Improving Lives Through Behaviour Support

For Therese, behaviour support has always been about one thing: helping people live safer, happier and more fulfilling lives. After more than a decade supporting people with disability, and almost five years with Northcott, she now leads and mentors behaviour support practitioners while helping shape best practice across the organisation.

Starting her career

Therese’s career began in speech pathology, working with children whose communication difficulties were having a significant impact on behaviour and family life. While supporting families, she realised that communication goals alone were often not enough.

“I was finding that there was limited value in working on speech pathology goals for some families as they were in crisis because the behaviours were so extreme and difficult to manage.”  

That insight sparked a career-long interest in behaviour support. She expanded her expertise, working closely with children, families and schools to address the underlying causes of behaviours while building practical skills and supports.

One of her proudest achievements was helping secure funding for communication devices for non-verbal students and training teachers to use them effectively.

“We saw really big progress in communication and behaviour, which was fantastic.”

Working at Northcott

Today, Therese oversees a team of experienced Northcott practitioners supporting people across a wide range of settings, including Supported Independent Living (SIL) homes, family homes and community environments. While behaviour support is often associated with challenging behaviours, she says the reality is much broader.

The team’s work begins with understanding why a behaviour is occurring and identifying ways to meet that person’s needs more effectively. This might mean teaching communication skills, increasing independence, developing routines, improving community participation or supporting families with practical strategies.

“We also really prioritise quality of life supports for our customers.”  

Whether it’s helping someone learn to ask for help, follow a visual schedule or gain greater independence at home, the goal is always to create positive outcomes that reduce stress and increase opportunities.

A role with impact

For Therese, the most rewarding part of the role is seeing the impact on customers and their families.

“It can be the difference between someone being happy and safe in their home and that’s really important to me.”

She is equally passionate about supporting the next generation of practitioners. The Northcott Behaviour Support team includes professionals from diverse backgrounds, supported by robust supervision, training and career development opportunities.

“The team is fantastic. I’ve always had really great responsive managers and supervision, which is really important.”  

For practitioners looking to build their careers, Therese believes Northcott offers something unique: access to strong clinical leadership, genuine support and the opportunity to make a meaningful difference every day.

Behaviour Support at Northcott