Behaviour Support Practitioner

Danielle is a Behaviour Support Practitioner at Step 2 Allied Health, bringing over 20 years of experience across inpatient, community, and youth mental health settings. She is a Credentialed Mental Health Nurse holding a Graduate Diploma in Mental Health Nursing and a Graduate Diploma in Wellness from RMIT, a Bachelor of Nursing from Federation University, and a Diploma of Community Services from TAFE Gippsland. She is also a certified Mental Health First Aid Trainer and holds postgraduate training in Equine-Assisted Mental Health through Equine Assisted Therapy Australia (EATA).
Danielle comes to us having most recently worked as an Intake and Access Clinician with Headspace Colac. Previously, she held a range of roles across Barwon Health, including Mental Health Clinician within community mental health, Associate Nurse Unit Manager within PARC services, and clinician roles within acute inpatient settings at the Swanston Centre. Earlier in her career, she worked as a Mental Health Nurse with Alfred Health and Uniting Care. Alongside her clinical work, Danielle has also worked as an academic within the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Deakin University, where she facilitated units including Mental Health Promotion, Mental Health and Wellbeing, and First Nations Health..Through these roles she has developed strong skills in crisis response and de-escalation, comprehensive psychosocial and risk assessment, safety planning, trauma-informed practice, First Nations cultural safety, and capacity building across education and health settings.
Danielle’s approach is grounded in curiosity, compassion, and a deep commitment to understanding the meaning behind behaviour. She is known for her warm, relational style and her ability to build trust with people at their pace, taking the time to understand their experiences in context. She brings a trauma-informed, strengths-based lens to her work, prioritising safety, dignity, and the least restrictive pathways to support regulation and sustainable change. Danielle works collaboratively and respectfully with others, valuing different perspectives and supporting people to feel heard, understood, and empowered in their own care.
Danielle works full time Monday to Friday and can support individuals of all ages, with a particular speciality in working with families, crisis and acute mental health presentations, complex trauma and CPTSD, youth and emerging adults, and neurodivergent individuals and dual diagnosis. She covers Geelong, Winchelsea, Colac, and surrounding areas.
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