The information below is current as at 26/6/23.
I am a registered Psychologist with an area of practice endorsement in Clinical Psychology. I have been registered continuously for the past twenty-nine years. I am the owner/operator of Secure Start®, an independent psychology practice that has operated for twenty-two years. I am currently the Chair of the Notifications and Compliance Committee of the Psychology Board of Australia. I was previously a practitioner member (and final Acting Chair) of the NT/SA/WA Regional Board of the Psychology Board of australia. I have held these appointments in the health practitioner regulation scheme for the past eight years. I have previously held appointments on the National Psychology Examination Committee of the Psychology Board of Australia (2013-2014), as an Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) Panel Member (Performance and Conduct; 2014-2016), and as a member of the Health Practitioner Tribunal of South Australia (2010-1013). I am a Board-Approved Supervisor for trainee psychologists completing internship and higher degree pathways to registration, and psychology registrars. I developed and was the inaugural Director of the Child Wellbeing Clinics, Master of Psychology training clinics that operated as a joint initiative of the University of South Australia and Children Youth and Family Services (now the Department for Child Protection) between 2006 and 2008. I am a Panel Member for the Department for Child Protection (DCP) Psychological Services. I have provided psychology services in child protection across the past twenty-eight years.
I am the author of A Short Introduction to Attachment and Attachment Disorder (2009; 2016 – Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London) and A Short Introduction to Promoting Resilience in Children (2011 – Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London). Since its inception, A Short Introduction to Attachment and Attachment Disorder has appeared on the Psychology Board of Australia’s Recommended Reading List for prospective psychology registrants in Australia who must sit the National Psychology Examination.
I am also the author of peer-reviewed journal articles and periodical articles, including articles about suicide prevention among teens that influenced public health initiatives, including a nation-wide GP educational video that was produced by the Child Health Foundation in 1995 (Youth Suicide: Recognising the Signs).
I am the author of the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care, and the CARE Curriculum. The Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care was delivered in the Centacare Intensive Family Preservation Foster Care Program in South Australia, in 2014; and from 2016 the Triple-A Model of Therapeutic Care has been the preferred model of care in the TUSLA (Child and Family Agency) Fostering Service in Donegal, Ireland. The CARE Curriculum was delivered by me as part of the Kinship CARE Project, a joint initiative of Secure Start and the Department for Child Protection (DCP), that was delivered among statutory kinship carers and staff of the DCP Kinship Care Program between March 2018 and March 2020. The CARE Curriculum continues to be delivered in association with the successful tender of InComPro Aboriginal Organisation and Uniting Care Wesley Bowden (UCWB) to support statutory kinship care among Australian Aboriginal children. In 2017 I was contracted by the Irish Foster Care Association to develop a package of pre-approval training materials for foster carers in Ireland, and train local trainers.
See below recent interviews I participated in which expand upon my work and views: