Dr Caroline Zanetti is a perinatal and infant mental health specialist with many years experience working with young families. Caroline has a special interest in research particularly the infant-parent relationship and the transition to parenthood.
Julia Feutrill is a locally adult trained psychiatrist with extensive experience in perinatal, infant and womens’ mental health. She works with women with hormonal issues that impact on their mental health, men and women considering pregnancy, or struggling with sub fertility or loss, and those already on the way to being a parent. She loves working with families long term and travelling alongside them to support them throughout their years of parenting. Some of her patients and their families have been with her now for more than 10 years.
Dr Feutrill aims to provide individualised comprehensive care, to not only treat mental health disorder, but to help each patient reach their potential in life, love and work. Excellent care is not just about medication. In fact, medication is only one small part of being well. Dr Feutrill works with other care providers, family members and other important supports, to create the ‘village’ that we all need to be healthy and happy. Dr Feutrill works closely with many of the obstetric providers in WA and can often support families to negotiate their way through the obstetric process.
Dr Gavin Hutana is an experienced General Paediatrician working across the Public and Private sectors in Western Australia. Gavin completed his General Paediatric and Paediatric Rehabilitation training at Princess Margaret Hospital and has transitioned to Perth Children’s Hospital. Gavin is keen to review and manage children with a variety of developmental, behavioural, medical and psychological conditions. Gavin enjoys working with families to improve the quality of life of their children.
Dr Aggie Bakowski is a general paediatrician, with a special interest in infant and parent mental health. She completed her specialist training at Princess Margaret Hospital, and has further qualifications in Infant and Parent Mental Health through the University of Melbourne. She continues to work at Perth Children’s Hospital as well as consulting privately. She is passionate about her work with families and their children, and as a mother of three children herself understands the chaotic juggle of parenting and modern life. Dr Aggie welcomes referrals related to General Paediatrics, as well as developmental and behavioural concerns.
Dr Rae-Chi Huang is a Paediatrician specialising in the treatment of infants, children and adolescents. She is passionate about helping children and their families. She has a special interest in the treatment and prevention of obesity, diabetes and related disease. Associate Professor Huang obtained her medical degree (MB BS) from the University of Western Australia in 1995 and her Paediatric Fellowship from the Australasian College of Physicians in 2003. She holds a PhD from the University of Western Australia (2010) on the Childhood precursors of adult cardiovascular disease.
Paediatric Dietitian, APD
Catherine loves children and has practiced as a Senior Paediatric Dietitian in Perth & London hospitals and clinics over the past 22 years. Catherine has two young boys, loves music, plays the violin, enjoys going to the theatre and ballet, loves travel, art, quilting, the beach, going out for dinner with her husband and friends and eating in general!
Over the past 20 + years she has developed a wide breadth of experience in Paediatrics and Maternal Health and would be delighted to provide Medical Nutrition Therapy for your family.
My area of expertise is in helping mums and babies to breastfeed. I am often asked to help when mum and baby are having difficulties with feeding that require a medical assessment. This can include persistent nipple and breast pain, low milk supply or poor weight gains, oversupply, recurrent mastitis or a baby who is distressed about feeding or having trouble attaching to the breast. I have a particular interest in helping mums who are experiencing mental health difficulties such as depression and anxiety as well as difficulties with feeding. I also see women antenatally who are identified at being a risk of difficulties with feeding such as following breast surgery, or those who have difficulties with a previous baby and who want to plan for a more successful feeding experience with their new baby.
I have always enjoyed a varied career across public, private and research settings. While I do a lot of clinical work in perinatal and infant mental health, my client groups predominantly range from women, mothers and infants, children, health-care professionals and elite/Olympic athletes. There is remarkably similar overlap in the underlying biopsychosocial and systemic impacts on adjustment and identity transitions, intense performance requirements under pressure, and intergenerational wellbeing impacting on the stability of ecosystems (family, team, work). In all my roles I am committed to a person-centered framework that places my working relationship with the client as the major vehicle through which change can be explored and support offered. I hope to offer my clients a warm base from which they can explore their struggles and their strengths to arrive at a pathway through challenging times, whether this is situational, relational or mental health, or indeed, most of the time, a collision of all the intersecting parts of life.
