About
Phillipa Joy
a Lifelong Practice
My hearts work is to deeply understand and sensitively respond to suffering, adversity and relational harms. As a practitioner, I have now spent two decades in ‘not-for-profit’, community and private practice contexts. Across this time I have been dedicated to listening, learning with, and responding to those of us who have inherited and sustained complex harms. These people and experiences are my teachers and have contributed to the depth I now bring to my practice.
As a Clinical Member of the Psychotherapy & Counselling Federation of Australia, I bring eight years of academic training through a Master of Psychotherapy & Counselling, Master of Narrative Therapy & Community Work, and specialized post-graduate study in Childhood Learning & Development. My background in Peace and Conflict Studies and Community Development further enriches my understanding of complex human experiences.
My own experiences have shaped the quality of the therapist I am, which includes having been incredibly privileged to experience good therapy.
Integrated together, my personal, professional and academic experiences equip me to offer steadying companionship to those seeking sanctuary for new understandings, change and embodied wisdom to emerge.
It is my labour of love and deep honor to be able to welcome and accompany individuals, families and groups as we shape change and nurture the conditions we need to grow more compassionate worlds.
Qualifications
Clinical Registration with Psychotherapy & Counselling Federation of Australia
Master of Psychotherapy & Counselling
Master of Narrative Therapy & Community Work
Bachelor of Peace and Conflict Studies & Political Science
Post Graduate Certificate Community Development
Post Graduate Certificate Childhood Learning & Development
Sample of Additional Professional Development Training
Clinical and Counselling Supervision Accreditation
Neurobiology of Complex Trauma - Australian Childhood Foundation
Attachment & Parenting - Circle of Security
Specialist family violence, coercive control and sexual abuse trainings
Bush therapy approaches
Child therapy and play based approaches
Somatic Training including:
CranioSacral Therapy
As a lifelong learner, I continue to deepen my skills through ongoing personal therapy, professional development, supervision and collaborative practice.
UPcoming Professional Development Training
Somatic Experiencing 2026
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together” Lilla Watson
“The primary instrument is the therapist’s trained, practiced, and disciplined sensitivity”
alive – embodied – being
My work integrates various approaches, including interpersonal neurobiology, psychological, sociological and political sciences, history, philosophy, narrative, playful, somatic and trauma-responsive practices. I assemble multi-disciplinary knowledges to respond to complex challenges.
Root System
I am grateful to draw on a web of wisdom, of which there are too many people, places, beings, and seasons who have influenced me to acknowledge here. But to provide you with some sense of those who accompany me, here is a brief and incomplete list of diverse practitioners from a range of fields, who have nourished me personally and professionally.
Donna Harraway, Karen Barad, Michel Foucault, Jack Halberstam, Michael White, David Denborough, Cheryl White, Alan Kaplan and Sue Davidoff, Bonnie Badenoch, Dan Siegel, Aline La Pierre, Peter Levine, Janina Fisher, Carl Rogers, Albert Wong, Laurence Heller, Virginia Axline, Gabor Mate, Dan Shaw, Ursula Le Guin, Goethe, John Berger, John Pilger, Bayo Afokomalafe, adrienne maree brown, Vicki Reynolds, David Whyte, Francis Weller, bell hooks, Edward Said, Eve Tuck, Octavia Butler, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Rebecca Solnit, Gregory Bateson, Nora Bateson, Barb Wingard, Tyson Yunkaporta, Paulo Friere, Miles Horton and many others.
Please ask me for further details on my approach to my work and the different lineages I connect with if you are curious.