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Changing Childrens and Families Lives Through Supportive Play
Child Family Therapist - Tony Wheeler
CertIVDis, BPsychSC, GDipPsych (Adv),GradCert Family Therapy, MChildPThy.
About
Tony Wheeler
Tony brings over twenty years of experience working within the disability and mental health fields. Throughout his career, he has supported children, adolescents, and adults with Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Intellectual Disability (ID), Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), and individuals experiencing co-occurring mental health challenges.
Tony has worked across a range of settings, collaborating closely with families, schools, multidisciplinary teams, and community services. His extensive experience has given him a deep understanding of the complex needs of neurodiverse individuals and the importance of tailored, developmentally appropriate, and family-centred support.
In addition to his extensive experience in the disability field, Tony has worked with a broad range of psychopathological presentations across diverse settings. He has been providing counselling services since 2011, supporting members of the general public with a variety of psychological wellbeing concerns.
Tony’s professional work and ongoing study led him into the youth justice system, where he worked with some of the most complex and challenging behaviours presented by children and young people within the state of Victoria. This experience fostered a strong clinical interest in child development, trauma-informed practice, Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), and a wide range of other psychological and behavioural presentations commonly observed within this system.
During his time in youth justice, Tony worked closely with carers and youth justice staff in his role as a Therapeutic Practice Leader. In this capacity, he supported the therapeutic management of children in protective care through comprehensive assessments, relationship-based interventions, and the facilitation of reflective practice sessions. His work involved collaboration with care teams, families, and frontline staff to promote consistency, safety, and positive developmental outcomes for vulnerable children
Tony continued his work as a Therapeutic Specialist within residential care settings, supporting carers, families, and multidisciplinary care teams. His role focused on helping children move away from antisocial behaviours and toward positive, prosocial activities. This work involved conducting comprehensive assessments, implementing targeted therapeutic interventions, and working directly with children, parents, and carers to support emotional and behavioural stability.
Throughout this period, Tony worked extensively with children presenting with trauma-related symptomatology and associated developmental and behavioural challenges. Over several years, this experience deepened his interest in trauma-informed care, Child Play Therapy, and Family Therapy, which continue to inform his therapeutic approach today.
More recently, with the completion of a Graduate Certificate in Family Therapy and a Masters of Child Play Therapy. Tony has worked as a Clinician supporting foster families with the goal of maintaining and preserving stable family structures. He remains deeply committed to working with children, families, and carers, while also delivering training on therapeutic practice and trauma to professional colleagues. Tony is dedicated to ongoing professional development and continues to expand his clinical knowledge through further study with various universities.