Peter Hanna

Background

About Peter Hanna

It’s interesting looking back on the journey that’s brought me to this point. It began over 30 years ago when I first started travelling to countries in the Third World, and started to see the stark reality of how the other half lives, or at least tries to. Fast forward to when I started volunteering and found myself mentoring some of the traumatised from the many waves of Iraqi boat people who’d found their way to Adelaide. Meeting these people, and then meeting others in their networks, solidified in me the need to do more. Life then detoured and I found myself working as a pastoral carer for international students, which I did until 2010. While the circumstances that brought these students to Adelaide differed from those of the refugees, ironically some of the issues they suffered were very similar… depression, anxiety, anger, isolation, even issues such as family dysfunction and sexual identity. In many ways I’ve been fortunate that my previous careers in both the media and as a pastoral carer have shown me that to successfully communicate with people on their level, regardless of age, faith or ethnicity, academic ability, social standing, is absolutely imperative. It goes a long way to helping establish trust. The best support I could offer then was letting each person know there was someone who would listen with discretion and a sincere desire to help, without prejudice or judgment, and who was considerate of culture and faith. It was when the Language Centre closed that I decided to build on my years of knowledge and experience gained at the coal face, and earn a degree in counselling, specialising in multicultural counselling. I achieved my Bachelor of Counselling in 2015. My objective remain the same: to re-empower people to find ways that allow them to fulfil their fullest potential.