Psychologist
LifeWorks Foundation
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :16 years, 11 أشهر
At LifeWorks, I provide a range of psychological services for individuals, groups and corporations that span the areas of Forensic, Clinical and Organizational Psychology. From individual therapy for someone suffering from depression, to advising companies on best practices for assessments in the selection and development of staff, to consulting on ways to make our communities safer, to presenting on tips to manage work stress... I thoroughly enjoy the opportunities my work presents me with to improve people's lives, make companies more productive and satisfying, and empowering people to understand and take control of their own destiny.
My specializations include:
- Adult psychology and psychopathologies
- Personal and professional development
- Assessments for recruitment and employee development
- Child protection assessments,
- Offender assessment, rehabilitation and treatment
- Treatment efficacy evaluations
- Research design
- Cognitive assessments
- Therapeutic frameworks including CBT, DBT, RNR (risk, need and responsivity), The Good Lives Model, and Stages of Change
Certified by the Community Development Authority (CDA) in Dubai, the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA), and the British Psychological Society, and a member of the Australian Psychological Society and the Association of Psychological Science (in the US), I am passionate about educating people about psychological concepts and principles, and advocating for accessible mental health care services for all.
As Assistant Professor of Psychology at Heriot-Watt University Dubai Campus, I develop and deliver a range of undergraduate psychology courses to students, as well as consult for public and private entities in matters such as psychological well-being, research-based education/training programs, and research partnerships.
Manage DGHR’s Assessment Centre and the team of seven assessors, where we conduct comprehensive HR behavioral assessments of candidates for recruitment, development, or others purposes for Dubai Government and semi-Government entities. This includes writing reports for clients and delivering feedback to candidates. We use a range of assessment tests and exercises from a variety of providers including PsyTech (Genesys platform), Mentis (Hogan platform), and CEB/SHL (CEB TalentCentral). I played a key role in forming the Assessment Centre’s policies and SOPs, and also train new Assessors.
I worked as a Forensic Psychologist in the Acute/Admissions Male unit (Bronte unit) at the Forensic Hospital, Malabar, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, as part of the Justice Health and Forensic Mental Health Network (JH&FMHN), which is part of NSW Health. The Forensic Hospital is a high-security facility for forensic patients (those unfit to stand trial, or found Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Illness) and correctional patients (incarcerated offenders who in the course of their imprisonment develop a serious mental illness). Most of these patients had a chronic psychotic illness, most frequently that being schizophrenia.
During my locum contract (which was extended by 2 months due to my excellent work performance), I provided psychological input to the multidisciplinary care of the 25 male, adult patients on the ward. As the only Psychologist on the unit, I carried out a diverse range of responsibilities, including conducting historical and dynamic risk assessments (specifically, the short-term risk of becoming violent on the unit, and the long-term risk of re-offending if their risk factors were not addressed); co-facilitating psycho-educational groups; facilitating one-on-one psychological treatment with patients; and referring patients to relevant treatment programs. when patients were transferred to a sub-acute unit, I conducted a handover with the Psychologist in the new ward to maximise a smooth transition, treatment-wise. In addition, with a Clinical psychologist on one of the sub-acute wards, I developed a new drug and alcohol group treatment program.
I was trained in PMVA (Prevention and Management of Violence and Aggression) as clinical staff also acted as security within hospital grounds. I worked with a multidisciplinary team that included psychiatrists, occupational therapists, diversional therapists, social workers, art therapists, pet therapists, and nurses.
In my role as a Specialist Psychologist in the Serious Offenders Assessment Unit (SOAU) in Corrective Services NSW (CSNSW) I complete start-of-sentence psychological assessments (of risk/need/responsivity) of all newly sentenced offenders managed by the CSNSW Serious Offender Review Council (SORC), and other identified high-risk/need adult offenders recently convicted of a sexual or violent offence. This involves face-to-face interviews with offenders and phone interviews with family members and other collateral sources, with the use of interpreters when this is necessary. I develop comprehensive treatment and management plans, complete referrals to therapeutic programs offered by CSNSW, and liaise with a multidisciplinary team that includes psychologists, welfare officers, education officers, custodial officers, psychiatrists and nurses. I am also involved in the daily management of offenders in a 27-bed unit which includes addressing any mental health or at-risk (e.g. suicidal ideation) issues.
