National Clinical Reference Group (NCRG)

Chair, National Clinical Reference Group, Deputy Director Practice, Australian Centre for Child Protection, University of South Australia 

Amanda Paton is an executive leader and Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years’ experience specialising in child abuse, complex trauma, child sexual abuse, harmful sexual behaviours, child advocacy centre methodology and multidisciplinary team responses. She has worked across the not-for-profit, government and university sector in clinical practice, research and executive management roles, working across Australia on many projects. 

She is currently the Deputy Director, Practice for the Australian Centre for Child Protection (ACCP), at the University of South Australia’s (UniSA) and is responsible for leading and overseeing the research, development, and implementation of evidence-based therapeutic models for responding to child abuse, neglect, trauma, and harmful sexual behaviours including the creation of a suite of Workforce Development trainings and a Graduate program. She was chief investigator developing Australia’s Minimum Practice Standards for Specialist and Community Support Services Responding to Child Sexual Abuse, and currently leads large scale projects across jurisdictions to develop responses for harmful sexual behaviours, increasing sector knowledge, policy, and practice solutions. This has included development of state-wide Frameworks and a Layered Continuum for Understanding Harmful Sexual Behaviours.

Amanda also provides policy consultancy, advice and training to various jurisdictions across Australia on a range of key reform and policy areas associated with state and national priorities for improving responses for children who have experienced child sexual abuse including implementation of Royal Commission recommendations, particularly those related to harmful sexual behaviours.  

Survivor Advocate, Churchill Fellow, PhD student, Criminal Law professional, Researcher at Australian Centre for Child Protection, Founder of Make a Seat Australia.

Amanda Morgan is a Yorta Yorta woman living on Darug country. Amanda is a child sexual abuse survivor advocate, criminal law professional and Researcher at the Australia Centre for Child Protection.

Amanda is a Winston Churchill recipient who will travel to the United States, Canada, England, Scotland and New Zealand to investigate trauma-Informed approaches to legal processes for historically underserved survivors.

Amanda is an advisor to the National Office for Child Safety’s National Strategy Advisory Group, National Women’s Safety Alliance’s Policy and Advisory Committee, National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse Adult-Survivor College member, Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Campaign Expert Advisory Group, Domestic Violence NSW Aboriginal Women’s Steering Committee and Lived Experience Expert Advisory Groups, a Board Director at March4Justice (Australia). Amanda has been featured in the Daniel Morcombe Foundation’s Australia’s Biggest Child Safety Lesson, The Law Society of NSW Journal, All About Women Festival at the Sydney Opera House BBC UK, Primer Magazine, and campaign materials by Teach Us Consent and It’s Time We Talked.

Amanda holds a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Psychology and will commence a PhD in law in July 2024.

First Nations Health Worker: Evolve Therapeutic Services Brisbane North, Child & Youth Mental Health Services, Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service (CHQ) 

Craig Heron is a First Nations health worker of Aboriginal and South Sea Islander heritage. He is a descendant of the Birri Gubba Nation and Juru People in North Queensland, with cultural connections to Vanuatu. Craig brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the National Clinical Reference Group with a particular focus on cultural approaches to health and healing.

Craig has over twenty years of experience working in Queensland Health, with a focus on Mental Health Services for all ages. Craig applies a cultural lens to clinical mental health processes utilising the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) model as the foundation for integration. In collaboration with First Nations Elders, community, and colleagues, Craig has developed several resources to support the social and emotional wellbeing of First Nations children, young people and families in out-of-home care. He also worked to support the relevant sectors to better understand some of the critical factors which contribute to their externalising behaviours.

In efforts to improve the cultural capability of services, Craig has been a part of initiatives across the mental health services, child protection, education, carer and residential sectors to better contextualise the contemporary and historical realities of First Nations children, young people and families who present to Child & Youth Mental Health Services.

