Welcome to our website. You can read about my professional qualifications and experience below. Personally speaking, growing in compassion is where it is at for me. It is so great to be doing this work with people who inspire us every day with your abilities and capacities to grow, heal, change, and to live your dreams with courage.
Director, Senior Clinical Behaviour Specialist Counsellor Psychotherapist
Hon Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers formal qualifications include,
PhD Health Counselling Psychotherapy,
DD Clay Art Therapy,
Honorary DD Spirituality,
MEd Counselling Psychotherapy,
Graduate Certificate Higher Education,
Diploma Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and Counselling,
Certified Practitioner Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy,
Bachelor of Arts Spirituality and Philosophy with Distinction.
Dr Bowers is a Member and Senior Fellow Candidate of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine. He is an Associate Scholar of the Centre for World Indigenous Studies (USA).
Dr Bowers is an Invited Special Collection Scholar with the Mi’kmaq Resource Centre Cape Breton University (Canada), and the Tepi’ketuek Mi’kmaw Archives (Canada).
Dr Bowers an Honorary (Hon) of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA). Joseph was awarded Honorary status in recognition of extensive work to support the foundation of the Counselling profession in Australia, as well as in creating and managing the co-founding of the ‘Counselling, Psychotherapy, and Health Journal (CPHJ)’ with Dr Philip Armstrong, CEO of ACA. CPHJ and renamed the Australian Counselling Research Journal was the first open access international research journal within the Counselling profession in Australia, and it is still going strong with robust innovative vision among its editorial board.
Dr Bowers is among the founding members of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia. Dr Bowers was in past tasked with writing standards for counselling practice and training in Australia, has contributed to the development of ethical frameworks, and has maintained a voice in advancing standards of treatment for GLBTI2S and Aboriginal communities. His doctoral research advanced the training and practice for counselling with minority populations along with knowledge of the mechanisms of prejudice and homophobia within therapy and in social relationships.
Hon Rev Dr Bowers maintains a lifelong practice of spirituality in mindfulness and contemplative and eremitic, solitary life. Joseph Randolph is an Ordained Minister and Registered Marriage Celebrant in NSW, and affiliates with Christ Our Hope Community. Joseph is a founding member of the Eremitas Familia Minima (EFM) or the Minims.
For ongoing professional development, Dr Bowers recently completed postdoctoral studies in clay art therapy, and he is currently studying courses toward a Senior Fellow with the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine.
Publications
Joseph Randolph is an author of over 250 works with contributions to the professional literature.
Clay Art Therapy and Spirituality, published during 2023.
He is an author of The Practice of Counselling which is the first comprehensive counselling text book in Australasia.
Sacred Teachings from the Medicine Lodge, a book exploring Mi’kmaq First Nation traditional medicine that is based on an invited editorial that Dr Bowers wrote for the regional periodical Mi’kmaq First Nations News.
Mi’kmaq Puoinaq Two Spirit Medicine with contribution from the acclaimed author and historian Mi’kmaq Elder Dr Daniel N. Paul.
Solitude Awakens: The Heart Forest Mountain Way, a project written during Covid-19 to reflect on the deeper meanings of social isolation, and the practice of personal meaning making and spirituality as a way of life.
The Book of the Minims contains a life-long project to articulate personal spirituality as a way to make meaning in everyday practice. The book is written to inspire and instruct on ways that people can write their own ‘form of life.’ As such, the book comes from a long western and eastern mystical and therapeutic tradition of self-creation and independent adult-directed spirituality.
The Mass of Creation is produced in a soft cover ‘pew edition’ and a hard cover ‘altar edition.’ The book contains a poetic First Nation and Mi’kmaw inspired expression of the liturgy of the mass. The book is inspired by an organic independent adult-directed spirituality of ecology and social justice.
The book also contains a range of other rituals as well as dedication and consecration ceremonies. Dr Bowers also includes his inspiring and original translations of the Lord’s Prayer and St Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Sun.
Western Desert is a book of poetry published during 2023. This volume contains a collection of two prior published books of poetry composed during the early 1990s with a few newer poems to round out the collection.
Stardust Awakens: From Social Isolation to Finding Your Purpose and Destiny, is a beautiful book that we have enjoyed over the years. The book is a guidebook for the soul.
‘Learn to develop your spiritual strengths. Activate your experiential learning. Integrate your knowledge into practice. An experiential eightfold path follows the sacred wisdom of native and western mysticism. Learn hidden secrets of personal potential and spiritual power.’
Go to our Books Page for more information and links to buy selected books from an online retailer.
In Telehealth/Online Counselling Psychotherapy
Dr Bowers expertise includes working with complex cases in disability and mental health areas, and in dual and multiple diagnoses. He is well regarded in Person Centred and Strength Based Solution Focused Psychotherapy, often working with cases of severe disability in collaboration with parents and service providers. He comes with advanced training and/or experience in clinical observation and intervention methods including with Neuro Linguistic Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy, Lifestyle Medicine, and advanced Case Review and Planning.
