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Information about your clinical psychologist (see Melbourne Psychology & Counselling website for more detailed information)

Dr Claire Ahern

Dr Claire Ahern completed her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Swinburne University. 

Interests

As well as working with the disorders listed here, Claire specialises in the treatment of children & adults with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related disorders including Hoarding Disorder, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Trichotillomania (Hair-Pulling Disorder), Excoriation (Skin-Picking) Disorder
 

Therapy Approaches

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Solution Focused Therapy (SFT) 
Mindfulness-based practices such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). 

Claire also draws on Schema Therapy, Positive Psychology, Attachment and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy principles.

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Dr Christine Raab

Dr Christine Raab is a clinical psychologist with over 10 years experience in counselling and psychological therapy. Chris has worked in a range of settings, including private practice, community health centres, and public mental health settings (community care and primary mental health teams). 

Interests

Chris specialises in working with anxiety (including generalised anxiety, panic, agoraphobia, and social anxiety) and depression, as well as grief and trauma.

Chris also works with life transitions and interpersonal difficulties. 

An additional area of interest is focusing on the impact of cultural identity and migration/settlement experience on wellbeing and mental health.

Therapy Approaches

Chris' therapeutic approach is based on providing evidence-based treatments that respond to the individual client’s cultural identity, their particular presentation and preferences for treatment. 

Chris is interested in understanding the function and underlying causes of thoughts, emotions and behaviours that cause difficulty for clients. To this end her therapeutic approach focuses on interpersonal, attachment, emotion-focused and psychodynamic processes impacting on the well-being of clients.

Chris also provides treatment in additional modalities: cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), acceptance-commitment therapy (ACT), and narrative therapy.

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Sophia Villis

Sophia Villis completed her Masters in Clinical Psychology at University of Melbourne.

Interests

Sophia has a special interest in working with trauma and loss, eating disorders, self-harmful habits, and health conditions such as chronic pain and insomnia. 

She also has a focus on helping children, adolescents and their families, as well as with couples struggling with finding closeness and intimacy.

Therapy Approaches

Sophia’s general approach is to help clients feel comfortable (or at least more comfortable with unpreventable uncomfortableness) and generally more hopeful and confident in their outlook. 

She works collaboratively to help clients develop insight about the nature and origin of their difficulties and to learn practical and effective strategies that fit with each individual’s personal style.

She uses a range of evidence based therapies, including CBT and schema therapy, she draws on the science of attachment and the neuroscience of emotion, and uses methods from narrative and motivational interviewing schools and integrates techniques such as mindfulness and positive psychology.