Written by Danielle Alosi
Christabel Chamarette, a clinical psychologist and former Greens Senator has dedicated her life to helping and supporting people involved in radical issues that are often condemned by our modern society.
It’s a sunny winter’s day and Christbel Chamarette is sitting in the corner of a busy Fremantle cafe. Her face is illuminated by the warm sunshine.
“I was always fascinated by the raw humanity and the emotions of people need to be listened to, not necessarly reacted to or reacted against and so deep listening is quite a beautiful activity,” she smiles.
“It does hook you in but if you are going to help you know there has to be a reasonable space between the pain you are observing and what you hope to bring,” she says.
Christabel has been a clinical psychologist for the past 30 years.
She has been an informative voice in the community through her work in politics and various organisations, most notably Safecare which helped the victims and offenders of child sex abuse.
India born
At the time of Christabel’s birth in 1948, her French and English parents were living in Hyderabad, India.
Following an increase in social unrest during Independence, they decided to move to Perth. Christabel was three years old.
After completing her schooling at Perth College in Mt Lawley, Christabel studied clinical psychology at the University of Western Australia.
“Well originally I wanted to study journalism when I first began university so I took some philosophy and phsycology units to broaden my idea of the industry...
"But then I became fascinated by pyschology and I was very interested in working out why people became mentally ill and what could be done to help them,” she says.
Maximum security prison work
After completing her degree, Christabel was funded by the prison system to complete her masters in clinical pyschology.
“Funnily enough they said... how would you feel about working in a prison. I said... ‘I’d feel fine about that because I have a feeling there are as many mentally ill in prisons as there are in hospitals’,” she says.
“So they paid for me to do my masters and then be bonded to them at the prison.”
After six years at university, nothing could not prepare Christabel for what she was about to experience as a 23 year old psychologist in a men’s maximum security prison.
“It was pretty daunting as you can imagine,” she laughs.
“I wasn't received very popularly by the staff.
“They didn’t want me in the prison system at all and so a young 23 year old psychologist wasn’t very favoured in their view,” she says.
“The prisoners were initally suspicious of me but they soon realised I couldn’t be someone important because I wasn’t respected by the system,” she laughs.
Trust
After working for some time Christabel soon formed relationships with the prisoners, who begun to trust her with their life stories, often referring other inmates who had more serious problems.
“I got to know people and their life story and when I discovered how many of them had serious issues that had stemmed from their childhood.
“So that taught me far more than I had learned in my six years at university,” she says.
“I was fortunate to get the grounding of the university studies but really when you do the work that's when you see the patterns in peoples lives.
“Every story is unique and different but you certaintly see the patterns that lead to the disfunction and the problems,” she says.
After working and learning in this environment for several years, Christabel says she became radicalised by the prison system.
Prison reform
She then began to focus her attention towards prison reform and founded organisations such as The Christian Justice Association and the Aboriginal Driver Training Program.
“I was very interested in prison reform right from the beginning. I could see how useless it was to lock people up.
“If you wanted to protect society or help society then there needs to be an alternative solution,” she says.
After working in the prison system for 10 years, Christabel then branched out into private practice, specialising in those who were affected by child sex abuse.
As she became immersed in this environment she began to see a pattern of women who were adult survivors of child sex abuse.
It was here that Christabel was able to apply the knowledge from all she had learnt in her years of working with men.
Safecare
In 1989 Christabel co-founded the organisation Safecare, which provides treatment to those who voluntarily admit they need help.
“I think we should give help to people who put up their hand and have the courage to admit they have a problem and want to stop hurting children.
“We should be helping them no question,” she says.
Colleague Phillip Draper, who has worked with Christabel for 10 years describes her as ‘a treasure to the community’.
“Having known Christabel for many years, I can honestly say that she is a truly rare and wonderful worker in the community,” he says.
“Her work with child sex offenders and victims is second to none."
In the first year Safecare had 80 men participate in a two year treatment program that were devised specifically for themselves and their families to keep children safe from any further offending.
The program ran for 20 years and treated more than 700 hundred families.
“It was a very rare, innovative and beautiful thing and since its closure I think more people have recognised the work it did than when it was operating," she says.
“We were working for the positive.
“It’s really an idea far before its time.
“It was always very controversial, a difficult idea for people to grasp.
“When you look at it logically the delivering of help when a person is motivated to change is going to protect far more children than locking them up and throwing away the key,” she says.
Political venture
During this time Christbel also became heavily involved in politics as a senator for the Greens Party of Western Australia.
She was elected after the former Greens senator Jo Vallentine resigned mid term.
The following year when Christabel was re-elected along with another Greens senator she held the balance of power in the federal government from 1992 to 1996.
“It was amazing and very very exhausting,” she laughs.
“All the things we were saying then were regarded as ludicrous but now totally main stream like greenhouse gases and climate change.
“It’s gratifying in one respect that now it’s main stream but it’s also not gratifying that we have done nothing about it... so yeah we got a lot of flack,” she says.
After the Greens Party went national in 1996, Christabel quit politics and focusse on her work as a psychologist.
“It was a wonderful four years and when I was there I thought it was the most important thing I was going to do in my life because it was pretty groundbreaking but now I don’t think it was,” she recalls.
“I think it was a useful and interesting time but this work on the prevention and protection of child sex abuse is my real life’s work.
“I am interested now in handing out anything I have learnt to other people.
“I know that I can bring about the changes I long to see and I want to be as much a part of that as I can,” she smiles.
“And that, I feel, is probably the most important thing I'm going to do with the rest of my life.”
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