Our Staff

Mukul Bhatnagar – Occupational Therapist

Mukul graduated with an undergraduate in Biomedical Science and Science (Major in Human Physiology). He continued his education to complete a Master of Occupational Therapy Practice (MOTPrac) from Monash University. Since then, Mukul has been actively involved in therapy services in a range of different domains including adult rehabilitation, adult and paediatric disability, mental health and a wide variety of paediatric services including therapy in clinic, home and school settings. Mukul has also facilitated group programs at Camp Jabiru and Beyond Jabiru, Australian based camps that aim to bring a therapeutic approach to a typical camp experience.

Mukul strives to provide client and family-centred services and has a strong passion for working collaboratively with children, adolescents, adults and their families. Mukul has a diverse experience in working with children and adults living with a variety of conditions including Sensory Processing Disorders, Autism (ASD), Developmental Delay, Learning Difficulties, Down Syndrome, Physical Disabilities, Intellectual Disabilities and Mental Health Challenges. He is strongly committed to helping all clients progress therapeutically and loves to create an enjoyable and supportive environment to see them achieve success.

Mukul’s enthusiasm for learning has provided him with many opportunities to develop his practice, including:

• The Traffic Jam in My Brain – Genevieve Jereb;
• The Alert Program® for Self-Regulation – Mary Sue Williams and Sherry Shellenberger;
• Understanding the Vestibular System – Sheila Frick;
• Therapeutic Listening® Listening with the whole body – Sheila Frick and Lynette Burke;
• Eyesight to Insight- Mary Kwar and Dr Carl Hillier;
• The Healing Power of Your Hands: Craniosacral Therapy & Myofascial Release- Nancy Lawton-Shirley;
• Sensory Processing & The Brain: Using Neuroscience to support clinical reasoning – Dr Shelly Lane;
• Sensory Defensiveness, A Comprehensive Treatment Approach –Tracy Stackhouse and Julia Wilbarger;
• M.O.R.E Integrating the mouth with sensory and postural functions – Patricia Oetter and Eileen Richter;
• Decoding Autism – From understanding neurobiology to choosing intervention strategies- Kim Barthel;
• Collaborative & Proactive Solutions- Dr Ross Greene;
• Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions- Dr Eli Lebowitz
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Mukul is providing Occupational Therapy services for the clients of Australian Disability Services. This includes Functional Assessments, Home Modifications, Activities of Daily Living Training, Hand Therapy, Equipment Prescription, Standardised Paediatric Assessments and Clinic-Based Paediatric Treatment for assistance with Emotional Regulation Challenges, Concentration and Engagement, Gross Motor Skills, Fine Motor Skills, SOS Feeding and Behavioural Flexibility.

Elvan Yusuf –  SLP Team Leader / Senior Speech Pathologist

Elvan’s role as a Speech Pathologist is to support people of all abilities in being successful communicators. She provides swallowing, functional communication, speech, and language services for adolescents and adults. She takes a client-centered approach to set goals and providing therapy. She strives to reach realistic and relevant outcomes with her clients to increase their participation, independence, and overall quality of life. Communication is a fundamental human right, and everyone should have the opportunity to engage in it.

When she is not at work supporting her clients to reach their communication goals, Elvan stays connected to language through reading and creative writing.

Elvan has worked with Australian Disability Services for 3 years and has had prior experience in disability and hospital settings.

Elvan completed a Master of Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Sydney. She also has a Master of Primary Teaching and Master of Early Childhood Studies from Western Sydney University.  Elvan is a certified practicing member of Speech Pathology Australia and has specialist training in Key Word Sign, Alternative Augmentative Communication, and voice therapy.

Busra Ozer – Provisional Psychologist

Busra is one of the members of ADS and the Clinical Team. She is a nationally registered provisional psychologist and therapy assistant at ADS. Busra’s formal qualifications include Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from overseas. She has mental health experience in community including Turkey, Germany, and Australia.

Busra is motivated by her passion for helping people in need. She guides her clients to achieve their therapeutic goals and is aware of these core values. She is an active listener and is both firm and compassionate. She provides counselling and also had received Psychodrama Training from overseas and she applies Psychodrama in her sessions. She practices mindfulness and breathing techniques in her sessions as well.

Busra also bilingual – speaks in English and Turkish. Moreover, she is open to growth and development within her career. Busra has been working with ADS since late 2020. She joined our team as a therapy assistant and has worked her way through the role of a therapist, she developed her skills and experience and became a provisional psychologist.

She enjoys traveling and discover new things. She enjoys dancing and spending time with animals. She believes in the mantra that “What you can do on the stage of psychodrama, you can do in real life”.

Harika Kaynar Okell – Provisional Psychologist

Harika is one of the clinical team members of ADS. She is a nationally registered provisional psychologist and holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Turkey. Harika has experience working in mental health hospitals, rehabilitation clinics and special education centres with children in Turkey.