In my research roles, I have enjoyed the unique position of translational researcher. This means I am sometimes the clinician supporting research teams to ensure research is meaningful to the “end user” (the client/patient/family) or I am the researcher supporting clinical teams to engage in evidence-based research. Research projects that I have been involved in previously span typical and atypical neurodevelopmental observational research in more than 2000 school age children via Project KIDS, intervention research for young children impacted by trauma, translational support for literacy and numeracy research in remote Aboriginal communities, trauma informed care for new mothers of infants admitted to intensive care environments and wellbeing interventions for staff supporting families in the NICU.
Karen Dare is an Accredited Mental Health Senior Social Worker. She is a qualified couple and family therapist. She is qualified in perinatal and infant mental health through the institute of psychiatry in Sydney. Karen has significant expertise in helping young families. She is a circle of security and Lighthouse facilitator. She can provide comprehensive assessment and care that takes account of psychological, parenting and developmental issues for each child. Karen can offer medicare rebated sessions to women in the perinatal period under the non directive pregnancy counselling initiative. She can offer rebates for her sessions under a medicare mental health care plan and some private health funds.
Alexandra Sherriff is a neurodiverse affirming, trauma informed, HAES aligned, and LGBTQIA+ friendly clinical psychologist who is passionate about discovering how people make meaning and create joy in their life. Her area of special interest is working with neurodivergent children, youth, and adults to: help them understand how their complex minds work; develop their self-esteem; and find their niche in life. She also loves to collaborate with parents of young neurodivergent children help understand how their child’s “operating system” works, so that they can feel more confident in connecting and supporting their loved one as they travel life together.
Alexandra’s brings to the therapy space a warm, curious, and dynamic personality. Her therapeutic stance is anchored upon two tenets: 1) that relationships play a central role in our neurological development and psychological and health; and 2) that children (and sometimes adults!) learn best through play. She is informed by research in the fields of Attachment Theory, Interpersonal Neurobiology, developmental neuroscience, and relational psychoanalysis, as well as recommendations made by different Neurodivergent Adult Advocacy groups. She is also an accredited Circle of Security facilitator.
She is also able to provide comprehensive neurocognitive psychometric assessments to help quantify a person’s personal cognitive profile of strengths and vulnerabilities, or to identify the presence of learning or attention difficulties. The information from the neurocognitive assessment can inform school and workplace accommodation recommendations, provide evidence for potential a diagnosis, and can provide a complementary adjunct to the therapeutic process.
Michelle is a Clinical Psychologist specialising in perinatal and infant mental health. She has extensive experience working with women, men, couples and families experiencing difficulties during the antenatal and postnatal periods. This includes difficulties with fertility, pregnancy, birth, anxiety, depression, adjustment to parenthood, ambivalence about a pregnancy, parent-child relationship issues, as well as miscarriage and stillbirth. Michelle aims for therapy to be a collaborative, supportive and empowering experience, helping people to make sense of their difficulties and develop practical skills that positively impact their mental health and quality of life.
Tanya is a WA trained adult psychiatrist who has worked for many years with women and their families, providing perinatal mental health care. She takes an individualised, collaborative and holistic approach to mental health recovery. Tanya has experience in attachment-based relational psychotherapy and has interests in training, supervision and research.
Louise is passionate about supporting mental and emotional wellbeing in children, adolescents and adults. She has a warm and collaborative approach to therapy that focuses on creating a safe space whereby people can make sense of their experiences and address their difficulties.
Louise holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology as well as a PhD in Psychology, which enables her to utilise psychological theories and interventions to support people to make change that is meaningful to them. She is also trained in the Circle of Security model of parent-child attachment, which she applies to help foster secure relationships between young people and their caregivers. She is non-judgemental and has experience working with people from diverse identities and backgrounds.
Becky Mildenhall is an experienced Mental Health Occupational Therapist and Family Therapist who enjoys the liveliness of working with young people and families to help them navigate life’s challenges. She takes a functional, developmental, attachment-based and systemic perspective on ‘problems of childhood’. Becky is passionate about improving the mental health of children and parents through fostering understanding and connectedness amongst family members. Her special interests include multi-generational work, and supporting families in the Perinatal period, early years, and periods of transition, including working with families of multiple births.
Mojdeh is a WA trained Adult Psychiatrist (MBBS FRANZCP). She has a special interest in individual psychotherapy and has completed the RANZCP advanced training in Psychotherapies. Mojdeh has experience in treatment of mood and anxiety disorders as well as Adult ADHD and trauma, including adverse family of origin experiences. She works with individuals across the lifespan from young adulthood into more mature years.
