Family Counselling in Fitzroy North, VIC

I am passionate about supporting and helping individuals, families who feel trapped in their trauma symptoms. There is a common belief that the trauma is the result of individual's thinking pattern, which is misleading. Any traumatic experiences registered somatically, therefore the trauma work will be somatically oriented, which aims to clear the symptoms from the whole system.

Psychotherpist and Clinical supervisor, working with individuals, couples, families , and other mental health professionals. Extensive experience working with those impacted by trauma, grief and loss, and significant life changes. Experience includes working in various leadership roles, inclusive of Team leader roles and Senior practitioner roles in the community and private practice sectors. Specifically, in the fields of Mental Health, Addiction, Family Violence, Sexual Violence, and Grief and Bereavement services.

I am a Clinical Psychologist with over 18 years working in the health and disability sectors (as a support worker, assistant in nursing and Psychologist). I have a special interest in working with adults with disability including acquired brain injury, intellectual disability, ASD, neuro-degenerative disease etc. I also have experience working with couples and families where one or more individuals has disability. Additionally, I have an interest in working with people from LGBTQIA+ populations and work with adults from all populations to manage anxiety disorders using effective and evidence based interventions.

A relationship that thrives and gives you fulfilment will bring the kind of lasting happiness that enables you and your partner to grow and create deeper bonds. When an important relationship becomes strained or distressed, the pain you feel can challenge you to the core. I work with you in order to reveal the dynamics of your relationship - the patterns that you have built to protect the wounds that you have suffered. Together we will explore and uncover the hidden beliefs and unconscious drivers that are the triggers of your difficulties in relating to yourself or partner. We long to become present to ourselves, and connected.

We are not taught how to relate and often we just make it up as we go, doing the best we can with what we have or have learned. When relationships break down, getting support is better than struggling alone. I work with couples and individuals in relationship crisis, who are experiencing difficulties from ongoing conflict or anger issues, communication breakdown, loss of trust, infidelity, major life transitions, grief and anxiety. I work with couples considering ending their relationships or who have lost the spark of passion and intimacy. I specialise in repeating patterns of behaviour stemming from past traumas or experiences.

I support couples of all ages, stages, personalities and abilities in relationships to better relate to, understand and communicate with one another and increase their sense of connection. I specialise and am trained in Gottman Therapy which was developed by psychologists and husband and wife team, John and Julie Gottman, out of their almost 50 years of work researching and supporting couples to live more connected and fulfilling lives together.

In over 20 years as a therapist, I have worked with a wide range of clients and couples with many and varied issues. I work in a way that is strongly client, and emotionally focused. I have worked with clients experiencing depression, anxiety, substance issues, food disorders, grief, child-hood trauma, uncertainty around sexuality and gender, around identity and self confidence/esteem. I work well with clients who are looking to change their lives and who are open to exploring their issues; to challenge their thinking and to examine what isn't working for them and to take practical steps to shift beyond where they are now.

My psychotherapeutic practice opens a vital place where an individual's speech, and sometimes their silence, can be generated and heard. Matters that carry such urgency —sadness, despair, anguish, but also joy and pleasure— are understood within this approach as always profoundly individual, demanding to be met in their singularity. Together we work to allow new perspectives to emerge, new lives to be made.