I love learning.
Especially about people and relationships. 

Listening to stories about people’s lives is one of the greatest honours of being a GP psychotherapist. Helping others to help themselves is my passion and has guided me from childhood, into medical school, then via general practice, with its whole-person, collaborative model of care, to my practice as a psychotherapist. 

A healthy body and a healthy mind are inseparable; the mind cannot sense what the body cannot feel. Plus, we live in communities and are wired for connecting.

My approach to counselling is evidence-based, and grounded in humanism and mutual respect. 

It is underpinned by the bio-psycho-social model of care that recognises that we are all unique products of our biology (genetics, health status), psyche (personality, mood), and society (relationships, community). 

Life is often difficult with many challenges and transitions along the way. Crises, however, also present opportunities for positive change and growth. We can find ourselves precariously balancing hope and despair while courageously navigating through uncertainty, sadness and/or fear. Our aim is to reach a better place of mindfulness, acceptance and greater optimism, but the road can be tough. The therapy process requires your patience and persistence but is aided by the collaborative experience of a skilled practitioner’s healthy dose of empathy, compassion and curiosity, as you explore your thoughts and feelings and get to know yourself better. 

Similarly, repairing our relationships, while requiring effort, is definitely attainable.

Knowledge is power.  To paraphrase Maya Angelou, “when you know better, you do better”.

Learning is a life-long process

Learning is a life-long process.  As a GP, I constantly observed that relationships and mental health were strongly inter-related, so I progressed my professional development by completing a Diploma of Family Therapy followed by a Master of Couple and Relationship Counselling degree, and augmented my counselling skills with extensive training in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotion Focused Therapy, Attachment, Mindfulness and Trauma-Specific Neurobiological Treatments. 

Thirty years of GP experience in combination with psychotherapy training allow me to tailor treatments to the needs of individuals and their relationships. I treat people, not diagnoses. 

Variety is the spice of life. In addition to clinical practice, I get much satisfaction by teaching medical students, training GPs in mental health, and advocating for patients with mental health issues, at both state and federal levels, through my involvement with the RACGP.  And in my spare time, nature, family and friends all beckon.