Since the 1990s, Dr Bowers has worked in the areas of trauma, traumatic memories, loss and grief, phobias, intense emotional reactions, stress and anxiety, pain management, and other chronic conditions that can be assisted with psychotherapy including with Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Psychotherapy.
As an Educational Specialist Dr Bowers has trained Counselling Psychotherapists for over twenty years in the higher education sector and workplace training environments. As a Senior Behaviour Support Specialist in (Dis)Ability and Mental Health Dr Bowers supports people in everyday concerns and with complex issues.
Services include a wide range of areas depending on the need at hand, and clients often transit between several areas,
- Assessment and Support Planning
- Behaviour Support Plans
- Incident Prevention and Response Plans
- Case Review and Quality Assessment
- Review of Support Systems with Recommendations
- Capacity Building and Skills Development
- Counselling for social and emotional support and capacity building
- Psychotherapy (more solution focused interventions than Counselling)
- Clay and Art Therapies, Symbol Work, Narrative Therapy for capacity and skill building
- Identity Formation and Personal Growth and Development
- Deeper work in Person-Centred Spirituality as Meaning-Making with Belief and Values Clarification
As a Specialist in Human Development, Relationships, Couples, and Family, Sexuality and Gender, Dr Bowers has
- Worked with all types of couples and families across a wide range of issues across the spectrum of early, middle, and late relationship concerns
- Assisted individuals and couples addressing issues in sex, sexuality, and intimacy
- Helped men in dealing with emotional intelligence issues and gaining communication and empathic skills, and in dealing with anger, aggression, and stress management
- Worked with women in recovery from domestic, family, and relationship violence and abuse with emphasis on trauma recovery, healing, and empowerment
- Counselling support for dealing with sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, and within the context of relationships,
- Supported GLBTI2S people in building positive identity, resilience, and empowerment including with sexuality and gender identity,
- Supported GLBTI couples, relationships, and families, and
- Assisted in counselling support among people who identify with transgender and transsexual experiences
As a Trauma Specialist, Dr Bowers has
- Helped in recovery among war veterans,
- Assisted women recovering from family violence and relationship abuse and trauma,
- Supported GLBTI2S people in dealing with homophobia, family rejection, church and community rejection and abuse, and related social pressures,
- Worked with individuals with disabilities and mental health issues, their families and carers, in developing safe spaces and recovery oriented approaches
- Developed methods for trauma informed and creative arts therapies with people with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism
- Engaged with individuals recovering from systemic/organisational and church based abuse and trauma associated with childhood sexual abuse and/or gender based discrimination
- Worked with men in recovery from identity and anger issues, men who are returning from war and working through post-conflict situations, among men facing sexuality and identity concerns, and with men who are in search of their inner fire and needing to connect with emotion and to grow in emotional intelligence
As a Lecturer and Scholar, since the 1990s, Dr Bowers has served in Senior Lecturer leadership roles with the University of New England, Charles Sturt University, University of the Sunshine Coast, all in Australia, and Assistant Professor leadership roles with Cape Breton University in Canada. From 2008 to 2018, Dr Bowers assisted as an Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities in Indigenous Studies at the University of New England in Australia.
– Dr Joseph Randolph Bowers“Working as a senior teacher and trainer in the academe was awesome, and it is even more exciting now to teach again with Ability Academe Australia. The dream is lifelong to share learning in a direct and practical application that fits people’s lives, is accessible, and flexible. To match this learning to therapy with positive outcomes like skill building, capability mastery, and goal achievement is just incredible and so worthwhile. We are part of the new and emerging global capability academy arising from the professional sector and driven by non-accredited flexibility and the cost effective needs of real life.”
The ATS Story
Tracking the song-lines and story-trails of ATS Pty Ltd, from 2012 Dr Bowers worked in specialist behaviour support with the NSW FACS ADHC, As the NDIS began to roll out, from about 2014, Dr Bowers worked toward establishing an independent clinical practice in Armidale and the New England region of NSW.
2018, the company Ability Therapy Specialists Pty Ltd was created. During 2018, the company underwent the first NDIS external quality audit.
2019, ATS Pty Ltd received renewed NDIS Certification and Registration.
2020, we founded Ability Academy Australia – A College of Integral Therapy. We began the long road of developing and having programs reviewed and made ready to launch.
2021, and during Covid-19, we engaged Telehealth across all of our services and with an expanded client base in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, ACT, South Australia, and Tasmania.
2022 saw us make overt plans to draw together resources and sacred medicines for working with clay art therapy via Telehealth and setting up a clay and pottery studio in ceramic arts.
2023 we launched the first program, a Diploma in Integral Behaviour Support with our new website for Ability Academy Australia – A College of Integral Therapy.
2023 our NDIS external audit found that our company had excelled in policy and practice and exemplified highly professional work in our fields of practice, and they commended us for exceptional dedication to ongoing professional development.