Hamida
Parkar

I am Hamida Parkar, a dreamer and an old soul with a young heart, who loves life cocooned in its wonders, warts and wisdoms.

As an accredited Social Worker, my work is dedicated to empowering my clients and supporting their needs. I provide psychosocial support and counselling to individuals and groups going through different crises and mental health conditions. I work with individuals impacted by sexual assault or abuse, domestic violence; affected by grief and loss, societal inequality, biases, gender identity, sexual identity; struggling with life or personal issues relating to self-esteem, confidence, body image, health, relationships, work, unemployment etc.

My crisis support experience as supervisor, senior team leader and crisis support training lead has helped me look beyond the obvious and dig deeper into how life crises can devastate us in the moment or in different situations and our innate capacity to find resilience when there appears to be no way out.

What I offer

• Individual, couples and group therapy
• Casework, psychosocial support and referrals
• Training and Supervision
• A safe space to my clients, while supporting and working at their pace, following an evidence-based practice, using trauma-informed and strength-based frameworks
• My work is integrated and collaborative, including a combination of trauma-focused, humanistic, recovery, anti-oppressive, behavioural, ecological family systems and narrative therapies
• I recognise that oppression and imbalance are present in our society, home, work and social spaces (based on race, gender identity, sexual identity, physical and mental ability, religion, class, physical appearance etc.) and the effect and impact they can have on an individual’s life, lived experience and mental health

Education & Experience

• Accredited Social Worker registered with Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW)
• Approved Counsellor with The Department of Communities and Justice in NSW to provide counselling for eligible victims (Services)
• Bachelors Degree in Sociology
• Masters Degree in Social Work
• Certificates in trauma-informed practice, responding to sexual assault and domestic violence, group facilitation, treatment and approaches to working with complex trauma, crisis support training and delivery
• Fluent in 5 languages: English, Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, and Konkani
• 5 years experience as a leader in Suicide Prevention and Crisis Support services; supporting individuals through crisis with suicide/ suicidal behaviours, relationship issues, addiction, social and mental health problems, domestic and family violence, loss and grief, health and disability, and general issues
• 3 years of face-to-face counselling supporting clients through depression, anxiety, trauma, unemployment, ageism, LGBTI, health issues, self-esteem, confidence and relationship issues
• Trainer and supervisor of crisis supporters, in-shift supervisors and team leaders, building remote and direct teams to train and support them in delivering service to help seekers in crisis
• 1.5 years experience in a women’s health centre, providing crisis support, counselling and intervention using collaborative feminist, strengths-based, narrative, ecological/ systems, family, anti-oppressive, reflexive and holistic approaches to support individuals and groups

Get in touch

If you want to chat about counselling, movies, life or social justice or anything else, don’t hesitate in reaching out to me at hamida@dearsaathi.org.