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Rainbow Muse began as a space rooted in creative care, embodiment, and relational depth. A practice shaped by art, play, identity, and neuroaffirming ways of being. Over time, this clinical and community work expanded into broader systems engagement, consulting, and program development, alongside research, teaching, and leadership across diverse contexts.
Chenai Mupotsa-Russell is a Developmental Educator, Therapist and PhD Researcher in Community Psychology with extensive experience working across disability, mental health, education, migration, justice, and community systems
Her work is grounded in over a decade of frontline practice and program leadership, spanning clinical therapy, developmental education, community-based programs, youth participation, and cross-sector collaboration. This includes work within national early intervention models, local government, NGOs, and international contexts.
Chenai’s approach integrates developmental theory, relational practice, and lived experience, with a strong commitment to ethical care, accessibility, and meaningful participation. She works across the lifespan with children, adolescents, adults, families, and communities whose lives are shaped by neurodivergence, disability, migration, trauma, identity, and systemic exclusion.
Chenai’s practice is relational, developmentally informed, and grounded in real-world functioning. She works alongside people rather than on them, prioritising safety, consent, dignity, and agency. Her work draws on:
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developmental education and functional participation frameworks
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arts-based, play-based, and embodied methodologies used as tools rather than endpoints
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trauma-aware and neuroaffirming practice
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family-inclusive and community-connected approaches
This way of working is particularly supportive for individuals and families who have not found traditional, talk-based or deficit-focused models helpful or accessible.
Within Rainbow Muse, Chenai offers therapeutic and developmental support for individuals and families, alongside consultation with schools and services.
This work may include:
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developmental education and functional capacity support
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support for emotional regulation, communication, identity, and participation
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neuroaffirming and disability-inclusive practice across the lifespan
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early childhood, family-inclusive, and caregiver-centred approaches
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school-based consultation and support for children and young people experiencing distress, disengagement, or exclusion
Consulting, Speaking & Creative Collaborations
For the dreamers, the disrupters, and the ones doing things differently.
Chenai offers consulting, speaking, and program development at the intersection of mental health, education, human rights, and community wellbeing. Her work is grounded in the principles of developmental education, healing justice, and culturally responsive practice, with deep expertise supporting neurodivergent and marginalised communities.
She brings a rare blend of frontline clinical experience, systems insight, and lived expertise to her consulting partnerships. Whether designing programs, contributing to policy, or facilitating learning spaces, she centres relational ethics, epistemic justice, and meaningful impact.
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She has collaborated both locally and internationally, supporting global teams and grassroots initiatives in education, disability inclusion, youth empowerment, and creative mental health care. Her work has brought her alongside therapists, educators, policymakers, health workers, artists, and community leaders. People building things that don’t fit neatly in boxes. From regional schools to refugee camps, from government panels to community collectives, she has seen how creativity and care can make space where systems fall short.
She brings her clinical training, community psychology research, and years in the sector. But also her questions. Her awkwardness. Her refusal to perform certainty or pretend to have it all figured out. She is not here to lecture. She is here to sit with complexity, support people doing brave things, and build community where the cracks are.
She is committed to decolonising care, intersectionality, and justice. Her work is shaped by an understanding of land dispossession, structural inequality, and the need to centre those most impacted. She also holds space for sensory justice, gender freedom, and the many ways art and play help us hold what is too big for words. Her offerings are never one-size-fits-all. Every collaboration is tailored, responsive, and grounded in real relationship.
Every partnership is built with care. Not off the shelf.
Clinical and Developmental Practice
Within Rainbow Muse Studio, Chenai offers therapeutic and developmental support for individuals and families, alongside consultation with schools and services.
This work may include:
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developmental education and functional capacity support
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support for emotional regulation, communication, identity, and participation
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neuroaffirming and disability-inclusive practice across the lifespan
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early childhood, family-inclusive, and caregiver-centred approaches
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school-based consultation and support for children and young people experiencing distress, disengagement, or exclusion
Creative Practice and Meaning-Making
Art, play, and creative processes are central to how Chenai understands learning, healing, and development. These practices are not used as aesthetic outcomes, but as ways of supporting expression, regulation, connection, and shared meaning-making.
This approach is informed by:
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arts-based inquiry and research
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community psychology and participatory practice
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lived experience and relational knowledge
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doctoral research exploring meaning-making as healing justice
Creative practice is integrated into therapy, developmental education, community programs, and consulting work where it supports engagement, inclusion, and depth.
My Consulting Work in Practice
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Conference presentations, workshops, and panel conversations across health, education, disability, and social justice sectors
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Design and delivery of reflective education grounded in lived experience, critical theory, and systems-thinking
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Development and co-creation of inclusive programs, services, and frameworks that promote equitable access, participation, and capacity-building
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Supervision, mentoring, and advisory for practitioners, advocates, and organisations working toward social impact
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Technical consultation and community-based collaboration on issues of developmental inclusion, disability rights, and mental health equity
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Support for international development initiatives aligned with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Consulting, Speaking and Collaborative Work
Alongside direct practice, Chenai works in consulting, training, and collaborative roles with organisations, services, and communities.
This work includes:
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program and curriculum development
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workforce development and reflective practice
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youth participation and co-design
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disability-inclusive and neuroaffirming practice development
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safeguarding, ethics, and relational governance
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facilitation of dialogue across professional, cultural, and community contexts
Engagements may take the form of workshops, training, advisory roles, program co-design, supervision, conference presentations, or longer-term collaborations.
Chenai’s consulting and systems-focused work is described in more detail under Rainbow Muse Consulting, which sits alongside, but distinct from, clinical and developmental practice.
Research, Teaching and Sector Contribution
Chenai is a PhD candidate whose research explores meaning-making, affirming practices, and relational approaches to healing and justice. Her work contributes to ongoing conversations across disability, mental health, community psychology, and education.
She regularly contributes to:
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practitioner education and supervision
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student placements and mentoring
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professional development and sector dialogue
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research-informed practice and reflective inquiry
This engagement reflects a commitment to remaining accountable, current, and connected within the fields she works in.
How I Work
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Creative, relational, neuroaffirming, and culturally responsive
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Grounded in principles of developmental education: person-centred, participatory, and strengths-based
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Guided by radical love, cultural humility, and intersectional justice
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Informed by community psychology, liberation frameworks, and trauma-aware practice
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Centring care, dignity, and sustainability over compliance, output, or performance
Previous Work Experience
Before founding Rainbow Muse, she worked across a range of roles in the mental health, community, and education sectors. Her practice draws from over 15 years of experience supporting young people, families, and communities at the intersections of trauma, neurodivergence, displacement, disability, and systemic exclusion.
Her previous roles have included:
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Youth Mental Health and Community Engagement at headspace, where she combined therapeutic practice with group program development, student supervision, and accessibility initiatives focused on LGBTIQ+ and migrant young people.
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Family Dispute Resolution, Community Liaison, and Equity Strategy at Relationships Australia Victoria, where she worked at the intersection of family law, gender-based violence, and access to justice for culturally diverse, migrant, and LGBTIQ+ communities.
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Youth Justice Diversion and Early Intervention at YSAS, delivering relationship-based outreach and case coordination for young people experiencing multiple layers of exclusion, including contact with police, school disengagement, mental health distress, and family instability.
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Settlement Support and Refugee Youth Programming at The Brotherhood of St Laurence, designing and delivering programs for young people and families navigating migration stress, insecure visa status, disrupted education, and systemic barriers to safety and participation.
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Local Government Youth Services, where she led youth engagement, co-design initiatives, and wellbeing programs that linked policy with grassroots support. This included targeted inclusion work with LGBTIQ+ and culturally diverse young people, and leadership of youth reference groups contributing to council strategies.
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Remote Community-Based Programs in East Arnhem Land and the Tiwi Islands, where she worked alongside Aboriginal communities delivering family support, school re-engagement, and parenting programs grounded in respect, trust-building, and cultural responsiveness. Her work here was often conducted in low-resource settings and involved fly-in/fly-out models of relational care.
Across all of these roles, she has contributed to program and curriculum development, early childhood and child development support, youth social development, family strengthening, clinical service delivery, and cross sector collaboration. Her practice has supported children and young people across key developmental stages, from early childhood through adolescence, within both therapeutic and community based settings. She also brings experience in GBV prevention, family law and mediation contexts, and culturally responsive service design, particularly with families navigating complex needs and systemic barriers. Her work is grounded in a commitment to developmental equity, trauma aware care, and sustainable, community led approaches that prioritise safety, dignity, and growth across the lifespan.
She now integrates this background into her consulting work and PhD research in Community Psychology and Developmental Education, where she continues to centre lived experience, creative practice, and systems-level change.
Tertiary QUalifications
PhD (Community Psychology), 2022 ongoing - Dissertation Working Title: "Everyone is a Rainbow: Re-imagining and Re-structuring Normativities through the Lenses of Decolonial Practice, Collective Care, and Social Justice"
Masters in Therapeutic Arts Practice (Therapy), 2018 - Thesis Title: “Look at All the Rainbows: My Journey through the Implementation of a Therapeutic Arts Program in a Youth Mental Health Setting”
Graduate Diploma in Family Dispute Resolution, 2013
Bachelor of Applied Science, (Disability Studies)
Bachelor of Arts (International Studies) 2007
Professional Development
She has undertaken extensive professional development across a range of modalities relevant to child development, trauma-informed care, neurodivergence, mental health, and creative therapies. Her training spans areas such as trauma-sensitive and somatic approaches, play and expressive therapies, emotion-focused parenting, autism assessment frameworks, neuroaffirming practice, behaviour support, yoga and movement-based interventions, mindfulness-based psychotherapy, and youth mental health and suicide prevention. This ongoing learning supports her commitment to relational, embodied, and developmentally responsive practice across diverse settings and communities.
registrations and memberships
Developmental Educators Australia Inc. (DEAI) – Practising Member
Australian, New Zealand and Asian Creative Arts Therapies Association (ANZACATA) – Professional Member
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) – Registered Provider for Therapeutic Support and Innovative Community Participation
The Australasian Society for Autism Research (ASFAR) – Autistic Researcher
The Australian Professional Association for Trans Health (AusPATH) – Practising Member
The Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) – Community Psychology Division, American Psychological Association
Victorian Association for Dispute Resolution (VADR) – Member, Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner
Yoga Alliance - Registered Yoga Teacher RYT200
past collaborations
