About Beaté

Beate Steller

Beaté brings over 35 years of experience in a variety of sectors and industries to my role as the principal Training and Development Consultant. She is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker, Counsellor, Adult Educator, Spiritual Care Practitioner and Registered Nurse. Over the years, Beaté’s work has spanned over a wide and diverse area, bringing lots of organisational and personal learning with her. She assists organisations and individuals to develop their goals, to resolve conflicts, work through change and associated losses and develop a participatory approach in their work. In the last ten years Beaté has specialised in grief and loss education/ counselling and transition counselling and sat on the Board of NALAG (National Association of Loss and Grief) from 2009- 2020.

Currently Beaté also works as a Spiritual Care Team Leader in aged care and palliative care. She has been an adult educator since 1992, including for the Centre for Community Welfare Training (CCWT), the Australian College of Applied Psychology (ACAP), Sydney Centre For Creative Change, PDP- the Professional Development People and for Lifeline Sydney. Her experience includes working as a Strategic Planner and a Community Development Officer at a local council, working with long term unemployed and especially with people from Indigenous and culturally diverse backgrounds. Beaté has many years’ experience in the Health Services Industry includes specialising in HIV AIDS, palliative care and aged care.

Beaté works as an adult educator and counsellor and believes in the importance of both community and personal transformation through openness and learning with curiosity. The use of our story, the narrative approach to making meaning of things that don’t make sense to the rational mind, is encouraged in her work. Beaté makes space for creative processes like art and poetry. She draws on the work of many wise teachers such as Henri Nouwen, mindfulness specialist John Kabit-Zinn and many other teachers that have walked the path of healing one’s wounds acquired by living the life we live mindfully.

Qualifications

Accredited Clinical Supervisor with AAOS – The Australasian Association of Supervision, 2021 – current date

Accredited Mental Health Social Worker – AASW- Australian Association of Social Workers, 2020. Provider No: 6024051J

Master of (Arts) Ageing and Pastoral Studies with Distinction, (2019), Charles Sturt University. Her research major was on Mindfulness Meditation Groups in Residential Aged Care and its Relevance Spiritual Growth and Wellbeing.

Master of Adult Education, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Specialized in experience Based Education, Adult Education and Social Movements, Autobiographical Learning, Adult Education and Cultural diversity, Contemporary Issues in Adult Education.

Bachelor of Social Work with Honours, University of N.S.W. Specialized in community development work and group work skills.

Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training, The Centre for Community Welfare Training, Sydney.

Completed part of a post graduate degree in Local Government Management, “Community Planning and Development” UTS Centre for Local Government.

Course in Clinical Pastoral Education, St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, Focus on grief and crisis counselling.

Accredited Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Practitioner

Lifeline Telephone Counselling, Wesley Central Mission, Sydney. Experience in crisis, referral and youth line counselling. (10 years of service)

General Nurse Training at the St George Hospital (Sydney). Qualifying as a Registered Nurse

Professional Associations & Memberships

  • Member of the Australian Association of Social Workers
  • Member of NALAG (National Association of Loss and Grief) and Director of NALAG Board from 2009-2020
  • Member of the United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting.
  • Member of the N.S.W. Health Services Profession as a Registered Nurse
  • Member of Spiritual Care Australia

“I truly believe Beaté is one of the best trainers I have encountered. I first met her when I did my Lifeline telephone counselling course. Beaté delivered the course and then the follow-up training for Lifeline with such clarity, good humour and relevance. It was evident to me, that her vast experience would prepare us well for the role. I am still with Lifeline and have yet to meet a better trainer.”

Jo Fleet (B.Counselling & Human Change; CmCAPA; Reg.Prov.PACFA)

About Beaté’s Logo

The logo draws from a combination of traditional Aboriginal art symbols of people sitting on a starry night around a camp site and of the nautilus shell. When we sit around a fire we often start telling our ‘stories’, exchange our ‘learning’ and we can grow and be transformed as people. I aim to provide a safe and respectful learning environment that enhances opportunities for transformative learning.

As an adult educator and counsellor, I draw inspiration from nature and from people who live close to the land, like many Aboriginal people. It is believed, that before humans developed the skill of making fire, they would retreat with the setting sun into the surrounding trees and safe places and hide until the sun would rise again. This pattern of living changed dramatically when humans developed the skill of making fire and started to talk and sit around the campsite late at night and share their learning. Consequently, there was a significant increase in human’s brain development and the capacity to reflect and review their experiences was greatly advanced.

The ancient Nautilus shell is not just a beautiful shell but also a symbol of perfection and beauty. The spiral represents evolution and the journey leading to personal and spiritual growth. It is a symbol of change and development. It is the process of turning inward that reveals our depth and treasure and paradoxically the Nautilus has to keep building new and larger chambers to encompass new stages of growth. Beaté welcomes paradox in her work with her clients and students.

red rose

Beaté received the First Prize of the Inaugural Kogarah Lion Club Healing Narrative Award May 2011 for story called: ‘The gift of listening to Rose”.