Dr Jonathan Toussaint
A career spent in the room where the hard conversations happen
Counsellor, mediator, educator and clinical supervisor. The through-line across all of it is simple: people and organisations are strongest when we build on what is already good in them.
Jonathan is a qualified counsellor and accredited Mental Health Social Worker who has worked in the clinical field for more than twenty-five years.
His career has moved between two worlds that most people keep apart: the counselling room and the organisation. He has practised as a therapist and mediator, taught as a university lecturer in health psychology, and led community-sector organisations through periods of change. That breadth is deliberate. It means he can sit with the human reality of a situation and, in the same conversation, be practical about what an organisation actually needs to do next.
He works in a way that is strengths-based and trauma-informed, delivered gently and without judgement. Whether he is mediating a dispute, coaching a leadership team or supervising a practitioner, he starts from what is already working and builds from there.
Jonathan is also a published author, and continues to be interested in what the science of the brain and human behaviour can teach us about how people change. He lives and works in Minmi, on the western edge of Newcastle.
Qualifications & registrations
- Doctorate
- PhD in Health Science, Charles Sturt University
- Master's
- Master of Humanities (Psychology), University of Tasmania
- Accreditation
- Accredited Mental Health Social Worker; Qualified Counsellor; Approved Victim Services Counsellor
- Memberships
- Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW); Australian Counselling Association (ACA)
Roles & leadership
- Since 2011
- Director, People Potential Group, his counselling, supervision and training practice in Minmi
- Since 2013
- President, International Society of Counselling and Clinical Supervisors
- Academic
- Lecturer in health and behavioural sciences, and former university lecturer in health psychology
- Previously
- Chief executive of community-based organisations across the not-for-profit sector, spanning mental health, disability and children's services
"My approach is gentle, safe and built on what is already strong in the people I work with."
Dr Jonathan Toussaint
Work with Jonathan
Start with a conversation about what your organisation needs
Whether it is a workplace dispute to resolve, a team to develop, or supervision for your practitioners, the first step is the same: a straightforward conversation about the situation and the fit. Jonathan reads every enquiry himself.