Harika moved from Turkey in 2017 to pursue her psychology career in Australia. She speaks both English and Turkish and can conduct sessions in both languages.

Harika enjoys working with culturally and linguistically diverse communities and gains great satisfaction in helping her clients. Harika is a warm, empathetic and pragmatic provisional psychologist. She utilises evidence-based therapies to assist her clients. Harika predominantly works with clients with depression, anxiety, panic, trauma, grief, self-esteem or addiction. She empowers her clients by working collaboratively with them to achieve their goals.

Oleander Lee – Speech Pathologist

Oleander is a certified practising speech pathologist who provides speech pathology services to people with communication and swallowing difficulties. She has previous clinical experiences in preschool, private clinic, public hospital, specialised clinics, and rehab units. She speaks fluent English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Since starting her practice at ADS in 2020, she has worked with clients with a range of diagnoses, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), intellectual disability, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) etc., to provide therapy related to speech, language, literacy, voice, fluency and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and swallowing. She is particularly passionate about literacy and speech sound disorders.

Oleander sees being able to communicate effectively as a basic human right, and she believes that everyone has the potential to communicate and interact with the others with proper support. Therefore, she enjoys using a family-centred approach to support participants and caregiver make decisions that improves their quality of life.

Outside of work, Oleander enjoys cooking, doing art and craft and curling up with a book in winter. Her favourite quote is ‘Everyone has inside him a piece of good news in him. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!’- Anne Frank, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.

Shilpi Ashti – Counselor / Behavior Support Practitioner

Shilpi is a qualified M.A in Clinical Psychology.  Shilpi is a registered counsellor level 4 with Australian Counselling Association and a registered Behaviour Support Practitioner.

Shilpi has over 12 years of experience working in the disability sector across multiple countries such as Singapore, UAE, India and now in Australia. She gained extensive experience and training in working ASD and other neuro-developmental disorders. Shilpi has extensive work experience in working with children and adults with other mental health issues. She is trained on TEACCH, PECS, Certified in neuroscience and self-regulation, art therapy and Autplay- Autism based play therapy.

Shilpi recognises how difficult and intimidating it can be to seek counselling. She is committed to providing a warm, sympathetic, and safe space for you to discuss and explore your concerns. She feels that during treatment, it is critical for you to feel valued, respected, and supported.

She employs a collaborative approach while remaining pragmatic in order to work together on taking steps towards significant change.

Zarife Algul – Counsellor

Zarife Algul has been working as a counsellor at Australian Disability Services and she is known by her kind, polite and empathetic nature, and personality in the Centre.

Zarife has completed her counselling degree at Australian College of Applied Psychology (ACAP) and her areas of strengths include working with woman who are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds. Zarife has demonstrated to have strengths in the areas of Family and Domestic Violence and working with individual who have experienced trauma.

Zarife also describes herself as being open-minded,  and having a compassionate approach in her scope of work that is Holistic to meet the needs of her clientele. She is dedicated to always upskill herself with keeping up to date with research and emerging trends of therapies.

Zarife  have worked with clients with a wide range of concerns including  relationship problems, domestic violence, depression, anxiety,  family conflicts, intimacy-related issues, parenting issues, anger management, self-esteem, negative self-talk, compassion fatigue, abandonment, attachment issues, chronic pain illness and disability, dependent personality, multicultural concerns, obsession, compulsions, post-traumatic stress, women’s issues and boundary setting.

As a counsellor Zarife is very passionate about empowering her clients and improving their quality of lives. Her hobbies include reading books, doing research and exploring nature.

Mert Ercan- Therapy Assistant

Mert Ercan has been working as a therapy assistant to conduct therapeutic related activities under the guidance of a psychologist at Australian Disability Services since 2020.  Mert has successfully completed his Undergraduate Degree in Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) from Turkey. As part of his work placement, he has undertaken role as Intern Psychologist overseas and has worked in the areas of Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorders, Dementia and other mental health conditions in government Hospitals and Clinics.  Mert has been known at ADS with his great sense of humor as well as his very empathetic attitude towards his clients and team members.

Mert has particular interest and strength in the areas of problems with addiction, substance or related disorders whom he demonstrates excellent work ethics, boundaries and professionalism. Mert is also bilingual and speaks Turkish and English. He has contributed to the wellbeing of his clients specifically while working with various scope of disabilities. He also has deep understanding of multiculturalism and demonstration of cultural competency.

His long-term goals include gaining his endorsement in the area of Clinical Psychology and focusing on further experience and upskilling himself in the areas of Drug & Alcohol, Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders. He also would like to explore further research on signs and expressions of Body Language. His hobbies and interests include scuba-diving, bike riding and exploring nature.