"Bright Hearts acknowledges and pays respects to Australia's First Nations Peoples, Their Ancestors and this precious and beautiful living Country which sustains and teaches us all and holds both our stories and our future.
We also acknowledge that we are imperfect allies on an intentional journey toward peace and healing.
We recognise a
"Bright Hearts acknowledges and pays respects to Australia's First Nations Peoples, Their Ancestors and this precious and beautiful living Country which sustains and teaches us all and holds both our stories and our future.
We also acknowledge that we are imperfect allies on an intentional journey toward peace and healing.
We recognise and repent for the ongoing colonial trauma experienced by many of our First Nations people and the great need for truth-telling and healing we have as a nation.
We commit our hearts and our hands to the work of reaching for this truth and healing and to breaking the negative cycles of the past for the well-being of this land's greatest and most beautiful treasure, our future generations."
BRIGHT HEARTS
Bright Hearts Program's
Conception to 3 years old
First Thousand Days Program (Conception to 2 Years)
Designed for first-time parents but open to all, this series of six online classes explores how a child’s brain develops from conception to age two. The World Health Organisation identifies the first thousand days as a critical period for lifelong health and wellbeing (World Health Organisation, 2018; Britto et al., 2017). Our program applies developmental neuroscience principles, drawing on the work of Bruce Perry and other leading experts (Perry & Szalavitz, 2017; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), to help parents understand how early experiences shape social, emotional, and functional development. Each class focuses on a key stage:
- Class 1: Preconception/conception up to birth
- Class 2: 36 weeks of gestation up until one month old
- Class 3: When the child is 5–6 months old
- Class 4: When the child is 11–12 months old
- Class 5: When the child is 17–18 months old
- Class 6: When the child is 22–24 months old, with guidance for ongoing support
Supporting healthy brain development during the critical first thousand days helps children connect with their world, learn, grow, and reach their full potential. Early intervention is also a key strategy in breaking generational cycles of illness, adversity, and mental health challenges (Centre on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2016; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).
Early Childhood Consultancy (Conception to 3 Years)
Children under three have rapidly growing brains, and every child is unique. This evidence-based consultancy supports parents to understand their child’s developmental neuroscience, interpersonal neurobiology, and the dynamics of regulation and connection between family members and the child, helping families respond to individual needs (Perry & Szalavitz, 2017; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).
Early Childhood Play Therapy (12 Months to 3 Years)
Early childhood play therapy offers tailored interventions for children aged 12 months to 3 years. Modified modalities, such as Learn to Play Therapy, can begin at 12 months and focus on skill-building and pretend play, while child-centred and filial play therapies typically start from 2 to 3 years, supporting emotional regulation and development (Perry & Szalavitz, 2017; Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000).
Age Guidelines by Play Therapy Modality
- Learn to Play Therapy: Begins at 12 months; directive, skill-building approach to teach pretend play (Stagnitti, 2014).
- Humanistic / Child-Centred Play Therapy: Begins at 2–3 years; non-directive, child-led sessions using toys as communication tools (Landreth, 2012).
- Filial Play Therapy: Begins at 3 years; relational approach where parents are trained to conduct child-centred sessions at home (Guerney, 1964).
3-12 years old
Clinical Child Play Therapy (3 to 12 Years)
Bright Hearts offers specialist Clinical Child Play Therapy for children aged 3 to 12 years. Our practice adheres to national and global best standards, with therapists holding tertiary qualifications in the primary discipline of Play Therapy and applied developmental neuroscience (AQF 9/10), supported by extensive clinical training and supervised practice.
Play Therapy at Bright Hearts is a regulated clinical mental health intervention, grounded in evidence-based practice and ongoing professional supervision. Our therapists bring advanced expertise, deep knowledge, and significant practical experience to support children’s emotional wellbeing, healthy brain development, and recovery from trauma or adversity.
Children use play—their natural means of communication—to express feelings, process experiences, and build resilience. The Play Therapist supports the child through this process, helping them make sense of their world and experiences. This approach is widely recognised as an effective intervention for trauma and emotional challenges, empowering children to regain mastery and safety (Landreth, 2012; APPTA, 2024).
