Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes

Our facilitator Linda Mitchell wants to help people with disability turn their dreams into reality. To do this, she challenges people at her workshops to look inside themselves as well as seek support from others.

With a background in counselling, it’s not surprising that Linda’s favourite quote comes from the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung:

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

It’s not every day one of our workshop facilitators quotes Jung!

“This quote describes what I try to do as a facilitator. I like to challenge people to look inside themselves, to find their inner passion,” Linda says.

“The new approach to disability services challenges people to say what they want in their life, what a good life is for them. But it’s not always easy to answer the question ‘What do you want from your life?’”

“In my workshops I hope to help people look into their own heart to understand what they really want. Once they do that, they can set their goals and work toward them through the NDIS.”

Nurturing, not nursing

For 11 years Linda worked at Cerebral Palsy Alliance running leisure and recreation groups for young people with disability. She found it very rewarding seeing these young people grow in confidence and become more social as they took part in fun activities with their peers – activities such as arts, crafts , sightseeing and social skills.

But it was her time as a support worker at a group home that inspired her to join Council for Intellectual Disability (CID). She felt the home focussed too much on treating people as patients. Linda wanted to help nurture, not nurse, the people in the group home.

Linda brings this nurturing philosophy to everything she does at CID.

She loves to see the change in people who attend her Get More Skills workshops. “After the workshop, people are visibly more energised. They say ‘I didn’t know that. I’m going to do something about that,’” she says.

“That’s how disability support should be – not just providing information, but energising people and helping them take control of their future.”

We’re thrilled that Linda has joined the CID team. Please join us in welcoming her.

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