About the facilitators:
Narelle Nelles, B Social Work, is a skilled social worker with over 30 years experience working with carers providing alternative care for children. For a number of years Narelle worked intensively with placing children of all ages in permanent families, working therapeutically with children, training the parents and providing ongoing family support. Narelle is in private
practice and in addition to working with adoptive and foster families, Narelle works with families in their homes to develop parenting skills and enhance family relationships. Both Susan and Narelle work in their practice with clients and families from an attachment focus and believe that by understanding and promoting healthy attachments this serves to enhance family connections and promotes the ability to form lasting relationships. They run parenting courses and staff training for the Department of Child Safety and NGO’s in Qld and NT. Susan Gregory, BA (Psych) M Counselling, Cert.IV Workplace Training and Assessment, has 30 years experience working in adoption, fostering and child and family welfare as a counsellor and consultant; running education groups and assessment for alternative carers. Susan has worked in her private counselling practice for the last 20 years maintaining a generalised counselling practice and working with parents to manage children’s behaviour through the parent child relationship. Susan has retained a specific interest in adoptions and fostering, working therapeutically with birth parents, adult adopted people, adoptive parents and alternate carers.