Find a behaviour support practitioner near you in Newcastle: Meet Valentina Fable, PBS practitioner, counsellor and psychotherapist
Looking for a behaviour support practitioner in Newcastle? Click here to make a referral for Positive Behaviour Support in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter region of NSW.
Want to learn more about behaviour support practitioners in Newcastle? Read on!
Today I’m pleased to introduce Valentina Fable, behaviour support practitioner in Newcastle, NSW. Valentina’s work in Positive Behaviour Support is shaped by her experience providing mental health counselling to individuals of all ages and emotional regulation support to neurodivergent children and young people.
Valentina completed four university degrees, including a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology/Anthropology), Bachelor of Laws (Honours), Masters of Holistic Counselling and Masters of Counselling and Psychotherapy.
Meet Valentina Fable, Behaviour Support Practitioner in Newcastle
Valentina, we’re so happy to have you on our team at Ability Consultants. Tell us about you!
I am a counsellor, psychotherapist and behaviour support practitioner in beautiful, sunny Newcastle, NSW.
I am married to my wonderful husband and we are lucky to spend much of our time with our beautiful fur-baby Nala.
My favourite part of the week is early Sunday morning when we go for a walk and get a coffee as a family. I love getting to enjoy the peace and quiet, and the fresh air. This often involves reflecting on the week that was.
I am a proud Italian and moved to Australia at age four. I don’t get to visit my home town in Italy as much as I would like but the amount of family I have in Australia and the abundance of cooking we do (particularly sweets) makes up for it.
What inspired you to pursue a career in Positive Behaviour Support?
I have always had a genuine curiosity and interest in understanding people. This started with me pursuing a career in law with the aim of moving into conflict resolution and mediation, however, I very quickly recognised I wanted to do more practical, hands-on work with people.
This led me down the path of counselling and psychotherapy. Within my work as a counsellor and psychotherapist, I am privileged to work with many children and young people who I recognised required more from me as a practitioner specifically in relation to helping them understand their behaviours.
My transition into behaviour support has always been slow and steady but ever since entering the field, it's always felt right for me and I’m very proud to support wonderful children and families, and proud to call myself a positive behaviour support practitioner.
How does your experience providing mental health counselling influence your work as a behaviour support practitioner?
A big part of what we do as behaviour support practitioners is strategy implementation, as a means of reducing behaviours of concern in order to increase an individual’s quality of life.
It can be challenging, if not impossible, to implement the most effective and supportive PBS strategies for an individual if we do not understand how someone feels about themselves, how they feel about their life, and what they understand about their emotions and their own mental health.
I think instinctively now, I always provide behaviour support from a position of understanding and supporting someone’s mental health. In this regard, my experience as a mental health counsellor has greatly influenced this part of me.
You completed a Masters of Counselling and Psychotherapy. How would you describe psychotherapy to NDIS participants who might not have heard of it?
Psychotherapy is quite often understood as “talk therapy”. It integrates many different types of therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Psychotherapy supports us to explore and understand how we think, feel and act particularly in moments that are distressing and may be negatively impacting our quality of life. Psychotherapy can help us look a little closer at thoughts that are not so helpful to us and explore ways in which we might change or modify these thoughts to help us better deal with stress and other challenges in life with healthy coping skills and strategies.
What is the relationship between psychotherapy and Positive Behaviour Support?
I have found my training and knowledge in psychotherapy has greatly supported my role as a behaviour support practitioner. For me, it is about allowing the two to work in harmony with each other. This comes down to recognising what my client needs and working out the right balance for them.
Neither are black and white in practice and I believe in order to be the best practitioner I can be for my client often requires me to integrate both approaches. Behind every behaviour is a need as well as a feeling or emotion attached to that need — this is where I feel both psychotherapy and Positive Behaviour Support work to benefit one another.
Behaviour support practitioners and Autism Spectrum Disorder
As a behaviour support practitioner, how do you support children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
I support every child on an individual basis and I think it is incredibly important to see the whole person. I think it was Aristotle who said “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and I take that approach with me into my role as a behaviour support practitioner.
I work from a strengths-based approach which highlights the importance of skills, unique interests and strengths of a child or young person.
Can you tell us about a specific behaviour of concern that a child with ASD might display and what your approach would be?
First, no child is the same! However, if I was to highlight one concern that I see and work with significantly and that I often notice contributes to behaviours, it would be emotional regulation.
