ABOUT

About Unstuck Youth

Young people don't need another adult telling them what they should be doing.

Sometimes they need someone willing to understand why doing it has become so hard.

Unstuck Youth was created to provide flexible, practical and genuinely young-person-centred support for children, teenagers and young adults who feel stuck.

Hi, I'm Rachael.

I'm a Youth Counsellor and Educational Engagement Specialist and the founder of Unstuck Youth.

My professional background spans youth work, community services, school wellbeing, specialist education, alternative education and educational re-engagement.

I have worked with young people across very different educational environments — from mainstream secondary schools to specialist and alternative settings — and with young people whose relationship with school has become complicated, disrupted or completely disconnected.

Those experiences have shaped how I understand both wellbeing and education.

Experience across different education settings

My work has included supporting 13–16-year-olds through the RISE program at Foundation Learning Centre, with a focus on helping young people reconnect with education.

I have also worked at David Scott School, an alternative education setting supporting young people who have not always been well served by mainstream education.

My experience at Marnebek School, a specialist developmental school, further developed my understanding of disability, neurodivergence, individualised learning and the importance of adapting environments and expectations around the needs of the young person.

Alongside these roles, I have worked across multiple mainstream secondary schools in youth work, wellbeing, educational support and re-engagement roles.

Working across mainstream, alternative, specialist and re-engagement settings has taught me something important:

There is no single educational environment or pathway that works for every young person.

My experience is personal too.

My understanding of feeling disconnected from education does not come only from my professional work.

I am neurodivergent myself, and I did not complete mainstream high school.

As a young person, I certainly would not have imagined that education would later become such a significant part of my life.

I found my love of learning later.

Over time, I discovered subjects I cared about, environments that worked better for me and a growing curiosity about young people, behaviour, wellbeing and psychology.

I went on to study Youth Work and Psychological Science and am now completing Psychology Honours.

That journey has strongly influenced the way I see young people who are struggling with education today.

School disengagement does not define a young person's future.

A young person struggling with school is not necessarily a young person who cannot learn.

A teenager who is disengaged at 14 is not destined to remain disengaged forever.

A student who struggles within mainstream education has not failed.

And leaving one pathway does not mean there isn't another one available.

Sometimes young people need time.

Sometimes they need a different environment.

Sometimes they need support understanding how they learn.

Sometimes something around them needs to change.

And sometimes they need someone who can help them see that what is happening right now does not define what they will be capable of later.

I know how powerful it can be to discover a passion for learning after once feeling disconnected from it.

I want young people to have the opportunity to discover what interests them, what works for them and what their own version of moving forward might look like.

That is a big part of why I created Unstuck Youth.

Why “Unstuck”?

Because feeling stuck does not mean there is something wrong with the young person.

Sometimes they need support understanding themselves.

Sometimes they need new strategies.

Sometimes something in their environment needs to change.

Sometimes they need an adult who can help them communicate what they have been trying to say.

And sometimes they simply need help finding another way forward.

Getting unstuck does not mean following one particular path.

It means finding movement again.

My approach

Curious before corrective

Before trying to change a behaviour, I want to understand what may be happening underneath it.

Rather than beginning with “How do we stop this?”, I am more interested in asking:

“What is this telling us?”

Relationship matters

Young people are much more likely to engage when they feel respected rather than managed.

Building a genuine working relationship is central to my approach.

Young people deserve support where they can feel heard, taken seriously and involved in decisions that affect them.

Practical support matters too

Insight is useful, but young people and families often need practical help as well.

That might mean developing strategies, preparing for a school meeting, working through a problem, identifying adjustments, practising how to communicate a need or mapping out an alternative pathway.

Counselling does not always have to mean sitting and talking for an hour.

Sometimes moving forward requires doing something practical.

Young people should have a voice

Plans developed for young people are more likely to work when young people are meaningfully involved in developing them.

Wherever possible, I want young people to understand what is being discussed, have opportunities to express what they think and play an active role in deciding what support looks like.

Different doesn't mean deficient

My work is informed by a neurodiversity-affirming approach that recognises differences in communication, learning, sensory processing, executive functioning and emotional regulation.

The aim is not to make neurodivergent young people appear more neurotypical.

It is to help them better understand themselves and build environments, strategies and supports that allow them to function and participate in ways that work for them.

There is more than one pathway forward

Successful adulthood does not look identical for every young person.

Education, work, independence, relationships and wellbeing can be achieved through many different paths.

Sometimes getting unstuck means returning to something.

Sometimes it means adapting it.

And sometimes it means choosing a completely different direction.

Qualifications

Rachael holds:

Bachelor of Youth Work
Diploma of Youth Work
Graduate Diploma of Psychological Science

Rachael is also currently completing a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Honours).

Her broader professional experience includes youth services, school wellbeing, educational re-engagement, mainstream education, alternative education, specialist education and community-based support for children, adolescents and families.

Important professional information

Unstuck Youth currently provides youth counselling, wellbeing support and educational engagement services.

Rachael is not currently a registered psychologist, and Unstuck Youth does not provide psychological assessment, formal diagnosis or registered psychology services.

Where a young person's needs fall outside the scope of Unstuck Youth, this will be discussed openly and referral to another professional may be recommended.

Your current experience doesn't have to be your final destination.

If your young person is feeling stuck — at school, emotionally, socially or somewhere in the transition towards adulthood — you do not have to figure everything out before reaching out.

There may be more than one way forward.

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