A wee bit about To-Chau
Graduate Certificate in Counselling | Bachelor of Applied Science (Disability Studies)

Hello, I’m To-Chau,   (pronounced Toe-Chow - and don’t worry, I’ve heard plenty of versions!)

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Life can feel overwhelming. Sometimes there are so many things happening at once that it’s difficult to know where to begin.

You might be navigating neurodivergence or disability, trying to support someone you love, struggling within a relationship, grieving, parenting, caring for ageing parents, or simply finding that life looks very different from how you thought it would.

I’m someone who likes to understand what’s happening, make sense of the pieces and find a way forward together. I bring warmth and empathy to counselling, but I’m also practical and grounded. I value honesty, clarity and creating a space where you can talk openly without feeling judged.

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Before becoming a counsellor, I spent more than twenty years working alongside young people, adults and older adults through case management and the not-for-profit community services sector. My work has included supporting people living with intellectual disability, acquired brain injury, dementia, mental health concerns and neurodivergence.

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Those years taught me that people are much more than a diagnosis or a service they happen to need. I’ve worked with people from many different backgrounds and have seen how much culture, family, relationships, community and the systems around us can shape our wellbeing.

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Some of this is personal for me, too.

I know the refugee experience firsthand and I’m part of an intercultural, neurodivergent family. I’m raising teenagers while also supporting ageing parents, so I understand something of that strange middle place where you can find yourself caring in several directions at once.

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Being the parent of a neurodivergent child has also given me a very personal understanding of family life when one person experiences the world differently. It can affect everyone: the individual, parents, siblings, couples and the relationships between them.

That’s one of the areas I feel particularly drawn to in counselling.

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Sometimes the person who needs support isn’t only the person with the diagnosis. Parents may be exhausted. Partners can lose sight of one another. Siblings have their own experiences. Families can love each other enormously and still struggle to understand what each person needs.

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I enjoy working alongside individuals, couples and families to slow things down, understand what is happening between people, and find ways of supporting one another without losing sight of each person’s individual needs.

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You don’t need to have everything figured out before you come.

Sometimes we begin simply by working out what feels hardest right now.

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Outside the counselling room, I love walking along the beach and watching the sunset. Those quieter moments help me slow down, reflect and reconnect with what matters.

And that’s something I hope counselling can offer too: somewhere you don’t have to carry everything alone while we work out, together, what might help.