Olive Branch

Hello

We are The Olive Branch, SERVING THOSE IN THE PEEL REGION

We are the Olive Branch, a bespoke counselling, mental health, education and business consulting service in the Peel Region.

We pride ourselves in providing a personally tailored service for the individual, or an organisation. 

The team here at the Olive Branch WA have a combined experience of over 100 years of nursing, mental health, counselling and business management experience.

All of our team have had years of on-the-ground experience combines with higher educational qualifications making us your best choice when choosing a team to give you the success and skills to move forward and grow in your own journey.

Our mission is to help people gain skills to move forward and grow in their own journey.

Introducing Shirley Barnes

Shirley had been in her own private practice The Olive Branch WA  as a qualified Counsellor and Community Services provider on Murdoch Drive Greenfields for 5 years, then Cooper St Mandurah for 2 years before both businesses were sold, then we reallocated to Davey Sy Mandurah, having been here for approximately 1 year being a total of 8 years of private practice.

I am a registered level 4 counsellor with the ACA, as well as the MHA and a registered Clinical supervisor. I also have my Masters in Hypnotherapy. I am an experienced counsellor of 9 years, I have worked with youth suicide prevention, Anxiety, Stress, Depression, Gender Specific, Child Stressors, Adult and Relationship Specific, Trauma, Self-Harm, ADHD, and Autism basically most areas of Mental Health. I don’t use a particular modality I base my treatment on the case presenting. I am also a working Justice of the Peace as well as a Civil Marriage Celebrant My past working experiences have been as a Dental nurse with DNA Murdoch University Nursing Student as well as volunteering as a level 3 St John Ambulance Officer and St John 1st Aid Officer. I have worked in all situations and conditions with different types of people and cultures.

Introducing Stuart McLellan

Stuart has been working in mental health since the 1970s. He has worked as a nurse in many mental health settings, including Emergency Department Psychiatric Liaison Nurse. Stuart has been involved in teaching mental health nursing at three universities and, in 2004, wrote the mental health nursing program for Murdoch University.

Stuart has a particular interest in human behaviour and has put his skills to use many times during his extensive career. Stuart has assisted the Police in profiling and counselling at-risk people and has worked closely with traumatised refugees and service personnel. Stuart works with local Indigenous groups to create a culturally specific mental health first aid and wellness program.

He was a member of the Dept of Immigration CALD working group in the Peel Region to help assimilate the CALD community into life in Australia. Stuart has been in many middle and senior management positions and worked in the Government and Private sectors. He is an adult education specialist and works in career pathway assessments.

Stuart holds an MBA, Dip MHN, P/Grad Cert in Tertiary and Adult Education, P/Grad Dip in Management and Cert in Clinical Education.

He is an accredited Trainer and Assessor  (VET Act 1996)

Stuart is interested in neuroscience and lifelong learning techniques and has completed research into these areas. Stuart has gathered his expertise to create a new mental health first aid and wellness course.

The course is designed from his experiences in life and work and his research into human behaviour as well as current mental health best practices and research from across the world to give the student a broad insight into mental health and how to manage their mental health, and how to deal with a mental health crisis and the general mental health of their family friends and work colleagues. The course covers communication, asking difficult questions, understanding our mental being throughout life stages and much more.