Our Psychologists

Anina is a Registered Psychologist with a special interest in providing therapeutic interventions for children, adolescents, and families. She has several years’ work experience as a Psychologist in both the public and private sectors. The focus of her treatment is on a range of mental health and adjustment difficulties that may emerge during the various middle childhood and youth developmental stages.

Anina completed her training and internship with a specific focus on the treatment of complex developmental trauma. She obtained extensive work experience in this area and promoted healing for both the individual as well as affected family members and carers/guardians.

Later in her career, she worked in educational settings, providing treatment and support to children and young people presenting with a range of mental health problems, thereby diversifying her experience and therapeutic focus. Anina’s work includes interventions for both internalising and externalising behavioural issues, as well as neurodevelopmental challenges. She has developed skills and knowledge to also address difficulties within the family/school contexts, and she is experienced in developing school-based support plans that promote adaptive functioning.

Anina has trained in family therapy and has prior work experience as a social worker. She enjoys including parents and the wider family in the therapeutic process. Her passion is to improve the functioning, wellbeing and quality of children, young people and their family’s lives.

Age Groups

• Children (Age 5-12)
• Adolescents (Age 13-17)
• Young Adults (Age 18-21
• Adults and parents

Therapeutic Modalities:

• Cognitive Behaviour therapy
• Dialectical Behaviour therapy (developing)
• Family therapy
• Mentalization-based therapy
• Motivational Interviewing
• Narrative therapy
• Solutions-focused therapy
• Trauma-focused Cognitive Behaviour therapy

Other languages spoken: Afrikaans

Jacinta is a Clinical Psychologist who has clinical experience working with children, adolescents and their families, and adults with psychological or psychiatric disorders. She has garnered experience in numerous public mental healthsettings, including community outpatient clinics in Singapore and Australia, the Institute of Mental Health outpatient and inpatient ward (Singapore), Burns Unit (Australia) and Perth Voices Clinic (Australia).

Jacinta has worked with a diverse range of clients, with presentations such as mood  disorders, personality disorders, neurodevelopmental disorders (ASD, ADHD), trauma, interpersonal difficulties, relational issues and voice hearers. She also has experience working within a multidisciplinary team with other medical and allied health professionals.

Jacinta has a keen interest in working with issues related to attachment, interpersonal difficulties and difficulties with emotional regulation, which may be exhibited in mood, anxiety and personality disorders. Jacinta takes a non-judgmental, empathic stance to understanding her clients presenting difficulties, while providing them with a safe space to work through challenges. She adopts  evidence-based modalities to address her clients’ needs. These include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Schema Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization Response (EMDR) and Emotion-Focused Therapy. A keen advocate for the parent-child relationship, Jacinta is a registered Circle of Security Parenting (COS-P) facilitator with the Circle of Security International.

Age Groups:
• Children (5+)
• Adolescents
• Young Adults
• Adults

Therapeutic Modalities:
• Circle of Security Parenting
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
• Emotion-Focused Therapy
• Eye Movement Densitization Response (EMDR)
• Schema Therapy

Lina is a warm and non-judgmental clinician who works strongly on building a kind and genuine rapport with her clients, while providing them with a safe and empowering space.

She takes an integrative approach to therapy, tailoring sessions to the client’s unique needs, using principles from Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Attachment Theory, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and play-based therapies.

With more than 10 years’ experience, she worked as a Registered Psychologist for five years overseas before moving to Australia and gaining experience as a Registrar. She enjoys working with clients across the lifespan and with a range of clinical presentations.

She has a particular interest in women’s health, supporting and empowering women through difficult transitions at every stage in their lives. Lina is also passionate about supporting parents and families to deal with attachment issues, emotional regulation and parental skills.

She has supported clients to deal with a range of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, bereavement and loss, work-related stress, adjustment difficulties, coping with illness and disease and more.

As a professional migrant, Lina understands migration psychological processes and the mental health issues related to this life change. She is fluent in Italian and a native Spanish speaker. Lina is a registered member of the Australian Association of Psychologists (AAPi).

