After 15 years working in leadership roles in the education and human service sectors, Brian undertook advanced counsellor training in the USA. He completed his doctorate in counselling and mental health at the College of Health and Human Services, University of Toledo, Ohio in 2000, where he researched readiness for change in court-mandated male perpetrators of domestic violence.

While in the USA, Brian also trained in the Duluth Model of Domestic Violence Intervention. He has worked intensively with court-ordered men using the Duluth program. Brian was instrumental in designing and developing the Master of Counselling Program at the University of Queensland, where he coordinated a course in Violence Issues in Counselling. He has also provided training for professionals in Domestic Violence Intervention Programs for men who perpetrate intimate partner violence, and with communities organising collaborative community responses to domestic violence.

He has regularly presented at Queensland Police Domestic Violence Liaison Officers (DVLO) training. He has trained Probation and Parole Offices of Queensland Corrective Services annually since 2003. He has completed a review of the Queensland Police Service First Year Constables Domestic Violence Intervention Training Package.  He has worked at YFS, Logan, as the practice manager of 5 men’s domestic violence intervention groups per week. He supervised facilitators of the Men’s program, women’s counsellors and women’s advocates in the Domestic and Family Violence Program at YFS, Logan. He has written a men’s domestic violence intervention program. Brian has been consulted by government. He is also on the Board of the Red Rose Foundation.

His understanding of DV is not only as gendered pattern of coercive violence, but as an ongoing criminal justice issue, and a public health and human rights issue where the safety, freedom, and the dignity of women and children are under threat. His research interests include accountability in the domestic violence sector, effectiveness of collaborative community approaches to domestic violence intervention, identifying and managing unintended consequences of dfv interventions, and working with men for change. He began work as Senior Lecturer, Head of Course for the Domestic and Family Violence Practice Program at Central Queensland University in June 2019.