Mojdeh aims to collaborate a comprehensive management plan for each person which encompasses medications, psychotherapeutic interventions, family involvement as well as addressing wider social supports and structures.
Kanni is a consultant psychiatrist, with a special interest in perinatal psychiatry and in women’s mental health in general, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse background. She is also passionate about supporting mental health and general wellbeing of doctors, nurses and other health professionals. Kanni is an accredited supervisor of trainee psychiatrists and currently works across both the private and public sectors here in Perth. Apart from English, Kanni speaks fluent Tamil and Bahasa Malaysia.
Dr Sally Osborne is a general adult psychiatrist who has 20 years’ experience and expertise in treating the full range of mental health problems seen in the adult population. Her training and work experience started in the UK and has taken her to Spain, Switzerland, Zambia and now Australia. She has worked in regional and remote areas and with the Indigenous population. She works part-time at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and part-time at the Elizabeth Clinic.
Ideologically she is committed to providing a holistic, person-centred approach, viewing the individual in their familial, social and cultural environment. Her first degree was in Psychology, and whilst being skilled with the pharmacological treatments of mental illness, she does not focus on this alone and considers psychological and lifestyle factors to be very important in an individual’s recovery. She works within the self-management paradigm, encouraging the individual (and when relevant their families and carers) to collaborate in all treatment decisions.
She is happy to see people from aged 16 upwards with:
– mood disorders
– psychotic disorders
– anxiety disorders including Generalised Anxiety, Panic Disorder, OCD, PTSD
– perinatal mental health
– dealing with transitions / grief and loss
– family, parenting and relationship difficulties
Jo Naylor is a clinical psychologist who has experience working in both public and private clinical settings. Jo’s areas of interest include attachment and perinatal mood disorders. She offers a person-centred, neuro-affirming approach to individual therapy. Jo particularly enjoys supporting parents, both new and experienced, to grow in their capacity to meet the needs of their children. Jo has over ten years experience as a Circle of Security Facilitator.
Jennifer is a Clinical Psychologist with nearly 20 years’ experience supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of infants, children, adolescents, families, and adults. She has experience working across a broad range of settings, including public child and adolescent mental health services, private community-based and inpatient clinics, as well as not-for-profit organisations. Jennifer enjoys working with children, adolescents, and families and as such has developed her skills and expertise in this area. Jennifer provides evidence-based psychological interventions from an emotionally-attuned, attachment-based and systemic framework. She has a warm, empathic, collaborative, and supportive style to therapy, that she adapts to meet the developmental needs of her clients.
Jennifer has developed a special interest in the area of neurodiversity and supporting neurodivergent children and youth. She works from a neuro-affirming stance that embraces the fact there is naturally occurring diversity in human neurology, and this is something to be celebrated. She supports children and their parents by recognising their strengths as well as the challenges they experience being neurodivergent in a world predominantly set up to support and understand neurotypical brains and neurotypical ways of doing things.
Jennifer is able to provide Autism Assessments to children aged 3 – 14 years, as a Single Clinician or as part of a Consensus Team, alongside Speech Pathologists, Paediatricians and Psychiatrists. She is trained and experienced administering the ADOS-2, considered an evidence-based assessment tool for autism. Jennifer is passionate about supporting children, young people and their families to understand more about their brain and themselves to ensure they are well supported to flourish as they grow into their unique selves. Please contact the Elizabeth Clinic for more information about an Autism Assessment with Jennifer or any of her other clinical services.
Consultant Psychiatrist
Sara is an adult psychiatrist with a special interest in psychotherapy whose training has taken her throughout New Zealand and Australia.
Sara strives to offer an attachment and trauma informed practice based on a foundation of interpersonal dynamic knowledge, adapting to meet each client’s individual therapeutic needs. Sara has undertaken additional training and practice in Mentalization Based Therapy as a practitioner.
In her practice Sara has experience working adolescents with complex mental health needs and emotional regulation difficulties. She also works extensively with women in the perinatal period as well as those who have experienced trauma.
In addition to English, Sara is fluent in Serbian.
Consultant Psychiatrist
Dr Helen McGowan is a highly experienced Psychiatrist who has worked extensively in adult, older adult, and perinatal mental health services. She is currently focusing on Perinatal Mental Health. She is committed to holistic, collaborative, compassionate clinical care. Her approach is tailored to the individual and is aligned with evidence-based best-practice research from psychiatric, medical, psychological, and social disciplines.
