Richard Araya Bishop (BA MTh, Grad Dip Psych, MCRC) is a clinical member of the Australian Association of Family Therapy (AAFT), a clinical PACFA registrant, and has a background in Psychotherapy, Psychology, and Family Therapy with extensive experience spanning more than thirty years within the community service sector. Over time, Richard has worked directly with families as well as providing leadership, supervision and mentoring to multidisciplinary teams across not-for-profit and non-government organisations. During this time, he has acted in senior leadership roles overseeing the planning, delivery, and evaluation of evidence-based services to support vulnerable families in WA, VIC, and most recently with OzChild in NSW and ACT including the Director of Services role.
Since the Their Futures Matter (TFM) reform in 2017 by the Department of Communities and Justice (DCJ), Richard has been directly involved in the implementation of FFT-CW and MST-CAN models. He is currently a Child and
Family Services Manager for five OzChild teams in Sydney, and he supports the work of these teams across South-West and West Sydney districts. In this manager role, Richard supported the operational elements of OzChild induction of services in NSW, focusing on developing strong stakeholders’ relationships, ensuring implementation of evidence-based models with high fidelity, are child-centred, family-focused, trauma-informed, and are culturally sensitive, promoting self-determination when working with first nations families.
Richard’s clinical and leadership skills have provided him with a unique approach, blending clinical knowledge with curious and empathic leadership to harness the best outcomes for his teams when working with vulnerable families. Originally from South America, Richard is the proud father of five grown-up children and the grandfather of eight grandchildren.