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SAMMY BAKER
If you are looking for Clinical Psychology, including diagnoses, assessment and clinical interventions, Little Pea Therapy might not be for you.
If you are looking for a safe therapeutic space focused on art, play, therapy dogs, yoga, and storytelling – then, welcome!
Sammy works in creative ways with beautiful humans to journey with them through hard things and big feelings.
Sammy is particularly interested in supporting humans who don’t easily fit into the boxes defined by our systems – and is human-centered, inclusive and non-pathologising. She is fiercely LGBTQAI+ and neuro-affirming, disability-friendly and anti-racist with a passion for social justice. She is committed to a lifelong journey of learning (and unlearning) how to be an intersectional ally; and to dismantling systems of oppression
LITTLE PEA
OFFERINGS
HUMAN CENTERED THERAPIES
CREATIVE AND ARTS BASED THERAPIES
NEUROAFFIRMING & ATTACHMENT FOCUSED PARENTING SUPPORT
SUPERVISION
TRAUMA INFORMED YOGA
ANIMAL ASSISTED THERAPY
PLAY THERAPY
EMDR THERAPY
(EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION
& REPROCESSING)
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
I have had a long career so far; working across government and private sectors. I’ve worked in youth homelessness; drug and alcohol programs; child protective programs including foster care and residential care; and community mental health programs like headspace; and Berry Street Take Two. I went out on my own in 2019 and started as Girl and Dog Psychology; before joining forces with my bestie Chenai Mupotsa Russell to co-direct Rainbow Muse Clinic; where we have been working for the last three years.
We made the decision to dismantle the Clinic after reflecting deeply on all of the ways that this capitalist structure continued to exploit and create harm by unevenly distributing the labour. We realised that Rainbow Muse Clinic had moved away from Chenai’s original vision; and that in order to live with integrity we needed to say goodbye.
Choosing to create Rainbow Muse Collective has been a liberatory practice; and a love letter to my bestie Chenai; whose original vision for Rainbow Muse was centred around healing justice. Chenai was, continues to, and will always be my rainbow muse.
In creating our own businesses within a collective, we equally redistribute the systemic load; and create space for equity and dreaming. Everyone is responsible; nobody is burnt out holding the hard parts.
Little Pea Therapy was born in 2024 after the birth of my own little Pea; Penny.
Penny has taught me about slowing down ; and about attunement and embodiment. She teaches me patience, and she looks at the world with wonder and awe. It is the most and biggest love I have ever felt. And it’s hard and messy and magical and real.
Penny is a tiny human who has not yet been coloured by the systems around her. She has no unlearning to do, and operates from a place of authenticity and love. Regulating her little nervous system is my full-time job, and this has made me reflect on how I want to be in the world; and what kind of world I want to create for her; and for all our children (including the ones living inside of each of us).
I am a Clinical Psychologist. The field of Western Psychology operates in line with the biomedical model of care. This model reduces complex and magical human beings to a set of words and labels and numbers. People are always doing the best they can – and when they do not have the skills or regulatory capacity to meet the demands of their environment (and when they are not supported adequately by the systems around them) their distress escalates in line with this. The way that their distress shows up in the world is often judged and punished; and pathologized by a society that prioritises neurotypical Eurocentric cis-hetero-normative ways of being.
I have felt a building tension in my body the longer that I work in this field; and over the last few years this tension has led to some heartbreak and burn out. I no longer want to be complicit with these systems; I want us all to be free.
ABOUT SAMMY
I am a neurodivergent therapist (autistic ADHDer) and I bring whimsy, play, creativity; and my entire heart into therapy with me. I’m currently studying my Masters in Therapeutic Arts at MIECAT.
I wholeheartedly believe in the power of relationships, and community, in healing. I will love you as you are; and then we can journey together through some hard things, in ways that feel safe for you.
I don’t have any of the answers; and I won’t pretend to. This is my first time being a human too.
What I do know is this:
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Everyone is doing their best; nobody is broken.
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Some people have a harder time because of the way that the systems around them function to exclude and oppress them.
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I cannot and will not “fix people” or be complicit in breaking them so that they can survive within broken systems.
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There is a place for therapy; and it can be beautiful and healing; but it must exist alongside justice frameworks that seek to dismantle these systems
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I will learn as much from you, as you will learn from me.
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Art and play are healing. Love is liberation.
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We are stronger together.
Qualifications
(* I do not prioritise these learnings; but here is a list)
- Masters of Therapeutic Arts (MIECAT) – 2024 – Present
- Masters of Clinical Psychology (Swinburne University) - 2019.
-Honours in Psychology (University of Western Australia) – 2010
- Bachelor of Arts (University of Western Australia) – 2008
Professional Development / Learnings
• Trauma Informed Yoga & Embodied Social Justice Training (2022)
• Synergetic Play Therapy (2022)
• Yoga Teacher Training (2021)
• EMDR Training – Advanced (2021)
• Clinical Psychology – Board Approved Supervisors Training (2021)
• Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (2021)
• THERAPLAY Training (2021)
• Circle of Security – Attachment Parenting Facilitator Training (2021)
• Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Advanced (DDP – 2020)
• Treating Complex Trauma and PTSD (2019)
• Who’s In Charge – Violence Against Parents Facilitator Training (2019)
• Tuning Into Teens – Emotion Focused Parenting Facilitator Training (2018)
• The Body Project – Disordered Eating Facilitator Training (2018)
• Animal Assisted Therapy Training, Lead the Way (2017)
• Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST - 2017)
• Dialectic Behaviour Therapy – Advanced Training (2017)
ABOUT BILLIE
Therapy Dog (She/Her)
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Hi I’m Billie! I’m a Kelpie/Labrador Cross, and an accredited Therapy Dog. I have been working with young people for six years alongside Sammy, and I am extremely passionate about helping young people through tough times. I am a rescue dog, and I had a really tough start to life. I know what it’s like to be scared and untrusting of people – and I know what it’s like when traumatic memories get stored in your body.
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In 2020 I had cancer, and I lost my leg. So I also know a thing or two about resilience, gratitude and the importance of having a good support network (like my mum). I absolutely love eating. I have a bottomless stomach and will eat anything I’m allowed to. My other hobbies include going for (slow) walks, chasing sticks in the park, lying in the sun for hours like a lizard; and begging for tummy rubs.
WAITLIST IS CLOSED
NOT CURRENTLY TAKING NEW REFERRALS
I am slowly returning to emails
Rainbow Muse Collective
Mountain Gate Shopping Centre, Suite 3, 53-54/1880 Ferntree Gully Rd, Ferntree Gully VIC 3156
© Little Pea Therapy 2024