I am a Registered Clinical Psychologist and have many years of experience working in child and adolescent support services as a Social Worker and Family Therapist (since 1996). This has included a residential setting where I was responsible for the therapeutic treatment of children with behavioural difficulties. I have worked as a Family Therapist both at the Leslie Centre (Presbyterian Support) and Youth Horizons Trust on the Functional Family Therapy Team.

 

I have worked as a Paediatric Social Worker at Starship Children’s Hospital where I provided counselling and social work to families of children that were diagnosed with Cancer. I then worked for the Consult Liaison Team at Starship Children’s Hospital, where I provided mental health assessment and treatment. I also specialised in oncology, respiratory, and endocrine conditions and developed specialty skills in the area of biofeedback.

 

While completing my Doctorate (computerised therapy programme for adolescents with depression-SPARX) in Clinical Psychology I worked as a Research Fellow for the Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine at The University of Auckland. The results of SPARX have been published in the British Medical Journal. SPARX has been awarded two international awards for digital innovation and as an e-health intervention.

 

I am currently working as an Associate Professor at Massey University, School of Psychology where I am involved in teaching and research. I also work clinically with young people who are effected by Asperger’s Syndrome.

 

I have contributed a relaxation audio file for use on a Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences website called CALM (Computer Assisted Learning for the Mind), www.calm.auckland.ac.nz and for use on the NZ Ministry of Health website www.depression.org.nz.  I was a co-developer for a Computerised therapy programme called SPARX (www.sparx.org.nz) I have also published extensively in the area of computerised therapy.