About Us

The Shepherd Centre (TSC) is a highly regarded not-for-profit, providing specialised programs for children with hearing loss and their families. Our programs meet the needs of children of all ages; from our world-leading early intervention program for babies and toddlers, through to our mentoring program ‘Hear for You’ for school-aged children and teenagers. We have been empowering generations of children with hearing loss to listen, speak and have a voice for over 50 years, creating a world of choice and amplifying possibility. 

TSC currently supports over 900 families all over Australia, providing in-person and online support from 10 locations across NSW, ACT, Queensland and Tasmania. Our global platform HearHub, supports health professionals working with children with hearing loss all over the world

About the role

We are growing and expanding our services to even more children and families, so we are interested in hearing from highly motivated and enthusiastic clinical specialists who would like to join our fantastic team at our Macquarie Park centre, which is located within the Australian Hearing Hub at Macquarie University. The role may also include occasional visits to our Central Coast mobile support teams.

This is a permanent, full-time position, however we are also open to considering part-time candidates at a minimum 3 days per week. As a family friendly and flexible organisation, actual working hours can be negotiated with the successful candidate.

The Child and Family Counsellor is an important part of each child’s interdisciplinary clinical team, working alongside Audiologists, Listening and Spoken Language Therapists (Speech Pathologists) and the Research & Assessments team.

This key role supports children and their families from diagnosis of hearing loss through early intervention, right through to school age and beyond. You will work closely with your team to offer a family centred service, while empowering parents via the parent coaching model. Day to day the role involves you:

• Facilitating intake meetings with new families.
• Completing associated paperwork required for families to join the service.
• Obtaining NDIS information from families to complete ongoing service agreements.
• Providing family and individual counselling and support around hearing loss, hearing devices and social skills.
• Facilitating various group sessions run by TSC, aimed at educating and supporting children and their parents.
• Liaising with various stakeholders and service providers, advocating for children and their families.

This work would suit Counsellors, Family Therapists, Social Workers, Psychotherapists or Psychologists, who have experience and/or interest in family work (particularly early diagnosis, parent-child attachment, grief and loss) who would like to make a rewarding career working in hearing loss.

Why join The Shepherd Centre?

We don’t just profess our values, we truly practice them through the work that each and every one of us performs each day. We act and communicate with Compassion and Integrity in everything we do. We strive to Empower everyone we meet – our children, families and stakeholders. We foster Innovation – committed to finding better ways of doing things, through evidence-based practice. And finally, we support our people to be Courageous and harness their Creativity to unlock potential, enable progress and create new opportunities.

At The Shepherd Centre, we are passionate about improving outcomes for the children accessing our programs and we support our people to have a great work-life balance. We offer competitive benefits including:

• Competitive salary with not-for-profit salary packaging – claim up to $15,900 of your salary tax free per year + meal entertainment expenses up to $2,650 per year
• 6 weeks annual leave (pro-rated for part-time)
• Flexible work hours, including options to work some days from home/remotely
• A full Christmas and New Year shutdown period to recharge
• Work alongside world-leading Clinicians in your field
• Excellent internal professional and career development opportunities
• A supportive and collaborative work environment
• A family friendly and professional company culture

Essential Criteria:

• Tertiary qualifications in Counselling, Psychotherapy, Social Work, Psychology or equivalent degree.
• Eligibility for registration with the Australian Association of Social Workers or the Australian Psychological Society or an equivalent professional organisation.
• Minimum of two years’ work experience in providing counselling and casework services to children and families.
• Knowledge of early childhood development, family mental health issues, and child protection policy/practice.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability and desire to work within an interdisciplinary team setting.
• Group work skills & experience in development, implementation and facilitation.
• A knowledge of NDIS processes and systems will be highly regarded.
• Working with Children Check and NDIS Worker Check or willingness to obtain these.
• Full working rights to work in Australia.
• Fully vaccinated for COVID-19 (3 doses).

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience in Early Intervention service provision.
• Knowledge of hearing loss in children and hearing services.
• Experience supporting families with parenting and child behaviour management strategies.

How to apply:

Please submit your resume and cover letter, addressing how you meet the essential criteria of the role. Closing date is Friday 27th October 2022.

We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as we will be actively shortlisting applications as they are received. As such, this position may be filled prior to the closing date. We thank you for your application, but only shortlisted applicants will be contacted.

Please note: Under The Shepherd Centre COVID-19 Vaccination Policy, all employees and workers performing in-person work must be fully vaccinated with an Approved COVID-19 Vaccine (3 doses) and evidence is to be provided in the form of a current COVID-19 vaccination certificate.

The Shepherd Centre is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to providing a work environment that embraces and values diversity and inclusion. Please let us know if you have any support or access requirements at the time of your application.