Age groups:
• Infant
• Children
• Adolescents
• Young adults
• Adults
• Older adults

Treatment modalities:
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
• Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT)
• Compassion focussed therapy
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Interpersonal Therapy (IT)
• Solution Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

Jini is a Registered Psychologist with many years of experience working with a diverse population. She places emphasis on evidence-based therapeutic modalities and utilises relevant skills and expertise to promote change.

With a core belief in humanistic psychology, Jini looks at an individual holistically and recognises the innate goodness in everyone which is critical to building personal agency. This philosophy motivates Jini to attain a strength-based attitude, making the therapeutic work, with both adults and children, more effective.

Jini recognises the significance of the trauma-informed approach in assisting individuals to regulate their emotions and to deal with its cognitive and psychological impacts. She is passionate about working with the various complexities that arise in her work.

Age Groups:
• Adolescents 16+
• Young adults
• Adults
• Older adults

Therapeutic Modalities:
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
• Narrative Therapy & Solution Focused Brief Therapy

Dr Hannes Venter maintains a goal-informed, patient and empathic approach as a Clinical and Neuropsychologist, with a focus on achieving positive outcomes for his clients. From a Clinical Psychology perspective, he has a special interest in working with clients with anxiety and mood difficulties, as well as those clients struggling with their self-esteem. Hannes has extensive experience providing assessment and evidenced-based intervention to assist with a variety of other mental health presentations, including psychological trauma and stressor related presentations, OCD, sleep-wake disorders, substance related disorders, neurocognitive disorders, borderline personality disorder, bariatric surgery, and mental health difficulties related to physical conditions or injury.

From a neuropsychology perspective, Hannes has a strong background in neuropsychological assessment of a variety of conditions, especially acquired brain injury. Mild to severe traumatic brain injury has been a significant focus of his clinical work over the last 5 years as part of multi-disciplinary rehabilitation approach of these conditions. These presentations were often complicated by other injury related factors such as mental health difficulties, chronic pain, mental health, neurodevelopmental concerns, neurological history, and so forth. He also has experience in the assessment of adult ADHD, ASD, and ID.

Hannes maintains an integrative approach to the use of psychological intervention aimed at getting the best outcomes for his clients depending on their needs. This means using a variety of evidence based approached to this purpose, which includes Transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Schema Therapy, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.

Providing assessment and intervention is managed from a client-centric, collaborative perspective with a focus on practical, real-life application of intervention. Hannes therefore has a strong focus on not only the time in sessions, but also the time between sessions and practicing at home and in other environments. This helps to address any mental health difficulties effectively and establishes the skills learnt as habitual ways of dealing with challenging emotions, thoughts and situations.

Hannes is an AHPRA and NZPB registered psychologist with endorsements for both clinical and neuropsychology. He has over 20 years of experience in the delivery of diverse psychological services to adults from a variety of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds in both New Zealand and South Africa. He has focused on working in diverse multi-disciplinary settings for most of his career, helping with mild to severe mental health difficulties, as well as those with acquired brain injuries. He has worked in both inpatient and community-based setting.

Hannes is available for in-person sessions on Thursdays, and Telehealth sessions Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Please book in telehealth sessions via the administration team (Tel: 03 7008 7960 ) and in-person sessions via the website here or by calling (Tel: 03 7008 7960)

Anda completed a doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the University of Montreal in Canada in 2013 and has since worked as a clinical psychologist, primarily in private practice, but also in intensive hospital care settings and as a clinical supervisor for training psychologists. Through these experiences, she has developed expertise in supporting individuals with a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, eating disorders, grief, perinatal mental health challenges, PTSD, and personality difficulties.

Through her regular work with patients from diverse cultural backgrounds, Anda places strong importance on understanding each patient’s cultural context and integrating this awareness into a nuanced understanding of individual cultural and identity factors.

Her therapeutic approach is grounded in evidence-based psychodynamic and systemic perspectives, exploring how past experiences, unconscious processes, and relational patterns shape a person’s present difficulties as well as their strengths. She aims to accompany each patient in making sense of their inner world and relationships, fostering greater compassion for their emotional struggles, fears, dreams, successes, and perceived failures. Through this process, patients often experience a gradual relief from distressing symptoms and develop a deeper sense of resilience and self-understanding.

