Staff Spotlight

Craig Oosthuizen

Velocity Transformations Campus Director

I originate from South Africa and moved here when I was just 2 years old. My family fled the country in hopes of a better life for my sister and myself and to escape the apartheid race war. Coming from a mixed-race background of Dutch, South African descent and growing up in Australia wasn’t easy. I grew up in an extremely sheltered home, and although primary school was fairly easy going for me, as soon as I stepped into high school it felt like a different world.  I became a victim of bullying and racism, with both physical and emotional abuse from my peers. I was an extremely confused young man growing up with a white father and a dark mother.

I couldn’t understand why I was being treated like this and started to believe the lie that there was something wrong with me. While my father was around as I was growing up, he was the main provider in my household and so it felt as though he was too busy for me.  I needed a male role model, so I went looking for that attention in the older males in my school where I found acceptance with a group in my school who smoked cigarettes. Eventually, as the years rolled on, my experimentations with substances escalated to smoking pot every day by the age of 15. By the time I was 17 I was taking pills on a daily basis and was completely addicted to the drugs.

At 18 years old I decided, with the encouragement of my family (who were always trying to help me out of addiction) that I would try rehab. I attended Teen Challenge in Toowoomba for 4 months and left feeling strong and confident that I wouldn’t use drugs again. I started a carpentry apprenticeship and things were starting to look up until I started to hang out with the same friends as when I was in addiction, and it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to peer pressure and started using again.  

I somehow managed to continue my apprenticeship and got involved in a toxic de-facto relationship that lasted the next 2.5 years. It was extremely dysfunctional and we would constantly be using drugs together. In this time, I had very minimal contact with my family; out of shame or guilt, I would avoid them at all costs.  When the relationship broke down, I hit rock bottom. One of my friends introduced me to the drug ‘ice.’  I became heavily addicted and lost my job. Ice “took away” all of the pain in my life. I continued to spiral out of control, getting in trouble with the law and using more and more drugs…it took over completely.

I lost all hope in my future and had given up completely until my mother convinced me for a second time that I needed to try rehab again. She helped me enter into the Transformations program where I lasted 4 months, but left prematurely and made the same mistakes as before.

The next year of my life was again out of control, but worse! I was using more than ever before and I got myself into a lot of trouble again heavily addicted to the drug ice. I ended up in a drug-induced psychosis where I basically lost my mind completely. I was always paranoid and thought that people were trying to kill me. I moved back into my family home.  For the first time in years, I could see the impact I was having on my family. I could no longer hide from it: I was tearing them apart.

I decided I would try rehab one more time and I’m so glad that I did! I went into the Transformations program once again, but this time applied myself, where it took about 3 months to finally have a sound mind again, and I continued to work through the 4 stages of the year-long program.

I graduated from the program and stayed on as the House Supervisor for the next year, and supervised a household of male residents also going through the Transformations program. I then began to help out with Case Management and Program Co-Ordinator roles. Mike Barrett [Transformations CEO and Founder] and Emily Duncan [then General Manager] saw a lot of promise and commitment in myself and trained me to become a Director.

For the past several years I have successfully run the Brisbane Transformations Program (at one point co-managing the dual-gender Gold Coast program simultaneously) and have completed my Diploma in Community Services and done other AOD [alcohol and other drugs] training courses, with intensives in Dual Diagnosis, Drug and Alcohol and related Mental Health. I am so excited that at Velocity Transformations we run an evidence-based residential support program, helped with the best the allied health professionals have to offer us but supported in a wonderful faith community.

I am extremely excited that I get to continue to help others like myself get set free from their addictions. I am committed to helping men and women through their journey of recovery and am looking forward to working here at Velocity Transformations, under Pathways Tasmania’s support and leadership.