Background
Dr Nicole Canin is a PhD qualified psychologist with eighteen years of clinical experience. Nicole graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) with first class Honours in Psychology in 2003. She continued with postgraduate study and became a fully registered psychologist in 2006. For the last ten years, she has focused on providing therapy support to families with babies and young children.
Nicole was trained in Newborn Behavioural Observation, an approach she has used to support families with their infants. Nicole conducted this work in private practice and in community settings including Kangaroo Care Wards for premature babies.
Nicole has supervised, trained and lectured mental health professionals from a variety of health-care backgrounds. She developed and facilitated a 12-week course for mental health professionals entitled, ‘Intimate Encounters: An Introduction to Parent-Child Psychotherapy’. She lectured on the topic of ‘Attachment’ for the MSc (Med) and Diploma Child Health Neurodevelopment course run by the University of the Witwatersrand. Nicole also served as Chairperson of Gauteng Association of Infant Mental Health (GAIMH-SA) for three years.
In 2020, Nicole was trained and mentored by Margaret Cohen (international authority on therapeutic work with premature mother-baby dyads and author of the book ‘Sent before my time’). This training strengthened her expertise in supporting and guiding parents to bond and to recognise and respond in helpful ways to the communication and engagement of premature infants.
Doctoral research
Nicole obtained her Doctor of Psychology (Counselling) from University of Witwatersrand in 2024. Her research focused on understanding and supporting premature infants and their parents. She has published several research papers in this area (see below). Her paper on the trauma of premature birth ranked within the top 10% of papers downloaded from the International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies in 2022.
Current Practice
Nicole is passionate about supporting parents through their experience of pregnancy and parenthood. She recognises that attempting to become a parent can be painful and challenging, with stress, trauma and loss often colouring many parts of the journey.
Nicole’s extensive training enables her to address issues such as antenatal and postnatal anxiety and depression; birth-related stress or trauma and difficulties with bonding. Nicole supports parents who have struggled to fall pregnant or who have lost babies. She also supports parents who are trying to make decisions regarding ending or continuing with a pregnancy when a fetal diagnosis has been made.
Nicole works with parents who are struggling to bond with their babies, or who need help with calming and soothing their distressed infants. She also supports parents with toddlers and young children who are struggling in some way. For example, when children have been through a trauma or are having challenges with sleeping, emotional outbursts or separation anxiety.
As a parent-child psychotherapist (working with 1 to 5 year old children) Nicole promotes sensitive caregiving by helping parents to understand the developmental capacities and vulnerabilities of their children. She offers tailored parental guidance, helping parents to recognise their children’s needs, communication and behaviour. In many cases, minor adjustments in parenting can contribute enormously towards a child’s emerging self-esteem and emotional regulation capacities. Nicole also has an interest in supporting parents of premature babies to navigate the often challenging start to parenthood.
Approach to Therapy
Nicole provides both short- and long-term individual psychotherapy for women, parents and families. In her work, Nicole draws on psychodynamic theory, systems theory, attachment theory, cognitive-behavioural techniques, as well as the latest neurodevelopmental, infant and child research. Nicole is an insightful, caring, and warm psychologist. She is dedicated to helping parents get off to an optimal start to their parenting journey and to repair and build health relationships with their children in the first 5 years of their children’s lives.
Her treatment approach is collaborative and uniquely tailored to her client’s needs. Where required (and with consent), Nicole liaises with GPs, Psychiatrists, Maternal Child Health Nurses and Paediatricians to ensure the best possible care for her clients.
Professional Affiliations
Registered with the Psychology Board of Australia (PBA)
Member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS)
Member of the Australian Association for Infant Mental Health (AAIMH)
Clinician at the Littlies Clinic
Publications
Canin, N. (2023). Exploring countertransference in psychoanalytic research: Reflecting on being a researcher, a psychotherapist, a mother and a human being in a neonatal high care unit. Psychoanalytic Practice, 31 (1), 19-52.
Canin, N. (2022). Premature infancy: a 25-year scoping review of psychoanalytic journal articles. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, 37 (1), 4-40.
Canin, N., & Bain, K. (2022). The trauma of premature birth for mothers with infants in neonatal high care: The role of dissociation due to traumatic childhood experience. International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, 20 (1), 106-119.
Canin, N., & Bain, K. (2022). Intersubjectivity in Premature Infant-Mother Dyads: Maternal States of Mind and Premature Infant Responsivity. Psychoanalytic Social Work, 1-23.
