About Brad
I'm a PACFA registered psychotherapist, Certified Transactional Analyst, and clinical supervisor working with clients online across Australia and internationally.
My practice is focused on providing psychotherapy and couples+ therapy to people dealing with anxious and depressive states, emotional volatility, identity and sexuality issues, post-psychedelic experience integration, difficulties with lack of meaning, and other challenges associated with work, living, family, and relationships. This can include trauma, complex trauma, and long-term difficulties with interpersonal relating.
I work within the context of a genuine, non-judgmental relationship to help people understand the social, interpersonal and internal nature of their difficulties as well as help them to appreciate their unique complexity and strengths so they can pursue more satisfying lives.
My collaborative approach has been described as warm, open, empathic, and at times and when appropriate, sensitively challenging. My goal is to help you increase your sense of autonomy and become the director of your own story.
I’m trained in a way that promotes mutual conscious and unconscious connection and I am actively involved in the process of inquiry and engagement when I work with clients.
Philosophy
Philosophically I believe that emotional development, healing, and change happens through relationship and that rather than using formulaic approaches to diagnosing and treatment, each therapy is a unique experience.
For this reason, I work with an individualised framework in a disciplined, safe, and curious way that is both contained and contractual. Clarity about the purpose and focus of our work is important but so is flexibility and room to appreciate that sometimes we come to therapy seeking one thing and then recognising that we actually need something different.
I am not the sort of therapist that sits quietly, listening and reflecting back on what my clients say. I do not believe this approach is useful to clients. I’m trained in a therapeutic milieu that promotes mutual conscious and unconscious connection and therefore I am actively involved in the grounded processes of inquiry and engagement when I work with clients. Through interaction and exploration, something new emerges.
Background
My professional life prior to becoming a psychotherapist started in Nursing where I held clinical, teaching, and research roles in areas including mental health, trauma, intensive care, and drug and alcohol treatment. Beyond Nursing, I pursued a career in medical journalism and later moved into editorial management, corporate relations, and consulting roles. I’ve led large teams, managed deadlines, and large projects and I’ve worked for CEOs.
Ethics & values
I’m strongly committed to the psychotherapy profession and my work with clients, and I am passionate about the transformative power of therapeutic relationships - something I have witnessed many times in my work and something I know from my own therapeutic experience.
I am bound by the code of ethics of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) and the International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA).
I participate in regular individual, group, and peer clinical supervision, reading groups, and learning environments that ensure my clients are cared for in the safest, most professional, and most effective manner. Being a therapist is an ongoing project of learning, exploration, and engagement with self and others. For this reason, I also attend my own psychotherapy and have done it for many years. In my view, one must be in therapy to practice it.
Areas of interest
Clinical issues
Issues associated with identity, sense of self and psychological coherence
Same gender couples
Individuals experiencing complex and prolonged grief
Workplace conflicts and interpersonal difficulties and their interpersonal dynamics underpinnings
Gay men who experience a crisis of identity might occur (mid to later life)
Out of control sexual behaviour in gay men (the notion of sex addiction is no longer accepted)
Types of clients
Creative individuals - I have worked with producers, actors, directors, writers, and many other creatives
Professional woman
Gay men at different life stages
Healthcare workers – doctors, nurses, dentists, and other healthcare professionals.
Other psychotherapists, counsellors, psychologists, and mental health professionals
Media professionals
Academics
Qualifications, training and affiliations
QUALIFICATIONS & TRAINING
Master of Science Psychotherapy (Middlesex University, UK)
PACFA Registered Psychotherapist (Clinical)
Certified Transactional Analyst - Psychotherapy (ITAA)
Integrative/Relational Psychotherapy Training - 4 Years (ACIS)
Diploma of Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy (ACIS)
Bachelor of Nursing (Sydney)
ADDITIONAL TRAINING
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Training Course - Sydney Institute for Psychoanalysis
Gottman Couples Therapy Training Course (Level 3) - Relationship Institute Australasia
Developing Skills in Couples Work Training Course - Tavistock Institute UK/CCAFPAA
Supervision Training - Centre for Existential Practice, Sydney (Current)
Balint Group Leadership Accredited Training Pathway (Current)
ORGANISATIONAL AFFILIATIONS
The Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA)
The International Association of Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP)
The International Transactional Analysis Association (ITAA)
International Relational Transactional Analysis Association (IARTA)
The Balint Society of Australian & New Zealand
Questions some clients ask
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Psychotherapists are not currently included in the Better Access Initiative and therefore cannot participate as providers with mental health plans.
This is contentious as including psychotherapists would be a very cost and clinically effective way to rapidly address shortfalls in the demand for and supply of mental health services and consequently strong lobbying is underway to challenge this.
Many of my clients do not have and do not want mental health diagnoses which is something that a doctor must assess you for and make to provide access to Medicare mental health plans.
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Some therapists do but I don’t. I find clients get very upset when therapists say they work with Health Insurance Companies to find out that they get a return of a maximum of two sessions from the insurer.
Involvement with insurers leads ultimately to the insurers dictating how many sessions of therapy the client can have and dictating how therapists work. Rules created by insurers in the USA led to the destruction of long-term therapy and the manualisation of therapy using only cognitive approaches because they are more cost-effective (cheaper) for the insurer which ultimately leads to lower quality therapy for the client.
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Because psychodynamic psychotherapy emphasises the interaction between developmental influences (our early years and experience) and inherited temperament and how the interaction of these elements leads to who we are today, it is important that individuals are prepared to take responsibility for their feelings and behaviours.
I feel I work best with people who are seeking self-knowledge and understanding as well as getting relief from their symptoms.
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Initially, I will explain a few things about the way I work, confidentiality and its limitations, and some basics about the agreement or contact we create that underpin our work together. Generally speaking sessions are 50 minutes in length.
After that, we will talk about what your current concerns and/or symptoms are. Often there is a precipitating event that leads you to therapy and the meaning of this catalyst for action is also important to discuss. This might be a recent onset of symptoms, like an anxiety attack, trouble sleeping, trouble handling intense feelings, relationship problems, or work conflicts. Sometimes people may not know exactly why they are coming.
Making the decision to go for therapy is difficult and requires courage. I encourage my clients to express any concerns they have about participating in treatment, including how the process works and anything about my credentials or clinical experience that may be important to them.