Presenters' Profiles
Josephine Beatson is a senior clinical advisor to Spectrum, a consultant psychiatrist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist with over 30 years experience in public and private settings. She is a Senior Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, and has a particular interest in the understanding and treatment of severe personality disorders. Dr Beatson was the principal author of the book ‘Borderline Personality Disorder: towards effective treatment’, published in 2010.
Julian Browne is a psychologist with a background in psychotherapy with individuals, groups and couples, and has worked in both forensic and community settings around complex clients with a history of trauma. He has an interest in innovative training methods, and systems theory as applied to families and organisations.
Harry Constantinou is a psychologist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist who works within Spectrum's Community Services Team as a senior clinician providing consultation and individual treatment. He has over 10 years clinical experience working in various community settings and is also in private practice.
Kate Cooke is a psychiatric and general nurse, psychodramatist and anthropologist. She has had 37 years work in a variety of public and private, psychiatric and non-psychiatric settings in Australia and New Zealand. She has worked with individuals and groups as a nurse, therapist, trainer and mediator. Kate works at Spectrum as a senior clinician leading the kinaesthetic groups within the Treatment Services Program.
Debbie Dick is senior clinician, psychiatric nurse and family therapist at Spectrum. She has over 23 years experience in mental health working in a variety of areas including inpatient, crisis and outpatient community treatment settings. She has been working at Spectrum for about 13 years providing consultation to public mental health, training and direct treatment for clients and families.
Jan Giffin is an occupational therapist, family therapist and psychotherapist who is the team leader of Spectrum's Community Services team. She has worked as a case manager and therapist in community and inpatient mental health settings.
Michelle Gopold is a psychologist with over 7 years experience in the public mental health sector, in research, and in private practice. She works predominantly from an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy framework and also has a strong interest in psychodynamic and developmental perspectives in the context of adult functioning and personality.
Ben McGill is a social worker. He is also practicising clinical psychoanalysis. Ben has many years experience with psychiatric disability and rehabilitation services (PDRS), carer services, youth work and CAMHS.
Kelly McMahon is a clinical psychologist with 20 years experience in adult mental health and psychotherapy. She is currently the team leader of the Spectrum community treatment team. She was instrumental in designing Spectrum's group therapy program in 1999, and prior to this worked in CATT, inpatient units, and case management. Kelly has an interest in group and individual psychotherapy with clients with complex and high risk presentations.
Hita Mistry is a clinical and forensic psychologist. She works in the community treatment team at Spectrum providing ACT and MBT based group interventions and individual psychotherapy. Hita has over 10 years of clinical and research experience predominantly in the forensic sector, both in the UK and Australia and in private practice. She has a particular interest in the contributions and clinical utility of psychodynamic theory in the treatment of personality disorder.
Sathya Rao is the Director of Spectrum and a consultant psychiatrist. He is a DBT therapist and has a keen interest in teaching and training. He held the position of Chair of the Victorian Psychiatry Training Committee for over six years. He is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer are the School of Psychology and Psychiatry at Monash University.
Radmila (Rada) Semec is a psychologist and psychotherapist working with Spectrum's Community Services Team. She has a particular interest in the understanding of individuals with personality disorder and the development of individualised treatment approaches.
Janina Tomasoni is a psychologist and psychotherapist who has worked with complex and challenging individuals across a number of public mental health and disability settings as well as private settings over the last 16 years. Currently she works in Spectrum's Community Services Program providing intensive psychological support to clients and services. Janina has a particular interest in the adaptation of psychological therapies to people with cognitive deficits.
Robert Trett is Spectrum’s Associate Director. Robert joined Spectrum in 2001, he has over 25 years experience in mental health work as a nurse and psychotherapist and since the late 1990’s has specialised in working with Borderline Personality Disorder. He has completed advanced training in Mentalization Based Treatment and uses this model when working directly with people with borderline personality disorder. Robert is an adjunct senior lecturer with the Rural Health School, Faculty of Health Sciences, La Trobe University.
Peta Welsh is a clinical psychologist who is training in psychoanalysis. Her work at Spectrum as part of the Community Services Team is predominantly the provision of individual treatment to those who are deemed difficult to engage and to treat and more recently this has focussed on adolescents and young adults. Her previous work experience includes dual diagnosis and psychiatric disability support. Her interest is in how to sustain clinical interest and vibrancy in the face of chronicity and complexity.
Katie Wyman is a psychologist who has worked as a clinician and researcher in public mental health for the last 10 years. Her individual and group work is largely influenced by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Humanistic frameworks. Katie is currently researching the contribution of therapists' personal charateristics to the therapeutic alliance.