Our Team

Murray Ashby 
​Murray has over 20 years management experience specialising in employee wellbeing and the supervision of employee misconduct investigations. He has held Wellbeing Manager roles in an organisation of over two thousand employees. Murray has also established workplace conflict investigation guidelines for a large government organisation and has also created a number of executive coaching programs around the management of misconduct following investigation outcomes.

​He holds a Master Psychology, Bachelor Psychology (Honours), Graduate Diploma (Psychology) and Bachelor Arts (Monash) and is currently registered as a psychologist with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Authority: Psychologists Board of Australia.

Murray is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society, Sports Medicine Australia, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the Australasian Trauma Society. He is also a registered provider with Medicare, Work Safe Victoria, Traffic Accident Commission and most private health insurance funds. He currently holds the position of Treasurer for the Military and Emergency Services Interest Group at the Australian Psychological Society.

He has been awarded a Churchill Fellowship, where he travelled internationally to study advances in policing methods involving people in crisis whilst affected by mental health issues. Recommendations from the fellowship were subsequently implemented in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. 

Murray has a specific interest in providing psychological interventions for people exposed to trauma particularly related to military, emergency services and the teaching professions. The primary therapeutic modality used by Murray for the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is trauma focussed cognitive behavioural therapy and exposure therapy combined with an individualised exercise program supervised by either exercise physiologists or personal trainers. Murray’s other interests include weight management utilising psychological interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy combined with individualised exercise programs supervised by exercise physiologists and personal trainers. Murray’s thesis for both his Psychology (Honours) and Master of Psychology focussed on the interconnections between weight management, exercise programming and psychological therapy.

It is clear that Murray has an interest in the "Mind and Body" connection and to enhance his skills and knowledge, he recently attended Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA where he studied Mind Body Medicine course. Murray has also worked with AFL Victoria in relation to coaching managers in the management of workplace conflict issues. This work has also involved a number of workshop presentations to senior stakeholders within AFL Victoria.

Whilst Murray reviews and determines the most appropriate modality for treatment, he understands that each client brings different life experiences to the sessions and as such Brave Health Group integrates supplementary interventions such as Art Therapy, Sensory and Somatic Body Movement Therapy and other appropriate interventions when necessary.
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​Rita Ashby 
Rita has over 20 years experience in managing and investigating serious sexual abuse offending and has also managed a number of "Elderly At Risk" safety programs. Throughout the last 10 years Rita has focused on guiding clients to define and achieve their individual successes particularly around weight related issues.

Rita holds a Bachelor Health Science (Nutrition), Diploma (Fitness) and Diploma (Counselling) and is currently a Nutritionist and registered Personal Trainer. Rita is also a full member of Fitness Australia and Nutrition Australia. She has previously worked at Fernwood Fitness as both a Nutritionist and Personal Trainer.​

Rita has a specific interest in the relationship between exercise, nutrition and mental health including Depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Rita has regularly developed exercise programs in consultation with psychologists and other health practitioners and has an emphasis on developing safe and encouraging programs, which enhance learning from exercise that can be mirrored in day-to-day life experiences.
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The nutritional benefit of healthy eating is often under estimated in the management of mental health and Rita provides a wealth of experience in delivering good nutrition in a practical way that integrates well with busy lives. Rita has regularly been involved in cooking demonstrations to improve healthy cooking options in a practical and simple way. Rita is responsible for the management and supervision of Brave Nutrition, which provides a small selection of ready-made foods, that are matched to the clients psychological and health needs.

Team Employees
We also have a great team of health professionals including psychologists, occupational therapists, exercise physiologists and qualified nutritionists who have been individually selected who also understand the rigours of emergency services work and who also show a deep sense of compassion to our clients who are either struggling with trauma or weight regulation issues.