Owen Weatherley

Approach:

My therapeutic approach has an interpersonal and psychodynamic emphasis, helping clients gain deeper insight into themselves and their difficulties, develop self-acceptance and confidence, and resolve obstacles to emotional growth. My approach is collaborative, non-judgmental and insight-driven with a focus on building strong therapeutic relationships with people based on trust.

Experience:

After qualifying as a psychologist, I have worked at Headspace with young people presenting with a range of serious mental health issues. These have included personality disorders, depression, anxiety, ADHD, severe trauma, gender issues, interpersonal difficulties and abuse, social isolation and more. This work was challenging but very rewarding and exposed me to a range of mental health conditions. It provided me with an opportunity to develop my clinical experience in treating these issues and achieving positive therapeutic outcomes. It also developed my knowledge of mental health services available for people in need.

I have also been working in private clinics. This has similarly exposed me to a variety of mental health issues and built my skills as a private clinician. It has allowed me to work with adults of all age groups and diverse gender/identity and sexuality.. This has allowed me to treat clients across a range of life stages and their related difficulties. I have also worked with clients to achieve greater acceptance and confidence around identity and sexuality issues and relief from their related mental health struggles.

Prior to graduating I worked as a support worker and team leader for people with severe mental health disorders who were accessing NDIS for support. This role exposed me to severe mental health issues and the impact that a lack of resources can have on individuals. It also allowed me to gain experience in connecting with people beyond serious psychological disorders such as schizophrenia, dissociative disorder and bipolar disorder.

My experience to this point has provided me with exposure to a wide range of clients and mental health issues and a foundation on which to continue to build and develop as a clinician.