Sam Van Veen (she/her)

Meet Sam, our dedicated full-time social worker, whose unwavering passion for advocacy drives her every action. With a profound empathy and genuine kindness, Sam embodies the essence of care in her work with individuals and families.

Sam is a qualified Social Worker with a wealth of knowledge and experience in Child Protection, domestic and family violence and disability support services.

Sam has a deep rooted passion for advocacy and a genuine kindness and empathy to her work with individuals and families.

Sam's practice is foundational from a strengths based approach and strongly values ensuring that nobody falls through the gaps of our systems.

With Sam on board, our team is fortified by her compassion

and unwavering dedication to empowering others

Rachel Beggs (she/her)

Rachel is our founder and Principal Social Worker at Lighting Your Way Social Wellbeing.

Rachel is a qualified and Accredited Social Worker with the AASW, with a background in QLD Child Protection, QLD Health and homelessness support services.

Rachel is a neurodivergent practitioner with lived experience of disability and whose practice is foundational in being neuroaffirming.

Rachel is passionate about working with children and families and being able to walk alongside them in the journey to independence. she delivers these supports through navigating complex systems (such as NDIS, Centrelink, Child Protection and

Family Law), building solid support systems, advocating for her

families/clients and most importantly, empowering individuals to

meet their own goals in life and in recovery.

Rachel strives to deliver support and care that is inclusive, kind,

compassionate and non-judgemental.

Meet the LYW team

Our Approach

Our practice is grass-rooted in systems and strengths based approaches when working with individuals and families. Our team are very passionate about ensuring a safe, comfortable space where you are free to explore what your journey to independence and recovery looks like.

We provide warmth, transparency and empathy across all of our work with a solid emphasis on empowerment and autonomy.

Rachel, our Principal Social Worker is a neurodivergent practitioner, and prides her practice and the foundations of LYW practice on being Neurodivergent Affirming by:

Ongoing learning - (Most recent -Professional Certificate in Neurodivergent Affirming Practice)
Working in alignment with the National Guideline for Supporting Autistic Children in Australia
Reflective practice with my fellow ND colleagues - ensuring guidance by Neurodivergent voices and experiences
Prioritizing autonomy
Advocacy within systems (such as schools - in service training for educational staff tailored to the students needs to create a more ND affirming environment)
Adapting tools, resources and assessments to fit individual sensory and communication needs
Strengths based - assuming competence
Individualized focus with every single person I work with
Flexibility in service delivery to allow for individualized needs
Non-ABA evidenced based practice (for further information please see the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective)