Background
Melanie holds a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Melanie’s interest in the perinatal field grew after two years of working on the Pregnancy, Birth and Baby helpline. This work gave Melanie a deep understanding of the issues parents face in pregnancy, labour, and the transition to parenthood. Melanie counselled women hopeful of conceiving, women who had experienced losses, and women processing conflicting feelings about an unexpected pregnancy.
Melanie has worked on a research trial for postnatal depression. Through her co-facilitation of interpersonal therapy groups, Melanie assisted mothers and their partners to resolve conflicts arising in their role transition to parenthood, including those related to grief and loss and interpersonal conflicts in their significant relationships.
Melanie has also worked in the not-for-profit sector, with vulnerable children and young parents impacted by trauma, as well as directly with their therapeutic carers. This has provided her with insight into the challenges of parenting from the perspective of both the parent and child.
Melanie is a sessional lecturer at Victoria University Master of Counselling program, teaching Applied Counselling of Grief and Loss including perinatal grief and loss.
Melanie’s doctoral research examined the emotional wellbeing of Australian Defence Force spouses.
Current practice
Melanie currently provides therapy to hopeful parents struggling with infertility, to bereaved parents who have experienced the loss of a baby, to expectant parents and to new parents looking for support in the transition to parenthood and beyond. Melanie helps people to understand how patterns within their own attachment relationships have impacted the difficulties they are facing in parenthood.
Melanie enjoys working with individuals and groups using the Circle of Security parenting intervention to support parents to better understand their behaviours, to better communicate and respond to their baby/child’s needs, and to build a secure relationship for the long term.
Approach to therapy
Melanie understands that negotiating the difficulties of the perinatal period can bring about a multitude of challenges and vulnerabilities. Melanie sees individuals presenting difficulties such as depression, anxiety, adjustment problems, relationship difficulties and profound grief and loss. Melanie assists people to uncover underlying past issues that may be playing out in their present struggles. Melanie primarily employs a psychodynamic approach to exploring, understanding and processing current distress and relationship patterns stemming from attachment relationships. Melanie also utilizes Eye-Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), an evidence-based technique to assist those who are experiencing distress in relation to birth trauma and other traumas.
Professional Affiliations
Registered with the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA)
Member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS)
Circle of Security® Registered Parent Educator
Member of Australian Association for Infant Mental Health
Member of the APS Perinatal and Infant Psychology Interest Group (PIPIG)
Registered with The Perinatal Loss Centre
