Danielle Walker

Hey! I'm Danielle, a BAMH registered Mental Health Occupational Therapist with over 9 years' experience working across public and private mental health services. I'm the founder and principal Occupational Therapist at Mindspace OT, a regional private practice where I support adolescents and young adults to build meaningful lives through recovery-oriented, neuroaffirming OT for mental health and psychosocial disability.

I have over 9 years' experience as an Occupational Therapist in a range of settings including youth mental health, private practice (NDIS) and NGO's across VIC, NSW and WA.

• Director and principal OT - Mindspace OT
• Mental Health and Wellbeing Clinician - headspace
• Early Psychosis Clinician - CAMHS
• Occupational Therapist - private practice and NGO's

My practice is grounded in recovery-oriented, trauma-informed and neuroaffirming care. I value authentic therapeutic relationships and believe that effective supervision should provide a safe space for reflection, professional growth, clinical reasoning and sustainable practice.

I have extensive experience supporting clinicians working with neurodivergent young people and their families, psychosocial disabilities and complex presentations within community mental health. I am passionate about supporting occupational therapists to build confidence in mental health practice while maintaining their own wellbeing and professional identity.

• I graduated from Deakin University in 2017 with a Bachelor of OT and completed a Grad Cert in Youth Mental Health from the University of Melbourne in 2021.
• I've completed additional training and PD in mental health and modalities including DBT, CBT, CBT-E, Motivational Interviewing and ACT.
• I have engaged in further clinical supervision training through OT Australia, Michelle Bihary professional supervision training and Brené Brown's Dare to Lead program.

My supervision approach is all about creating a supportive and safe space where therapists feel comfortable reflecting on their current practice, building on their existing strengths and developing confidence and clinical reasoning skills.

I often encourage reflective practice to help supervisees thoughtfully reflect on clinical experiences from multiple perspectives. This process encourages deeper insight, supports critical thinking and helps identify learning opportunities that may otherwise be overlooked. It can also provide a framework for working through challenging situations in a purposeful and constructive way.