Play Therapy Modalities Offered:
- Humanistic / Child-Centred Play Therapy: Non-directive, child-led sessions using toys as communication tools (Landreth, 2012).
- Learn to Play Therapy: Directive, skill-building approach to teach pretend play (Stagnitti, 2014).
- Filial Play Therapy: Relational approach where parents are trained to conduct child-centred sessions at home (Guerney, 1964).
All modalities are tailored to each child’s developmental stage and individual needs, fostering emotional wellbeing, healthy relationships, and lifelong resilience. Services are located at the Bright Hearts HQ in the Nowra CBD.
Divergent and Friends Programs (3 to 12 Years)
Divergent and Friends Programs support neurodiverse children, their families, and friends through school holiday and in-school sessions. These programs focus on understanding the neurodiverse brain in a fun, social, project-based environment. Activities are held throughout the school year, mainly at our Nowra CBD clinic, with some events at larger venues. The programs foster inclusion, social connection, and celebrate neurodiversity.
Lego Mod Squad (8 to 12 Years)
Focus:
Lego Mod Squad is a small group program for children aged 8 to 12 years. The group focuses on developing creativity, which is particularly important for neurodiverse children as it supports social connection, self-esteem, and emotional regulation.
How It Works:
Sessions run for two hours, during which children collaborate on Lego projects, gather and sort pieces, and work together to build from a library of rebrickable mods.
What Are Mods:
Mods are custom Lego builds created from existing pieces using detailed build plans. This allows children to create a wide range of imaginative projects, provided they have the right pieces. The group encourages teamwork, problem-solving, and creative play in a supportive environment.
How to Join:
To participate, please fill out a referral form and check our calendar for upcoming program dates.
3 to 12 years old
We understand that everyone has different learning needs and schedules. That's why we offer flexible learning options, including online courses, in-person classes, and hybrid programs.
Hands-On Learning
We believe that hands-on learning is the most effective way to learn. That's why we incorporate practical, real-world projects into our courses and programs to help you apply what you've learned in a meaningful way.
Career Services
We're committed to helping you achieve your career goals. Our career services team provides one-on-one support to help you prepare for job interviews, create a winning resume, and network with potential employers.
Community Engagement
We're more than just a school – we're a community. We offer a variety of opportunities to get involved, including student organizations, volunteer projects, and networking events.
The Fractal Future of the Child
Children are both the most vulnerable and vital members of the human race.
They are our past and our future; therefore, arguably, the holistic biological, psychological, and sociological well-being experienced by every child within their holistic and systemic context determines the future of humanity itself.
Keeping this in mind, too many of the systems in the world today that exist to advocate for and serve children do not resemble the image of the child they were created to uphold. Instead, they are distorted into the shape of other powerful influences, buried truths, finance and funding, red tape, compartmentalisation, disconnection, missed marks, middlemen, status, votes, opposing sides, and, perhaps, worst of all, silence.
Systems that exist to safeguard, serve, and support today's children would be wise to judge their virtue and efficacy by how much the 'big picture' of that system as a whole still resembles the shape of the smallest, most vital, and vulnerable fractal image at the inception of their heart: the individual child.
Ignoring these very real and powerful influences that often distort these systems and twist them away from their purpose isn't helpful either; ignorance will not serve or save the world.
What might well define the future of humanity is ensuring that the individuals within these systems -from those in the trenches to those in the towers- work together to keep these systems intentionally, strategically, and assertively child-centred.
Those who hold the future of the world in their fingertips and treasure it should be motivated and guided by the individual child. Anchored through and through, from the depths of the individual self, and throughout the larger systems we function within, all the way to the highest place and back again.
Our most powerful motivation must remain the art and practice of knowing and responding to the reality and lived truth of the individual child.
Chloe Webster MaCPT
Bright Hearts
At Bright Hearts, we offer an evidence-based, holistic and creative approach to child and youth wellbeing. We work with families and young people from conception through to 25 years of age.
