ABOUT ME

I completed a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology at Curtain University in Perth Western Australia. During this time I focused on adults in outpatient clinics most of whom experienced severe clinical problems including suicidal depression, eating disorders, and obsessive compulsive disorder. I supported clients to rebuild a sense of self, re-establish relationships and a working life, and regain control over their mental health.

Other professional experience includes work as a private mental health practitioner working with the national health mental health scheme, researcher for university and state departments, clinical assessor for the Western Australian court system, social trainer for people with disabilities, and advocate for the unemployed. I worked for some years as a case manager for the state welfare system with people experiencing significant, complicated difficulties such as severe mental health problems, homelessness, domestic violence, illness and chronic pain, addiction, and long-term unemployment.

Prior to my clinical training, I worked for a number of years with teenagers and adults with disabilities (physical, psychiatric and intellectual). Themes during this period included assisting clients to realise employment or education goals, to feel more valued within the community, build independence, and promote personal and social development through art, play, music and sport. During this time, I also worked closely with families of a person with a disability, coordinating individualised respite and crisis services. Further relevant experience includes working in an orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam as support person and educator.
In recent years I worked as a clinical psychologist within the criminal justice system with individuals, mostly men, both in and out of jail, to assist them to address the factors underlying their offending behaviour. During this time I specialised in drug-related crime and arson.