Alongside this therapeutic exploration, Anda also integrates other evidence-based approaches, including CBT, mindfulness, and solution-focused techniques, to support patients in addressing immediate concerns while working toward longer-term growth and change.

Age Groups

• Adolescents
• Adults
• Older Persons
   

Therapeutic Modalities

• Psychodynamic therapy
• Cognitive Behvioural Therapy (CBT)

Chloe is a Registered Psychologist with extensive experience of working in roles within the Victorian workers’ compensation scheme, including consultancy positions at DXC, one of Victoria’s four WorkCover claims agents, and the Victorian Department of Health. She is familiar with workplace issues such as burnout, discrimination, workplace stress, bullying, and other forms of workplace mental injury as well as the personal attributes that can contribute to these issues, such as perfectionistic attitudes, people-pleasing behaviour, competitiveness, and conceptualisations of self-worth.

Outside of workplace incidents, Chloe has a special interest in helping people who are suffering with all types of anxiety. Chloe aims to help clients to reduce the stress of life so that they can be their best selves, both inside and outside of work.

Chloe believes good therapy starts with a good therapeutic relationship, meaning both client and therapist understand each other, a safe space is provided where topics can be raised without fear of judgement, and goals are set collaboratively. Chloe is proficient in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Schema Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and other modalities of treatment.

Age Groups

• Young Adults
• Adults

Therapeutic Modalities

• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
• Schema Therapy
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Motivational Interviewing

Hugh is an enthusiastic and passionate Clinical Psychologist who is curious about people and takes a holistic view of each individual to assist them in obtaining a sense of well-being and a positive view of themselves.

Hugh uses a variety of different evidence-based therapies including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Schema Therapy, Solutions Focused Therapy, Person Centred Therapy and increasingly more Somatic Therapies, in particular Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). He believes it is important to not only deal with current issues but to resolve past issues that can make people more vulnerable thus improving their sense of well-being for the longer term.

Hugh has been living in Cairns for the past 18 years, and loves travel, four-wheel driving, gardening, fishing and visiting his grandchildren. 

He also enjoys life-long learning and attends many conferences and workshops and is actively involved in helping to organise professional development activities.

He only started his psychology career in his 30’s after being a Jackeroo in NW Queensland, working in the building industry, and almost four years back-packing in Asia, Europe and Africa. He believes his volunteer work in third world countries has helped him to develop greater compassion, respect, sense of justice and equity.

Therapeutic modalities:

• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Somatic Therapies
• Schema Therapy
• Solutions Focused Therapy
• Person Centred Therapy
• Narrative Therapy

Age groups:

• Young adults
• Adults
• Older persons

Cass has a particular interest in the treatment and assessment of anxiety and depression, complex trauma, bereavement, and adjustment to change in adolescents and adults. Cass is also experienced in treating diagnosable disorders including mood disorders and personality disorders. Cass also enjoys assisting individuals in understanding sleep and regaining healthy sleep patterns.

Cass is experienced in working with individuals, couples, families, groups and organisations and has undertaken numerous managerial roles fundamental in establishing and maintaining community mental health services in NSW.  Previously, as a board approved supervisor Cass has also supervised provisionally registered psychologists in gaining full registration.

Cass is fully registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and has been a full Member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) and The Australian Society of Rehabilitation Counsellors (ASORC) for over 20 years. Cass has extensive experience in private hospital, public mental health hospital, rehabilitation and private practice. Cass particularly enjoys assisting people to overcome trauma and also has a passion for assisting individuals to understand and manage diagnosable disorders effectively and to manage emotional issues such as anxiety, depression, guilt and shame.

Age Groups

Children, adolescents and adults

Therapeutic Modalities

Cass uses a range of evidence-based practices including;

• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
•  Solutions Focused Brief Therapy
•  Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
•  Mindfulness and evidence-based thought processes.