Content
Psychotherapist heads USC study program
A psychotherapist who has co-authored nine textbooks is the new program leader of counselling studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Dr Kathryn (Kitty) Geldard, also a senior lecturer, said she was passionate about supporting counselling as a profession by teaching USC students and researching issues in the industry.
“I was attracted to USC’s program because it operates in the context of sociology,” Dr Geldard said.
“I believe the interaction between individuals and the society around them is a vital factor in how people make meaning of their lives and establish their own identities.
“This context provides an opportunity for a more realistic application of counselling than one which exclusively focuses on an individual’s psychology.”
USC offers Bachelors of Social Science majoring in Counselling, Human Services and Psychology.
Dr Geldard co-wrote nine texts with her psychologist husband, discussing counselling for individuals, children and adult relationships.
These books have been published internationally and several have been translated into other languages.
“My most recent book, ‘Practical Interventions For Young People At Risk’, is now used as a resource for human services workers,” she said.
Dr Geldard has moved back to the Coast from Brisbane, where she was a clinical supervisor of Masters students at Queensland University of Technology.
Before working as an academic, she was in private practice on the Coast as a child and family therapist. She also worked at the Child and Youth Mental Health Service at Maroochydore.
Dr Geldard trained in Australia and then the US as an occupational therapist and psychotherapist.
Her research in Aboriginal communities resulted in the adaptation of a specialist Adolescent Peer Counselling Program.
– Julie Gatehouse