The Professional Standards Committee was established in 2014 by combining two earlier committees, the Training Standards Committee and the Register Committee.
The Professional Standards Committee provides strategic oversight of all activities relating to the PACFA’s Training Standards and the PACFA National Register.
Download the Professional Standards Committee - Terms of Reference
Email: [email protected]
Committee members
Dr Pamela Brear, Chair
Pamela is a senior practitioner with an established private practice and extensive experience in providing counselling to adult clients and clinical supervision to those who work in people-focused professions. For several years, Pamela lectured for ACAP and in the Masters Counselling program of the University of South Australia, both in Adelaide and in Singapore. Building on her specialised interest in clinical supervision, she launched Supervision Alliance in 2014, developing an Advanced Certificate training in the Art and Science of Supervision.
Pamela has had a long association with PACFA, having served in numerous roles over 17 years on the Executive Committee of the Counselling Association of South Australia (CASA) prior to its transitioning into PACFA. She brings to her role as Chair of the Professional Standards Committee her research background that focused on: Gatekeeping: Evaluating Students’ Suitability for Professional Practice.
Dr Gillian McCulloch
A Masters-educated counsellor and Clinical Hypnotherapist working in private practice in Brighton, South Australia, Gillian emigrated to Australia from the UK 14 years ago. During her time in UK, she gained a PhD in Systematic Theology and was a university teacher for some years before deciding to utilise her original qualification as a nurse. She subsequently became a Critical Care Registered Nurse and utilised her academic background by working in Health Research and Evaluations and producing reports for the NHS. While working as a Critical Care Nurse in Australia Gillian began her studies in Counselling. Her specialist areas includes ACT, Relationship Counselling and EMDR.
Kelly Pritchard
Kelly is a clinical registrant of PACFA and a PACFA-accredited supervisor. She has provided counselling to a diverse range of clients for more than 25 years. In addition to her private practice in counselling and supervision, Kelly works part time in a middle school. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science and Graduate Diploma in Psychology and has extensive training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). She has worked in child protection, government funded programs, education and an international college. She has previously served on a PACFA Grievance Panel and on an EPAC Panel. Kelly is passionate about helping people of all ages to see their strengths, develop a healthy sense of self, and heal from traumatic and stressful experiences.
Rina van Schalkwyk
Rina has a background in law where she spent five years working in South Africa as a lawyer in the National Defense Force. More recently, she made a career change to Counselling, completing a Master’s degree in Counselling Practice and has recently completed an Advanced Certificate in Clinical Supervision.
Rina is currently Team Leader Client Services and Counsellor at Victim Support Service, a Redress Support Service provider, providing counselling and practical support to adult survivors of child sexual abuse in their engagement with the National Redress Scheme. She is also a training facilitator for Blue Knot Foundation, the National Centre of Excellence for Complex Trauma, providing training for professionals and survivors on trauma and trauma informed practice; she also operates a private counselling practice with a special interest in grief, loss, trauma and providing trauma-informed supervision.
Rina’s approach to counselling is an eclectic and integrative, brain-based and trauma-informed approach, utilising a variety of client-centered bottom–up approaches as well as cognitive approaches where appropriate. She is a registered clinical member of Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) and therefore guided by the code of ethics and codes of conduct of PACFA as well as those of the workplaces and positions she holds.