Supporting a child through this quite often involves helping them first learn about all the different types of emotions, supporting them to recognise which emotions feel most uncomfortable in their body, understanding what need is driving the emotion or feeling, and helping them learn to communicate not only their emotions and feelings, but also the need attached to that emotion or feeling.
In addition to this, in order for me to support a child learning to regulate their emotions, I need to work closely with the family, as well as their teacher and the school. This is essential to ensure the types of strategies my client and I work on together can be easily implemented with support in these different environments.
It is of course not always this straightforward, but that’s what makes my role interesting!
In your role as a behaviour support practitioner, what support do you provide parents of children on the autism spectrum?
Working with parents and supporting the families of the children and young people who I work with is a big part of my role as a PBS practitioner. The support always varies depending on the needs of my client and of course, the needs of the family.
Depending on the day, this could include simply listening to the parents and understanding the areas in which they may be feeling challenged, education to help build on their understanding of the specific needs of their child, regular check ins to hear how they feel they are travelling in support their child, conversing with their child’s school and conducting school visits, strategy implementation and training for parents on specific strategies to support their child both at home and at school.
Do you support NDIS participants of specific age groups?
I am very privileged as a behaviour support practitioner to support an incredibly diverse group of individuals and families. Although I work predominantly with neurodiverse children and young people, I also support several adults with varying disabilities. This includes intellectual disability, hearing impairment, expressive and receptive language delay, as well as psychosocial disabilities such as PTSD.
NDIS providers in Newcastle
You have experience as a support coordinator in Newcastle, can you tell us about NDIS services that children or young people with autism might benefit from?
- The Underground Arcade is all about socialising in a supportive environment where children and young people can access a variety of inclusive gaming experiences. Many of my clients absolutely love it!
- At Hive Creative Studios children and young people can learn all about art and engage in community art classes. Classes are taught by practising artists with qualifications in music, education, dance, screen and media, musical theatre, drama, illustration, fine arts, painting, photography and more. Hive Creative Studios is located south of Newcastle in Charlestown.
- Hunter Coast Therapy offers occupational therapy, speech pathology and physiotherapy in the Newcastle, Maitland and Central Coast regions. I love when I get the opportunity to meet and work with a provider that shares similar values to myself, and I can not speak more highly of the HCT team.
Get started with a behaviour support practitioner in Newcastle
Where do you work as a behaviour support practitioner?
I provide Positive Behaviour Support in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and Hunter regions and I also provide telePBS.
I can help individuals with Positive Behaviour Support in all suburbs around the Newcastle area, out to West Wallsend and either side of the Lake, down to Swansea and Toronto, including :
- Northwest of Newcastle city in Mayfield, Waratah, Fletcher, Warabrook, Shortland, Maryland and Sandgate.
- West of Newcastle city in Hamilton, Broadmeadow, New Lambton, Lambton, Jesmond, Wallsend, Elermore Vale, Edgeworth, Cameron Park, Barnsley, Holmesville and West Wallsend.
- South west of Newcastle city in Merewether, Kotara, Charlestown, Mount Hutton, Bennetts Green, Belmont, Blacksmiths, Swansea, Warners Bay, Glendale, Toronto and surrounds.
How can NDIS participants in Newcastle organise a behaviour support practitioner?
The next step is to make a referral for Positive Behaviour Support on our website. You can do this anytime and you can make your own referral, or a member of your support team can make a referral on your behalf.
If you have questions about Positive Behaviour Support, you’re more than welcome to call our team on 1300 694 625 or send a message using our contact form.
More information about Positive Behaviour Support
Here are useful links about Positive Behaviour Support:
- What is Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)?
- What is an NDIS Positive Behaviour Support plan (PBSP)?
- Meet Alex Lee, behaviour support practitioner in Newcastle
About our behaviour support practitioners
Ability Consultants is a Registered NDIS Provider with behaviour support practitioners located around Australia in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and Western Australia. We create freedom and social connection through easy access to Positive Behaviour Support.
A number of our behaviour support practitioners support communities in the Newcastle, Hunter and Lake Macquarie regions. Learn more about our team here.
Careers in Positive Behaviour Support in Newcastle, NSW
If you’re interested in becoming a behaviour support practitioner, you might be interested in:
Virtual 
In-person
