you’ve played a big part in where I am today”.
“You’ve given me confidence to go further in work and study”.
“You never expect more than what we are capable of. You know we are all capable of doing great and you push and encourage us. Thank you”.
“You have really opened my eyes to the fact I can do anything I set my mind to because I’m on the way to being the person I want to be”.
“You empower people”