Where two worlds meet: Combining
evidence-based treatment with First Nations ways of healing and being

Jamie-Lee Radburn, a Wiradjuri woman, is bringing an integrated model of healing and recovery as Practice Manager at Gandangara’s Community Healing Centre.

A pivotal moment for Jamie-Lee was on a social work placement at a healing centre in Brisbane, Gallang Place. After years working in hospitality and event management, followed by time in community mental health, she saw an approach to healing and recovery she wanted to embrace.

"This was the first time I saw how Western evidence-based practices could sit alongside Aboriginal ways of healing,” she says. “I saw how the two systems could work together to holistically support clients, in a way that was really beautiful."

Now, as Practice Manager at the new Gandangara Community Healing Centre recently opened in July 2025, Jamie Lee has adopted this integrated approach.

"In my experience, services are often siloed and people fall through the gaps or get turned away," she says. "It's exciting to work here at the Centre where people get supported with their substance use, but also with their mental health, grief and loss, housing, financial stress, disability support or health conditions. Everything happens here all in one space." 

During her placement, Jamie-Lee worked alongside practitioners who seamlessly blended evidence-based Western psychology practices, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, with traditional Aboriginal healing methods. These methods included Yarning Circles led by Elders, sand play and creative arts therapies including storytelling, music and dance, bush medicines and tending to the spirit alongside mental and physical wellbeing.

Journey to purpose

As a Wiradjuri woman born in Orange who grew up on Darkinjung Country on the Central Coast, Jamie-Lee's path to this role wasn't straightforward. She moved to Sydney at just 18 and spent a decade working in hospitality and event management, including a stint at Taronga Zoo. But something was missing.

"As great as the animals were — the free access to the zoo and Calypsos - I always felt I had a desire in me to be a social worker," she says. "I think it was there back in high school, to be honest. I just didn't follow it. I probably wasn’t ready."

The long hours, late nights and lifestyle that comes with hospitality eventually pushed her to make the change. She enrolled in a social work degree at ACAP University. "I enjoyed every class I took, and I started working as a mental health worker alongside my degree and that made it real," she says. "I felt I had found the right thing."

Her career change coincided with the NDIS rollout, and she became skilled at advocating for clients to get the best possible outcomes. After a placement stint at Gallang Place and graduating with First Class Honors, she spent the next five years at the Ted Noffs Foundation — Australia's largest provider of alcohol and other drugs addiction services to young people. Here she was both an adolescent and family counsellor, while managing programs across south-west Sydney.

"I loved working with young people, meeting them where they're at, not forcing change on them, but walking alongside them to foster resilience. Our work was in harm minimisation, making sure they knew the risks and how to keep safe and reduce their substance use at their own pace while addressing their mental health and backgrounds of trauma," she says.

Building different

During her time at Ted Noffs, Jamie Lee first encountered Gandangara Health Service, regularly bringing young clients there for support. She was immediately struck by the difference in approach.

"At Gandangara, the nurses and doctors didn't shy away from the complex nature of these young people,” she says. "They did the first aid and patched them up, while taking time to talk respectfully and therapeutically to them."

The Community Healing Centre offers individual counselling, psychology, case management and support from Aboriginal health workers and peer workers with lived experience. Group programs include cultural arts and creative expression, men's and women's business, alongside programs to prevent relapse and build harm minimisation skills. 

The centre hosts the monthly Elders’ yarn up, ensuring Elder involvement remains central to the healing process. Prescribing doctors from the health service provide addiction medicine support, while dedicated staff, including counsellors, psychologists, case managers, Aboriginal health workers and peer workers, ensure holistic care.

After years working towards this, Jamie-Lee has found a place that combines science, art and culture into healing. "It's very exciting to be involved in not just a brand-new service, but something that’s so important for the community and particularly this community," she says.