Clinical Director
Stick & Stone Counselling Services
Marie Vickirama is a compassionate counsellor, clinical leader, and Clinical Director at Stick & Stone Counselling Services. With more than 18 years of experience in the mental health field, Marie has dedicated her career to supporting youth, adults, and families through counselling, rehabilitation, recovery, and community reintegration services. She is deeply committed to creating therapeutic spaces where individuals feel respected, supported, and empowered in their healing journey.
Marie brings extensive international and cross-cultural experience to her work, having lived and worked in Singapore and Australia throughout her professional career. These experiences have shaped her deep appreciation for the unique lived experiences, values, and perspectives individuals carry from diverse racial, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. She is known for her warm, collaborative, and person-centred approach, fostering therapeutic relationships grounded in empathy, cultural sensitivity, and trust.
Her clinical work is rooted in the belief that every individual possesses inherent strengths, resilience, and the capacity for growth and recovery. Marie strives to create a safe, respectful, and non-judgmental environment where people feel heard, valued, and supported as they navigate emotional, psychological, behavioural, relational, and life challenges. Her approach is tailored to the unique needs and goals of each individual, integrating evidence-informed practices with compassion and practical support.
Marie holds a Master’s degree in Counselling and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She is a Canadian Certified Counsellor (CCC) with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association and is also a Registered Counsellor with the Singapore Association for Counselling, reflecting her strong commitment to ethical, professional, and culturally responsive care.
For more than 15 years, Marie served as a Clinical Manager and Senior Rehabilitation Counsellor within a prominent mental health organization in Singapore, where she played a key leadership role in a day rehabilitation facility supporting individuals living with mental health conditions and psychosocial challenges. In this role, she led and supervised multidisciplinary teams, coordinated therapeutic and rehabilitation programming, and supported individuals in developing greater independence, emotional wellbeing, social functioning, and successful community integration.
Her experience includes extensive collaboration with psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, and allied health professionals to provide integrated and client-centred care. For over 10 years, she participated in multidisciplinary psychiatric hospital team meetings focused on case consultation, discharge planning, rehabilitation support, and continuity of care within community settings. These experiences strengthened her expertise in psychiatric rehabilitation, collaborative care planning, risk management, and recovery-oriented mental health practice.
In addition to her clinical leadership, Marie is passionate about clinical supervision, mentorship, and professional development. Over the past eight years, she has provided supervision, consultation, and training for interns, junior counsellors, and mental health practitioners, dedicating more than 100 hours annually to strengthening clinicians’ confidence, ethical decision-making, reflective practice, and therapeutic effectiveness. Her supervision style is supportive, collaborative, and growth-oriented, encouraging practitioners to integrate clinical knowledge with authenticity, self-awareness, and compassionate care.
Marie has also contributed extensively to organizational development and service innovation through programme planning, staff training, policy development, quality improvement initiatives, and stakeholder collaboration. She is passionate about strengthening clinical services, promoting culturally responsive care, and supporting the development of resilient and effective mental health teams.
In recognition of her professional contributions to the mental health field, Marie was invited to speak at the 2014 Singapore Mental Health Conference, where she presented on employment support and community rehabilitation for individuals experiencing mental health challenges. This opportunity reflected her ongoing commitment to advocacy, recovery-oriented care, and improving community support systems for individuals living with mental health concerns.
Above all, Marie remains deeply committed to supporting individuals, families, clinicians, and communities through compassionate, ethical, and person-centred mental health care—helping others move toward healing, resilience, connection, and meaningful growth.