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About Dr Angela GentBA, PGrad. Dip. App Psych, MPsych, PhD, MAPS
Clinical Psychologist Hours Monday - am, pm Tuesday - am, pm Thursday - am, pm Contact Ballarat
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Background
Angela completed a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology and a PhD from The University of Melbourne in 2010. Prior to this, she worked in a research capacity at the Royal Children’s Hospital and at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She also worked as a clinician with young people and their families at headspace in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Since becoming a registered Clinical Psychologist Angela worked in a group private practice in Ballarat where she particularly enjoyed seeing expectant and new parents as part of the clients she treated. She supervised provisionally registered and registered psychologists, and held a Lecturer role at Federation University Australia. More recently, Angela has been the Acting Director of the FedUni Community Psychology Services which provides psychological assessment and treatment to adults and children in the Ballarat community.
Across her career, Angela has been committed to strengthening the well-being of families to help them manage and thrive during challenging times. Her interest in the perinatal period developed from a recognition that many difficulties had their beginnings in the early postnatal period, or during the early years of parenting. As her interest developed in this area she completed specialised perinatal mental health training with Postpartum Support International (PSI) which reinforced her desire to assist expectant and new parents at this important life stage.
Current Practice
Angela works in private practice in Ballarat, focussing specifically on providing individual treatment to women and their families across the preconception, antenatal, postnatal period and early childhood parenting period. She assists women (and men) who are experiencing anxiety, depression, stress, adjustment to pregnancy and parenthood, birth trauma, reproductive grief and loss, family of origin issues, and the re-emergence of pre-existing mental health problems during the early parenting years. She also offers treatment for clinical disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and mood and anxiety disorders.
Approach to Therapy
Angela has a warm and collaborative approach, taking time to understand parents’ individual needs and values to inform the development of a shared plan towards their identified hopes and needs. Whilst Angela’s approach to working with families is informed by the specific problem at-hand, she draws on a variety of therapeutic approaches including Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Metacognitive Therapies (MCT), Mindfulness-based approaches, Emotion-Focussed Therapy (EFT) and Schema-Focussed Therapy.
Research
Angela’s PhD research focused on the emotional well-being of the siblings of children who had suffered an acquired brain injury (ABI), in recognition that a traumatic event for one child can have implications for the whole family. In more recent years, in conjunction with student researchers, she has carried out projects investigating the consequences of maternal and paternal fatigue on parents’ anxiety, stress and depression levels, how primary caregiving fathers seek out social support, father’s attitudes towards seeking help for mental health difficulties, and the role of mindfulness and self-compassion in the relationship between fatigue levels and depressive symptoms.
Publications
Giallo, R., Dunning, M., & Gent, A.C. (2017). Attitudinal barriers to help-seeking and preferences for mental health support among Australian fathers. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, Reproductive and Infant Psychology 35: 236–47.
Lesniowska, R., Gent, A. & Watson, S. (2016). Maternal fatigue, parenting self-efficacy, and over-reactive discipline during the early childhood years: A test of a mediation model. Clinical Psychologist, 20, 109-118.
Riley, K., Gent, A., McLaren, S., Caunt, J. & Stavropoulos, V. (2018). The fatigue and depressive symptom relationship in mothers of young children: The moderating role of mindfulness. Mindfulness, April, 1-11.
Professional affiliations
Registered with Psychology Board of Australia (PBA)
Registered Supervisor Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
Member Australian Psychological Society (APS) College of Clinical Psychologists
Member APS Perinatal and Infant Psychology Interest Group (PIPIG)
Registered Circle of Security parent educator
Member of The Perinatal Loss Centre