Senior Clinical Advisor, Children and Young People’s Sexual Safety Program, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, Sexual and Violent Behaviour, NSW Ministry of Health

Dale Tolliday is NSW Health Senior Clinical Advisor Sexual and Violent Behaviour and Senior Clinical Advisor Children and Young People’s Sexual Safety Program (CYPSS) at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, Australia. CYPSS incorporates ‘New Street Services’ and the ‘SafeWayz Program’ which are state-wide services in NSW for children and young people aged 0-18 years who have displayed problematic or harmful sexual behaviours. Dale is an Honorary Professor of Practice with the Faculty of the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Wollongong.

Dale’s work with people who have sexually harmed others spans over 35 years. Prior to this, Dale worked in a variety of child, adolescent and family mental health settings. Dale’s professional training is in Social Work and Law. In 2014 Dale was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in recognition of his work in this field. He has a particular interest in training and professional standards for people working with those who have sexually harmed children.

Dale is a member of the Australian Association of Social Workers and a founding member and past President of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse (ANZATSA). Dale also consults widely with individuals and organisations regarding prevention and responding to harmful sexual behavior by children, adolescents and adults.

Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Research, Griffith Youth Forensic Services, Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University

Associate Professor Danielle Harris is the Deputy Director-Research of the Griffith Youth Forensic Service and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Griffith University. She has published more than 40 articles and book chapters and has given over 60 presentations at international conferences. Her research examines sexual aggression through a developmental and life course perspective, examining onset, specialization, versatility, desistance, and related public policy.

Danielle’s study of civilly committed sex offenders in Massachusetts and Maine was funded by the Guggenheim Foundation and she received a grant from the California Sex Offender Management Board for a state-wide survey of community supervision practices. Her current work is funded by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and Westpac Bank.

Danielle received the 2019 Australia and New Zealand Society of Criminology (ANZSOC) Award for her first book, Desistance from Sexual Offending: narratives of retirement, regulation, and recovery. She was recognised as a fellow of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers in 2019.

Director Therapeutic and Support Services, Bravehearts

Dr Deirdre Thompson is Bravehearts’ Director of Therapeutic and Support Services (since 2014). She obtained her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in the UK. Her early career focused on clients with intellectual disability who faced the criminal justice system. Since moving to Australia 22 years ago, she has held senior roles within government and not-for-profit agencies.

As Bravehearts’ Director of Therapeutic and Support Services, Deirdre oversees the entire suite of client-facing services delivering trauma-informed support to those impacted by child sexual abuse, including therapeutic counselling and Redress support services. Deirdre developed and implemented Bravehearts’ award-winning Turning Corners Program which supports children and youth who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviours.

Deirdre is passionate about supporting our most vulnerable members of society. She is committed to developing and implementing evidence-based, holistic, innovative, and responsive services to reduce the occurrence of child sexual abuse and providing client-focused supports to those impacted by it.

Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne

Dr Gemma McKibbin is a Research Fellow in the Department of Social Work at the University of Melbourne, working with Prof Cathy Humphreys in the Violence Against Women and Children research team. Gemma has a background in gender studies and a PhD focused on the prevention of harmful sexual behaviour carried out by children and young people. Along with an interest in harmful sexual behaviour displayed by children and young people, Gemma’s research focuses on preventing child sexual exploitation and dating violence, as well as on adult perpetrator-focused prevention.

Gemma leads a number of child sexual abuse prevention and response action research projects, including Power to Kids with MacKillop Family Services and the Worried About Sex and Pornography project with Jesuit Social Services.

Gemma specialises in trauma-informed, child-focused research interviews with vulnerable children and young people. She is passionate about supporting children and young people and providing them with a voice to government.

Senior Research Fellow/Clinical Psychologist, Intergenerational Health Murdoch Children’s Research Institute

Dr Graham Gee is an Aboriginal-Chinese man, also with Celtic heritage, originally from Darwin. His Aboriginal Chinese grandfather was born near Belyuen on Larrakia Country.

Graham is a clinical psychologist and was employed as a psychologist and clinical coordinator at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service for 11 years. He was on the inaugural Board of Directors that established the national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation and has since contributed to a range of national advisory groups related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and social and emotional wellbeing. Graham is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. His early career research has focused on Aboriginal mental health, and healing and recovery from trauma.

