Pronouns: She/Her
Robin is a warm and engaging clinician with a wealth of life experience. She values safety and collaboration in her relationships with her clients, and she likes to keep it real.
Approach
Robin’s approach is candid, straight-up, and she listens. She works with people on a level playing field and encourages them to build upon their strengths. She also recognises the value of humour. If you choose to work with Robin, she’ll start with what’s going on for you right now, in the present. She may also encourage you to think about your family, your community, your past and your future. She will be interested in your story, and how you want your next ‘chapter’ to look. And she hopes you’ll be able to have a laugh somewhere along the way.
Experience and Interests
Robin completed her psychology studies in New Zealand (NZ), where her first assignment was NZ prisons. Over the past 30 years, she has worked across community, residential, institutional, government, university and private consultancy sectors. Her work has taken her to inner-city communities of New York, and a variety of urban and rural/remote places in New Zealand, Victoria and the Northern Territory. Having worked with people from many cultural backgrounds, including First Nation Peoples, Robin is passionate about how issues around identity and culture influence mental health and wellbeing. Robin is experienced in working with young people and adults facing a range of difficulties including anxiety, depression, stress, interpersonal difficulties, substance misuse, trauma, grief and loss, and life transitions. She brings a holistic and strengths-focused perspective to this work.
Therapies
Robin draws on a range of therapies, informed by what will be most effective for her clients, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Interpersonal Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Motivational Interviewing. She has a keen appreciation of the wider social and cultural factors affecting her clients and integrates this into her work.
How is Robin Described by Her Clients?
Robin’s clients describe her warm, understanding, collaborative, analytical, genuine, and deeply rewarding to work with.
Robin Personally
Robin was born in America and grew up in New Zealand. She has lived in Melbourne for most of the past 25 years and has two young adult children whom she adores. Her interests include travel, sustainable living, reading and spending time in the great outdoors. She loves all things four-footed, especially if they have paws, claws or hooves. Robin is inspired by this karakia (Maori proverb): He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.