Our Services

The clinicans at Brainwave Psychology & Assessment have extensive experience in undertaking complex assessments, and using a variety of psychotherapeutic approaches to find one that suits you and your family.

How can we help you?

Marie is an approachable and empathetic clinician who provides assessment and treatment for children, adolescents, and adults presenting with a broad range of difficulties including anxiety and mood disorders, emotion regulation issues, grief and loss, identity issues, ADHD, learning, and autism. By gaining a thorough understanding of your neurotype, strengths, and difficulties, we can support you to advocate for your needs, liaising with educators and employers to create the best environment for your brain.

Marie has a particular interest in working with children and adolescents following her vast experience across school, not-for-profit, government settings and in private practice. She enjoys working collaboratively with young people and their families, drawing upon a range of evidence based therapeutic approaches including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing techniques to meet their needs. Marie has accumulated extensive experience delivering therapeutic interventions to clients from all ages and backgrounds, and with a variety of mental health, neurodevelopmental, and learning concerns.

Marie provides a supportive and safe environment for individuals to explore and understand their experiences and offers creative ways to assist them to develop more adaptive coping strategies and ways to express themselves.

Psychological Therapy

At Brainwave Psychology and Assessment, our psychological therapy services delve deeper than surface-level behaviours to uncover the underlying factors influencing challenges you or your child may face.

At Brainwave Psychology & Assessment, we embrace the neurodiversity paradigm, recognising the value of diverse neurological makeups, and affirm LGBTQI+ practices, ensuring an inclusive and supportive environment for all individuals. Our therapy sessions are designed to provide a secure, comfortable, and open atmosphere for people to express themselves. We excel in crafting enjoyable and interactive settings that cater to the concerns of children, adolescents, and adults. We customise therapies that are suitable for each developmental stage to address the specific needs that arise.

Psychology is more than just a means to address learning and development hurdles; it’s a supportive pillar for managing behaviors, emotions, and thoughts, as well as fostering and enhancing mental well-being. Our services equip individuals with effective thinking strategies and problem-solving skills, essential for navigating life’s complexities and maintaining mental health.

Psychological Assessments

If you or your child is experiencing any difficulty in school, work, or in your relationships, Brainwave Psychology and Assessments can help. For over 20 years Marie has helped people of all ages understand their amazing and unique brains.

Not everybody finds learning or communicating easy, and there are several reasons why this may be. Marie’s job is to figure out why things may be difficult, develop strategies and tools to overcome, or work around these difficulties, and liaise with educators/employers to create the best environment for your brain.

Through a nuanced understanding of your child’s individual learning profile and educational needs, Brainwave Psychology and Assessment can provide customised strategies and recommendations to help them reach their full potential.

Brainwave Psychology and Assessment provides a range of assessments to develop the profile of your child’s individual strengths and difficulties. To develop your child’s profile, a variety of psychometric assessments may be used including cognitive, academic, behavioural, communication, executive functioning, and attentional tests.

Our assessments result in written reports and include feedback sessions. These reports are designed to be accessible and are filled with practical strategies that can be applied to support your child’s learning.

Psychoeducational Assessments

(Functional assessments of literacy and numeracy)

A psychoeducational assessment combines a full cognitive assessment with additional tests that assess functional strengths and weaknesses in areas such as reading, writing, mathematics, and social and behavioural skills. Brain Wave Psychology and Assessment use the Cross Battery Analysis approach to ensure the core components of a child’s academic domains are assessed.

This assessment is an integral part of the Therapeutic Assessment process, which aims not only to understand the child’s academic and cognitive profile but also to facilitate self-discovery and promote psychological growth.

A comprehensive cognitive and educational assessment can pinpoint any underlying learning difficulties that your child or adolescent may be facing.

For students who show signs of advanced abilities, we offer additional testing for academic and cognitive giftedness, along with tailored recommendations to support and enrich the experiences of gifted and talented students.

Psychoeducational assessments can help in the identification or diagnosis of:

Specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia or dysgraphia (challenges with reading, spelling, and writing).
Attention and memory issues (for instance, ADHD).
Intellectual disability.
Intellectual giftedness.

Cognitive and Functional Capacity Assessments

A cognitive assessment is a personalised intelligence test that generates a Full-Scale IQ or General Ability Index. When combined with additional assessments and insights from parents and educators, the outcome of a cognitive assessment yields an in-depth report that can inform individualised intervention and educational plans, or aid in diagnosis of intellectual disabilities.

Cognitive assessments are often undertaken for a number of reasons including:

It may be recommended by an educator or healthcare professional.
To gather a comprehensive profile of intellectual functioning.
To uncover cognitive strengths and difficulties.
To assist in the detection of intellectual giftedness, specific learning disabilities, intellectual disability, an Autism Spectrum Condition, or ADHD. Please note that a cognitive assessment alone cannot be used for the formal diagnosis of the aforementioned conditions, and further assessment is necessary.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Assessment

A thorough assessment is needed to make a diagnosis of ADHD, including careful assessment of possible co-occurring or alternative conditions. ADHD commonly co-occurs with other medical, neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions. At Brainwave Psychology and Assessment, any ADHD assessment will include cognitive, academic, executive functioning and behavioural assessments.

The Psychologists at Brainwave Psychology and Assessments are appropriately registered and adequately trained in diagnostic assessment using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental Disorder (DSM) to diagnose ADHD.

A medical assessment to exclude other causes of the symptoms, is important to identify any associated disorders that also require investigation, intervention, and support. It must be noted that Psychologists are not able to prescribe medications. Paediatricians, Child Psychiatrists, and Psychiatrists will complete their own assessment to determine if diagnostic threshold is met, and can provide pharmacological treatment that is most effective in reducing core ADHD symptoms.

The benefit of a Brainwave Psychology and Assessment is that a full assessment can help you figure out the cause of the challenges you see (ADHD, a processing disorder, anxiety, learning disorder, or something else) and the best way to intervene.

Autism Assessments

Autism is a complex and evolving diagnosis. There are many challenges Autistic individuals face, and many gifts that come with this different kind of wiring. Brainwave Psychology and Assessment undertakes Autism assessments with a team of Speech Pathologists who have extensive experience in autism assessments and undertaking complex language assessments. Brainwave Psychology and Assessments work from a multi-disciplinary and neurodiversity-affirming framework.

Neurodiversity is the idea that having different kinds of brains is important and critical for our society. If everyone thought the same way, we wouldn’t come up with new ideas. Actually, many people who have made a big difference in the world think or learn in a way that’s not typical.

When we look at Autism through the idea of neurodiversity, it helps us see what skills a child or adult might need to learn and how their special way of seeing things is really important. Knowing both these things helps them be themselves in the best way possible. The neurodiversity lens does not diminish the real and difficult challenges that Autistic people experience and acknowledges that many Autistic people require support.

In accordance with the latest guidelines (https://www.autismcrc.com.au/access/national-guideline) a comprehensive assessment combining assessors from speech pathology and psychology will ensure that accurate diagnostic conclusions are made, and appropriate recommendations are given.

In some circumstances a Paediatrician and either a psychologist or speech pathologist report may suffice for access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and the education department (this should be confirmed with your school).