Our Team

Brenda

Counsellor & Group Facilitator

Brenda is a supportive and caring counsellor and group facilitator who has followed her passion for walking alongside others through life’s challenges, specialising in grief counselling.

Journeying through her own bereavement, supporting family members through loss, witnessing the many changes brought by her father’s disability, and supporting friends through grief has given Brenda deep insight into the human capacity to bear loss, adapt, grow, and continue to live joyful, meaningful lives while accepting that they are forever changed.

Brenda’s genuine interest in others allows clients to feel their grief story is truly witnessed. She offers companionship on the grief journey, helping clients explore their experiences, understand common aspects of grief, and engage with innovative and creative techniques to support coping and growth.

Chris Doyle, M.A.C.A

Counsellor

Chris was born in Dublin, Ireland, growing up in a vibrant, working-class community that experienced every aspect of grief and loss.

Despite coming from a hospitality background, Chris completed a foundation course in psychotherapy, lighting the spark that propelled her into the helping profession.

Following her migration to Perth, Chris realised, while studying to become a qualified counsellor, that navigating the complexities of grief and loss truly resonated with her.

Chris is a person-centred therapist who works alongside her clients in helping them find their own voice for expressing their unique stories, while offering support through kindness and compassion, without judgement.

Kath Budzinska

Operations Manager / Lead Counsellor

Kathryn Budzinska has had a lifetime of experience in grief and loss. A Registered Nurse/Midwife, Kath’s career has spanned the spectrum of life and death. These experiences have been followed by over a decade of specialisation in bereavement, trauma and loss.

Graduating with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Psychology in 2015, Kath began work at The Grief Centre of Western Australia and in 2017 at MSWA. In 2024, Kath left MSWA to concentrate on working with trauma and grief support. Kath continues this work with GriefWise WA.

Kath’s compassionate and caring approach has been instrumental in helping people understand grief and trauma. She does this through empathy, experience, knowledge, and collaboration.

As well as people, she also likes animals, music, cooking, reading, the beach, bush and yoga.

Liesl

Counsellor

Liesl is a grief counsellor with extensive experience supporting individuals and families navigating loss, bereavement, and complex life transitions. With a background in nursing and counselling, Liesl brings genuine care and understanding to her work, acknowledging the many ways grief can touch daily life, relationships and identity. Through counselling, Liesl supports clients to process loss, strengthen coping strategies, and reconnect with meaning, resilience, and hope while honouring their unique experience.

Liesl is a genuinely knowledgeable, kind, and empathetic person. She is always willing to share her knowledge and skills, and is a person that both clients and colleagues look to for guidance and support.

Stephanie Vaughan Johnson

Counsellor

My work as a community/child health nurse has taken me to various places in WA, including Wyndham in the Kimberely, Port Hedland, Exmouth, and Onslow in the Pilbara, Carnarvon in the Gascoyne, and several towns in the South West. In addition, I had a short stint volunteering in a street clinic in Zambia, where there was a high rate (by WHO standards) of miscarriages, neonatal, and infant deaths. These experiences gave me the opportunity to learn about the variety of cultural patterns involved in grieving and were the impetus for me to study and work in the grief field. I have been employed as a counsellor for over 10 years upon the completion of a Master of Human Service Counselling (Curtin).

While I have a keen interest in all forms of personal and family grief and people experiencing the loss of loved ones through sudden death or suicide, I have a specific interest in ambiguous loss, anticipatory and disenfranchised grief.

In my spare time I enjoy travelling, participating in in Tai Chi, Reiki, bush walking group, book clubs, volunteering for Lifeline WA and undertaking short-term courses offered by my local Learning Centre.

Emily Rieck

Volunteer / Administrative Officer

I am a compassionate Administration Volunteer dedicated to supporting individuals and families as they navigate loss, change and life after death. I believe grief is not linear and should be respected and honoured while being integrated into life.

With a background in disability education support, among other counselling services. I have a trauma-informed and client-centred approach. I support people experiencing bereavement, anticipatory grief, complicated loss and major life changes. I work collaboratively with our counsellors and clients to assist wherever needed.

Tony Mullen

Director & Company Secretary

Tony retired in 2019, having worked as an Educator, Union Organiser, Union Secretary, and in a paralegal capacity over the previous forty years.

Retirement was decided upon after grief ambushed what had been a happy and fulfilling life to that point.

Help was gratefully received in the form of counselling, group meetings, creative writing sessions and suicide support projects, to name a few examples of effective healing activities through evidence-based practices.

Tony’s lived experience is now dedicated to ensuring the ongoing viability of this crucial community enterprise.