Péta Phelan

Griffith Health's 2022 Outstanding First Peoples Alumnus

Master of Rehabilitation Counselling

"It’s a truly transformative experience."

This is how health professional Péta Phelan describes completing a Master of Rehabilitation Counselling at Griffith University.

“This program is the greatest thing I’ve ever done professionally and really changed my world,” she said.

“Beginning the program, I was incredibly clear of how I wanted to utilise and leverage this degree for my career and chose electives that matched my keen interest to locate myself professionally in social justice and mental health.”

Throughout the degree, Péta undertook a self-directed mental health stream, completing three electives in mental health and focused her project work in occupational psychological injury (PTSD, vicarious trauma, and compassion fatigue).

“This provided me with a significant professional foundation to pursue the career path I had set for myself.” 

Péta said her work as a rehabilitation counsellor was embedded in communities that experience high rates of social disadvantage and injustice.

“I use my rehabilitation counselling knowledge and skills to engage, build capacity and advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, people with disabilities, those in the LGBTIQ(SB)+ community, and women.

“Helping these communities by contributing to the dismantling of oppressive and disadvantaging social structures and systems that maintain the status quo is my core focus.

“The rehabilitation counselling profession can have transformative effects on people’s lives and help them gain greater self-awareness, understand and leverage their strengths, and assist to break down barriers for an optimal life.”

Péta’s journey to rehabilitation counselling began when she left school and entered an applied science degree in myotherapy.

“Myotherapy is a hands-on therapy which treats and manages neuromusculoskeletal conditions. I practised it for 20 years before wanting something more,’’ she said.

Whilst working as a myotherapist, Péta realised that so many of her clients were not just accessing her services for their physical pain and ailments, they were seeking a deeper sense of connection and psychological relief she wasn’t yet trained to provide.

“I wanted to use all my biomedical and integrative medicine knowledge and skills to do something that would allow me to branch out into counselling and health.”

As a Koorie woman with family connections in southwestern New South Wales, it was particularly important for Péta to contribute to those most impacted by the historical and ongoing impacts of colonisation and colonial worldviews. This includes First Nations Australians, people with disabilities, and the LGBTIQ+ community.

A close friend and mentor from her university days told her to explore Griffith University’s Master of Rehabilitation Counselling.

“I looked at the Griffith program and saw that I could focus on mental health including psychological injury, specifically trauma conditions like posttraumatic stress injuries, compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma and occupational stress and burnout,’’ she said.

She completed the program while living in Nhulunbuy, Yirrkala, Northeast Arnhem Land where she ran her own practice and worked closely alongside community.

“It’s given me a deeper understanding and the language to be able to appropriately articulate how we can change things, and how to make short, medium and long-term changes for the people we work for and alongside.

“We have a deep understanding of the impact of disability, health conditions, disadvantage and marginalisation on people’s lives.

“The Griffith program transformed the way I’m able to communicate and expanded my awareness and understanding of the world.”

Péta now provides national leadership for the profession as a Director of the Rehabilitation Counselling Association of Australasia.

As the former Director of Social and Emotional Wellbeing at the Yoorrook Justice Commission – Victoria’s Truth-telling Royal Commission, she led the development of programs to ensure that no-one was retraumatised by the Commission’s outcomes.

“My main focus is embedded in working alongside and collaborating with communities that experience high rates of social disadvantage and injustice, to provide service in the removal of barriers, and strengthening opportunities not just in work, but across all aspect of their lives.”