This podcast features interviews with social workers in Sydney, Australia, showcasing diverse areas of practice, social work stories, successes, and challenges, and providing information on media and other resources that can be accessed to help inform and educate people who are curious about the profession or wanting a career change.
In this episode I speak with Seena, an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker based in Brisbane who has worked in the human services sector for over 15 years. Seena is a first-generation Gujarati woman born and raised in England but now living in Australia, and she brings an appreciation of how culture, identity, relationships, and lived experience shape people’s stories. Her practice spans mental health, trauma, domestic and family violence, relationships, parenting, and men’s behaviour change. Grounded in dignity, cultural humility, and trauma-informed practice, Seena is passionate about walking alongside people with both compassion and accountability and creating environments where people feel heard, respected, and empowered as the experts of their own lives.
Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:
‘Invitations to Responsibility’ by Alan Jenkins - https://archive.org/details/invitationstores00jenk (https://archive.org/details/invitationstores00jenk)
Our Watch - https://www.ourwatch.org.au/ (https://www.ourwatch.org.au/)
No To Violence - https://ntv.org.au/about-us/ (https://ntv.org.au/about-us/)
ANROWS (Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety) - https://www.anrows.org.au/ (https://www.anrows.org.au/)
Institute of Non-Violence - https://ionv.com.au/ (https://ionv.com.au/)
Safe & Together Institute - https://safeandtogetherinstitute.com/ (https://safeandtogetherinstitute.com/)
Blue Knot Foundation - https://blueknot.org.au/ (https://blueknot.org.au/)
Emerging Minds - https://emergingminds.com.au/ (https://emergingminds.com.au/)
Suggested reading:
Judith Herman: Trauma and Recovery (1992)
Bessel Van der Kolk: The Body Keeps the Score (2014)
Janina Fisher: Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors (2017)
Peter Levine: Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma (1997)
Alan Jenkins (1990): Invitations to Responsibility: The Therapeutic Engagement of Men who are Violent and Abusive (https://archive.org/details/invitationstores00jenk (https://archive.org/details/invitationstores00jenk))
Evan Stark (2023): Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life.
Michael Flood (2018): Engaging Men and Boys in Violence Prevention.
Michael Flood (2025): Understanding Men's Lives: Pain, Privilege, Difference
This episode's transcript can be viewed here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lvPGFrLhwztTY7eze3mjo_fRIqn84VUtkLIySfp01PY/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lvPGFrLhwztTY7eze3mjo_fRIqn84VUtkLIySfp01PY/edit?usp=sharing)
Thanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.
9 Oct 2026
International Episode 30: Dainora (Lithuania)
In this episode I speak with Dainora, a social worker from Lithuania, working as a Supported Decision-Making Specialist at the Agency for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and as a Marketing Manager at the Psychosocial Activity Centre “Nauja pradžia”, while also pursuing a master’s degree. Her work in supported decision-making focuses on empowering people with disabilities to make their own decisions, strengthen their independence, and have their voices heard.
Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:
Agency for the Protection of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (ANTA) - https://anta.lrv.lt/lt/ (https://anta.lrv.lt/lt/)
Psychosocial Activity Center “Nauja Pradžia (New Start)” - https://www.facebook.com/p/Nauja-prad%C5%BEia-psichosocialin%C4%97s-veiklos-centras-61560334597170/ (https://www.facebook.com/p/Nauja-prad%C5%BEia-psichosocialin%C4%97s-veiklos-centras-61560334597170/)
United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Article 12 (Equal recognition before the law) - https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-12-equal-recognition-before-the-law.html (https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-with-disabilities/article-12-equal-recognition-before-the-law.html)
European Disability Forum - https://www.edf-feph.org/ (https://www.edf-feph.org/)
“My Rights - My Voice” board game - https://pertvarka.lt/naujas-budas-kalbeti-apie-teises-ir-pasirinkimus-d-jurgaitytes-sukurtas-zaidimas-mano-teises-mano-balsas/ (https://pertvarka.lt/naujas-budas-kalbeti-apie-teises-ir-pasirinkimus-d-jurgaitytes-sukurtas-zaidimas-mano-teises-mano-balsas/)
This episode's transcript can be viewed here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W-5dq8jG8fYiZ5I8U2CkmOoIvb7Odg-yhGLIQyP13t4/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1W-5dq8jG8fYiZ5I8U2CkmOoIvb7Odg-yhGLIQyP13t4/edit?usp=sharing)
25 Sept 2026
International Episode 29: Eymen (Türkiye)
In this episode I speak with Dr Eymen Ekmen, an academic in Türkiye who completed his PhD in 2026, and whose research primarily focuses on migration, refugee studies, and Syrian refugees in Türkiye. Eymen places great emphasis on working with diverse cultures and conducting fieldwork in participants' native languages, and he himself speaks Arabic, English, Turkish, and Serbo-Croatian.
Links to resources mentioned in this week’s episode:
Istanbul Arel University’s Social Work Department - https://arel.edu.tr/en/faculty-of-health-sciences-social-work/ (https://arel.edu.tr/en/faculty-of-health-sciences-social-work/)
Eymen’s Google Scholar page - https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_4wrMQoAAAAJ&hl=fr (https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_4wrMQoAAAAJ&hl=fr)
This episode's transcript can be viewed here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GtU6RDI94YmQ81tKkV7NNfA5DXh5LVT8gCi-bK9n5R0/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GtU6RDI94YmQ81tKkV7NNfA5DXh5LVT8gCi-bK9n5R0/edit?usp=sharing)
Thanks to Kevin Macleod of incompetech.com for our theme music.
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