In 2022, Graham and his team have commenced working with a Coalition of Aboriginal services dedicated to healing child sexual abuse. The co-designed research activities will aim to improve the capacity of the services and staff to better understand and respond to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander survivors of child sexual abuse.

Chair of the Victorian Harmful Sexual Behaviour Network

Jenny is an Executive Board member of Sexual Assault Services Victoria (SASVic), the Victorian peak for sexual assault, and the Chair of the Victorian Harmful Sexual Behaviour Network (formerly CEASE), where she works with members to advocate for policy and practice development across government and the Victorian therapeutic treatment service system to better support and respond to young people who use harmful sexual behaviours, and to actively promote improved collaborative efforts between services that intersect with children and young people, including education, police, child protection, youth justice, courts, and treatment providers.

As a qualified social worker and family therapist, Jenny has been working in the child trauma sector since 1992 to improve outcomes for children and young people. Jenny is currently the General Manager, Therapeutic Services at the Australian Childhood Foundation where she is responsible for programs delivering therapeutic services to children and young people who are impacted by developmental trauma caused by abuse, violence and neglect.

Jenny is passionate about developing integrated, child-centred and family-focused therapeutic responses for children, young people and families with living experiences of sexual violence.

Aboriginal Clinical Advisor for the New Street Services, Children and Young People’s Sexual Safety Program, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network.

Julie Shelley is the central clinical support to the New Street Services First Nations workforce, and is responsible for coordinating the provision of services to First Nations children, families, and communities state-wide. Julie also has responsibilities to the Local Health Districts, the Education Centre Against Violence, NSW Ministry of Health and Sydney Children Hospital Network.

Julie has professional training in Counselling, Mental Health, and Social Work and has worked in First Nations communities for over 23 years, working with young people who have sexually harmed others for over 13 years as one of the First Nations counsellors at New Street Services. Previously Julie worked in youth, child and family homelessness, health, and mental health settings.

In 2018 Julie was awarded the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the year in recognition of her work in First Nations youth mental health and sexual safety, and was previously presented with an Acknowledgement Award by the NSW Aboriginal Health Workers Forum for her contribution to improving First Nations Health in NSW.

Julie is a member of the Indigenous Allied Health Australia, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker Association, First Nations National Family and Domestic Violence Support Network, and a current board member of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse.

Senior Lecturer, Social Work, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong

Dr Kenny Kor is a social work lecturer at the University of Wollongong. He has nearly 20 years’ practice experience across various social service settings. Prior to academia, he worked in the out-of-home care program of New Street Adolescent Services (NSW Health) providing counselling to young people who displayed harmful sexual behaviours and support to their carers/families. Building upon this and other practice experiences, Kenny’s research focuses on prevention and therapeutic responses to harmful sexual behaviours, and out-of-home care service development. 
 

Associate Professor, Education Futures, University of South Australia

Associate Professor Lesley-Anne Ey is a national leader in the field of harmful sexual behaviour in education settings. She is highly regarded as an applied education researcher specialising in providing real-world solutions to prevent and respond to HSB. For the past decade Lesley’s research has explored children’s HSB in education settings with the aim to support teachers to recognise and respond effectively to HSB and inform teacher training and education curriculum. She has been instrumental in supporting both national and international education departments/organisations in developing policy, procedure, teacher training and education relative to child sexual abuse and harmful sexual behaviour. She sits on the National Clinical Reference Group for HSB as the expert in education. She also sits on the South Australian HSB governance group chaired by the Commissioner for children and young people. 

Lesley’s research has attracted national and international competitive grants and is leading a national agenda to develop an education workforce to identify and respond effectively to HSB. Her research has illuminated the importance of education in primary and secondary prevention and has brought education to the table in this field. She pulls together multidisciplinary teams to generate the greatest impact to knowledge translation. Her research is relevant to a multi-agency audience to promote multidisciplinary interagency collaborative responses to HSB.  

