Rate My Professor Kirsty Oehlers

Kirsty Oehlers serves as a Lecturer in the School of Allied Health within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Curtin University in Perth, Western Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Curtin University, a Graduate Diploma in Child Psychotherapy, and a Master of Mental Health Science. In her academic role, Oehlers teaches courses in counselling, child and adolescent mental health, and child development as part of the social work program. She has contributed to innovative educational initiatives, including the Valuing Lived Experience Program, which embeds mental health lived experience into the social work curriculum. Additionally, Oehlers maintains a clinical practice as a child and family therapist, specializing in families engaged with Family Court processes and counselling for gender diverse young people.

Oehlers' scholarly work focuses on autoethnography and creative expression, such as poetry, to examine personal experiences in social work practice and address broader social issues. Her research specializations encompass integrating lived experience in social work education, child protection, family therapy, reflective practice, emotional learning, and decolonizing curricula through alliances with Aboriginal Elders. She has co-authored works on interprofessional education and simulations for family and domestic violence. Key publications include "Social work research: An invitation to write" (2025), "Lived experience educators challenging professional privilege in social work student supervision" (2025), "‘A home to dream love into’ – An autoethnographic analysis of mothering with mental illness" (Qualitative Social Work, 2024), "Honouring the artistry in qualitative social work research" (Qualitative Social Work, 2023), "Dust around My Heart: Teaching Child Protection from Lived Experience – An Autoethnographic Analysis" (Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 2020), "An Exploration of Social Work Students’ Experience of an Interprofessional First Year" (Advances in Social Work and Welfare Education, 2021), "Is Family Therapy Including Children?" (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 2013), "So you qualified as a social worker: Are you ready for this?" (Qualitative Social Work, 2017), and contributions to studies on participation in children with autism spectrum disorders (2015). Her publications advance qualitative approaches and the role of lived experience in enhancing social work pedagogy and practice.