Bright Hearts offers five interconnected services designed to support children and young people who haven't found success in conventional models of therapy.
We provide play therapy, therapeutic mentorship, and strengths-focused group work — all grounded in humanistic, child- and client-centred principles.
Our team collaborates with families, schools, and systems to support the unique growth of each young person.
MENTORSHIP WELLFORGED
PLAY THERAPY & CREATIVITY
PLAY THERAPY & CREATIVITY
PLAY THERAPY & CREATIVITY
THERAPEUTIC ANIMALS
DIVERGENT & FRIENDS
EDUCATION SUPPORTS
NDIS SUPPORT & COACHING
Vision
The Bright Hearts Vision
Bright Hearts was founded by Mark and Chloe to establish various therapeutic services that bridge the gaps in life for young people who need support around kids' mental health, well-being, and resilience.
We support young people aged 0-25 and their parents who have had adverse life experiences. This could be due to childhood trauma, disadvantage, disability, challenges in the out-of-home care system, or many other causes.
After a combined 30 years of working with young people and the complex, often compartmentalised systems that support them, Mark and Chloe saw an urgent need to provide targeted, evidence-based therapies that foster positive healing connections between young people and the people in their lives.
Each young person we work with has a team of people around them, including family, teachers, social workers, allied health practitioners, and other therapists.
No matter the young person, this group of stakeholders in their life represents the bricks, while Bright Hearts' work serves as the scaffolding and mortar.
We seek to provide therapeutic programs that adapt to each young person's needs for strength, well-being, and the breaking of negative generational cycles of trauma. Our programs are designed to build these young people up and create a stable base for their future.
About the Founders
Chloe
Chloe Webster holds a Master of Child Play Therapy (AQF Level 9) at Deakin University — Australia’s first university-accredited postgraduate qualification in play therapy. There is a significant deficit of mental health services, both in early intervention and crisis care for young people who have experienced trauma and adversity from gestation to 12 years of age, particularly in regional and rural Australia. With her skills training and years of experience, she aims to provide truly child-centred, well-evidenced therapeutic supports for young people in this demographic through Play Therapy, advocacy, and education.
She has 20 years of experience in the context of child mental health and trauma, responding to client needs, including supporting mental health following trauma, grief, and loss. In this work, Chloe places great importance on each young person's systemic context and utilises child-centred approaches. She is already working as a Registered Therapeutic Life Story Work Practitioner with TLSWi and as a Wellbeing Officer for the Department of Education, NSW.
Chloe has been passionate about using creativity and play as therapeutic tools for healing throughout her career. She has spent hundreds of hours studying and practising the science behind why this works and how to apply evidence-based, humanistic, and psychodynamic principles to the young people she supports in her therapeutic practice.
She is passionate about leading systemic change across many government and non-government systems intended to support young people, which fall short, cause harm, and perpetuate negative generational cycles. Breaking these generational cycles of trauma and hurt in her nation is why she does what she does.
Mark
Marks was saved from himself and his behaviours by Therapeutic Mentorship in a voluntary wilderness program in the late 90s. The power that one mentor had to reach him through all his anger, fear, and dangerous choices—when no one else could—has never left him. He often says that his mentor stood in the gap between where he was and the life he could have. Soon after that, he began training in youth work and outdoor recreation. He became a qualified carpenter and builder, and enjoys teaching trade skills to the young people who come through our Well Forged Mentorship program (including blacksmithing).
Throughout it all, he never stopped mentoring young men who needed his help. He practises unconditional positive regard for the youth who come to him by enacting a social-learning, humanistic approach to mentoring, meeting each young person where they are and standing in the gap for them. Mark currently works for Bight Hearts Support and our Well Forged programs as a Therapeutic Youth Mentor and is the heart and brains behind our Well Forged Youth Mentorship. Like Chloe, he has faith in Jesus, and like Jesus, he doesn't exclude or judge anyone for who they are but rather stands in the gap for them between pain and freedom.