Over 4.5 years I completed a combined degree of a PhD and a Master of Psychology (Forensic). For my PhD I conducted research into the 'own-race bias in face memory' (that is, the tendency for people to find it easier to accurately recognise faces from their own racial group, compared to faces from other racial groups). I regularly tutored for both undergraduate and postgraduate psychology classes, presented my research at 12 national and international psychology conferences, and have so far published two research manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.
In my Master of Psychology (Forensic) degree, I completed over 2, 000 hours of practical training, and played a core leadership role in establishing a new therapy program for a local women’s domestic violence refuge.
As part of my Master of Psychology (Forensic) training, I completed (amongst other requirements) two three-month work placements at clinical settings. The first, in November 2008-February 2009, was at CUBIT, the intensive Sex Offender program at Long Bay Correctional Complex in Sydney, Australia. At CUBIT, I conducted group therapy sessions with a co-therapist, two of which I designed to discuss ‘establishing appropriate boundaries in relationships’, and ‘identifying the outward expressions of risk factors for sexual re-offending’. I also reviewed assessments and reports of current sex offenders that were being managed by CSNSW.
The second, in November 2009-February 2010, was at the Bunya Unit - a forensic psychiatric residential unit at Cumberland Hospital, Westmead, Australia. At Bunya, I conducted individual therapy sessions with forensic patients, two of whom I wrote treatment reports for the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT), and running group therapy with the Occupational Therapist. I also conducted assessments of intelligence, memory, financial competency, and post-release planning for eight patients, and wrote up results of my assessments for the MHRT.
In 2007, while completing a 3-month work placement as part of my Master of Psychology (Forensic), I was responsible for researching the types of assaults that occurred in hospital premises in NSW between 1996 and 2006. I liaised with NSW Police staff to access police notes regarding these assaults and coded a sample of 458 assaults for features such as the demographics of the victim and the perpetrator; the relationship between these two people; the time and day of the week the assault occurred; and whether alcohol and/or drugs were involved. I analysed the results and wrote a report outlining my findings, which was published in BOCSAR’s Crime and Justice Bulletin.
My work success and attitude impressed the executive staff at BOCSAR so much that in 2009 I was offered a part-time job as a Research Officer while I continued my studies. In 2008-2009 I was responsible for coordinating and conducting interviews with juvenile offenders (aged 10-16) and their primary caregivers who were enrolled in the pilot Intensive Supervision Program that was being conducted by the Newcastle office of NSW Juvenile Justice. This involves maintaining regular dialogue with the Intensive Supervision Program staff, regularly driving between Newcastle and Sydney (2 hours' drive away), quickly establishing rapport with adolescents and parents/caregivers, conducting interviews in a time-efficient manner, entering the data into the BOCSAR databases, and analysing this data to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot program.
I was employed by Chequerboard Productions (upon a recommendation from staff at the School of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, where I studied) to research journal articles detailing psychological experiments that would be entertaining to portray in an educational television show about psychology. Over three months, I and the two directors designed the layout and script of the pilot episode (on ‘Crime’) as well as six more episodes, and submitted the pitch to a national television station.
Over 4.5 years I completed a combined degree of a PhD and a Master of Psychology (Forensic). For my PhD I conducted research into the 'own-race bias in face memory' (that is, the tendency for people to find it easier to accurately recognise faces from their own racial group, compared to faces from other racial groups). I regularly tutored for both undergraduate and postgraduate psychology classes, presented my research at 12 national and international psychology conferences, and have so far published two research manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.
Over 4.5 years I completed a combined degree of a PhD and a Master of Psychology (Forensic). In my Master of Psychology (Forensic) degree, I completed over 2,000 hours of practical training, including training in forensic assessment, re-offending risk assessment, personality and cognitive assessment, and interview and therapy skills. I also played a core leadership role in establishing a new therapy program for a local women’s domestic violence refuge.
Throughout my undergraduate degree, I was awarded the John and Carmel Niland Alumni Scholarship, and seven undergraduate prizes. Upon completion of my degree I was ranked first in my year and was awarded the University Medal in Psychology. In addition, in 2005 I successfully completed a six-month student exchange at McGill University, Montreal, Canada (where I obtained a GPA of 3.85 out of 4). Over the 2005-2006 summer holidays, I obtained a scholarship to complete a three-month summer research project in December 2007-February 2008 (see “Prizes/Awards/Funding”). Upon completion I presented my findings at the Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) in Brisbane, and although I was only an undergraduate student, I beat numerous PhD students to be awarded the 'Best Student Presentation' prize at the conference.
