Psychology

Alexandra Sherriff is a neurodiverse affirming, trauma informed, HAES aligned, and LGBTQIA+ friendly clinical psychologist who is passionate about discovering how people make meaning and create joy in their life. Her area of special interest is working with neurodivergent children, youth, and adults to: help them understand how their complex minds work; develop their self-esteem; and find their niche in life. She also loves to collaborate with parents of young neurodivergent children help understand how their child’s “operating system” works, so that they can feel more confident in connecting and supporting their loved one as they travel life together.
Alexandra’s brings to the therapy space a warm, curious, and dynamic personality. Her therapeutic stance is anchored upon two tenets: 1) that relationships play a central role in our neurological development and psychological and health; and 2) that children (and sometimes adults!) learn best through play. She is informed by research in the fields of Attachment Theory, Interpersonal Neurobiology, developmental neuroscience, and relational psychoanalysis, as well as recommendations made by different Neurodivergent Adult Advocacy groups. She is also an accredited Circle of Security facilitator.
She is also able to provide comprehensive neurocognitive psychometric assessments to help quantify a person’s personal cognitive profile of strengths and vulnerabilities, or to identify the presence of learning or attention difficulties. The information from the neurocognitive assessment can inform school and workplace accommodation recommendations, provide evidence for potential a diagnosis, and can provide a complementary adjunct to the therapeutic process.

Louise is passionate about supporting mental and emotional wellbeing in children, adolescents and adults. She has a warm and collaborative approach to therapy that focuses on creating a safe space whereby people can make sense of their experiences and address their difficulties.

Louise holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology as well as a PhD in Psychology, which enables her to utilise psychological theories and interventions to support people to make change that is meaningful to them. She is also trained in the Circle of Security model of parent-child attachment, which she applies to help foster secure relationships between young people and their caregivers. She is non-judgemental and has experience working with people from diverse identities and backgrounds.

Clinical Psychologist

James is a clinical psychologist who has experience working in private and public clinical settings. He provides psychotherapy to people from 16 years old and upwards. James has experience working with people struggling with a variety of conditions, such as anxiety, depression, panic, trauma, childhood
difficulties, self-concept, substance use, eating disorders, and psychotic conditions. He also has extensive experience working with LGBTQ+ folk.

James primarily draws upon psychoanalytic and psychodynamic frameworks in his practise, which emphasises the importance of one’s developmental history and unconscious processes in influencing one’s current identity and one’s problems in the present day.

James endeavours to foster a curious, open, and honest therapeutic space, where the person is encouraged to explore profound questions about themselves and their relationships to others and their environment. Speaking about oneself in this type of trusting dialogue can allow for self-understanding, changing of detrimental behaviour patterns, and meaningful change over time.

BPsych, BSocSc, MPsych (Clinical Psychology)

Jennifer is a Clinical Psychologist with nearly 20 years’ experience supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of infants, children, adolescents, families, and adults. She has experience working across a broad range of settings, including public child and adolescent mental health services, private community-based and inpatient clinics, as well as not-for-profit organisations. Jennifer enjoys working with children, adolescents, and families and as such has developed her skills and expertise in this area. Jennifer provides evidence-based psychological interventions from an emotionally-attuned, attachment-based and systemic framework. She has a warm, empathic, collaborative, and supportive style to therapy, that she adapts to meet the developmental needs of her clients.

Jennifer has developed a special interest in the area of neurodiversity and supporting neurodivergent children and youth. She works from a neuro-affirming stance that embraces the fact there is naturally occurring diversity in human neurology, and this is something to be celebrated. She supports children and their parents by recognising their strengths as well as the challenges they experience being neurodivergent in a world predominantly set up to support and understand neurotypical brains and neurotypical ways of doing things.

Jennifer is able to provide Autism Assessments to children aged 3 – 14 years, as a Single Clinician or as part of a Consensus Team, alongside Speech Pathologists, Paediatricians and Psychiatrists. She is trained and experienced administering the ADOS-2, considered an evidence-based assessment tool for autism. Jennifer is passionate about supporting children, young people and their families to understand more about their brain and themselves to ensure they are well supported to flourish as they grow into their unique selves. Please contact the Elizabeth Clinic for more information about an Autism Assessment with Jennifer or any of her other clinical services.