Lesley-Anne is an advisor to Government, Independent, and Catholic Education Departments as well as the Daniel Morcombe Foundation Bright Futures Program and the Australian Biggest Child Safety Lesson. She authored the “Harmful sexual behaviours in young children and pre-teens: An educational issue”. 
 

Principal Therapist, Support Assessment & Intervention for Families (SAIFF)

Linda Valenta, Principal and founder of SAIFF has worked with vulnerable youth and families for over 30 years, and since 1994, she committed her clinical work to the prevention of sexual abuse through her work with children and youth who engage in harmful sexual behaviour.

Linda is an advocate for ensuring that our responses to sexual harm focus not only on creating safety and minimising risk, but that we also prioritise the health and wellbeing of children and families and ensure that our interventions minimise ongoing harm and impact of sexual abuse. Linda is well known for her reparative and relational approach to addressing sibling sexual abuse and her passion and experience in the field have made her a sought-after trainer and speaker.

Linda has presented her work at conferences around the globe and regularly provides training and consultation to professionals and agencies across Australia.

Forensic and Counselling Psychologist, Director, Prime Forensic Psychology

Dr Russ Pratt, founder/principal of Prime Forensic Psychology is an experienced forensic psychologist, working within sexual abuse and child protection issues. From 2010 until 2017, he was a Victorian DHHS Statewide Principal Practitioner. Prior to this he spent 12 years at SECASA (Monash Medical Centre).

A registered Forensic and Counselling psychologist, and AHPRA-Approved Supervisor, his interests are trauma, attachment, family systems and child protection issues. Russ regularly writes and presents locally, nationally and internationally regarding these, as well as the impacts of pornography on youth (with Cyra Fernandes).

Russ was a former member of the Therapeutic Treatment Board (Victoria), the NSW Children’s Guardian’s Expert Advisory Panel, the National Adolescent Perpetrator Network (USA), and the ANZATSA board. He is a Fellow of ATSA (USA), and a member of the ATSA (USA) Adolescent Issues Committee.

Service Manager, Violence Abuse and Neglect, Hunter New England Local Health District

As Service Manager for Violence Abuse & Neglect services for NSW Health in the Hunter region of Hunter New England Local Health District (HNELHD), Tim leads a collection of services dedicated to minimising the impact of trauma, supporting recovery from trauma, and promoting long-term health and wellbeing by providing a 24-hour, trauma-informed and trauma-specific, integrated psychosocial, medical and forensic public health responses to sexual assault, child physical abuse and neglect, and domestic and family violence presentations.

Tim has extensive experience working as a Psychologist with children, young people and families within the non-government sector and public health, with a focus on individual, family and group interventions within vulnerable communities. Since 2012 Tim has worked with HNELHD’s Sparks program as a clinician and clinical lead. Sparks has provided specialised assessment and intervention for children under the age of criminal responsibility (currently 10 years in NSW) who present with harmful sexual behaviours and their families for over 25 years and also provides consultation, clinical supervision, education and training for clinicians within HNELHD and beyond in this work.

As part of his role with Sparks, Tim was a Senior Psychologist and team leader with the Chid Development Team within which Sparks is embedded. He retains clinical work with Sparks while in his current role and continues to support the continued progression of trauma and developmental informed responses to harmful sexualised behaviours displayed by children.

Social Worker in Private Practice – Queensland

Toni is a Social Worker who graduated from University of Queensland in 1986.  She has worked for over 35 years in the area of child and family welfare primarily in statutory child protection. Toni has extensive experience working in both government and non-government child protection sectors and in managing therapeutic residential care services.

Toni has extensive experience in sexual abuse including harmful sexual behaviours in children and young people. She has a passion for integrated partnerships and how to genuinely partner with children and young people and their families and communities. Toni is passionate about building capacity in the sector.  Toni has recently made the decision to leave her role as Principal Advisor Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation at yourtown to transition to retirement. Her commitment to sustainable social change – particularly in the area of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation - continues in her private practice role.