Colleen Alford is a senior social worker based at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead Eating Disorders Service. She has been working in the eating disorders field for 13 years. She has extensive experience with both inpatients and outpatients, primarily working in a family based therapy model.

Throughout 2017 and 2018 she provided Family Based Treatment training and ongoing consultation to over 500 clinicians as part of the NSW Eating Disorders Workforce Development Plan.

Colleen has been providing training and supervision in family therapy and family based treatment for over ten years. She has a special interest in AN and ASD, as well as eating disorders and trauma.

Consultation Modality: Consultation will be focused on working therapeutically with children, adolescents and families utilising evidence based, reflective practice.  My main modalities are Family Based Treatment and Systemic Family Therapy. Consultation will be based around case discussion and common themes that may emerge from these case discussions such as strengthening engagement and therapeutic alliance, managing complexity and conflict, utilising family strengths and expertise. The consultation group will be tailored to the group’s needs throughout the consultation process.

Availability: Fortnightly session. 1pm, Thursdays (AEST).

Watch this short Q&A session with social worker Colleen who talks about what to expect if you join her online consultation group:

Terrill is a dietitian with over 25 years experience working with people around their relationships with food, body and eating. Her work has included both public and private eating disorder services in Melbourne, across inpatient, day program and community treatments and with both adults and adolescents. Currently she is working in private practice and consultancy and in the provision of clinical supervision for dietitians, emphasising motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral skills enhancement and from a weight neutral framework.

Consultation Modality: Consultation will encompass all aspects of dietetic work across eating disorder diagnoses and settings for treatment. This can include how nutritional therapy fits with various evidence based modalities such as FBT and CBT-E, scope of practice, dietetic boundaries and self care. A reflective but structured approach will be used with 2 participants each time being asked to bring a case or situation for all to discuss. Terrill is trained in motivational interviewing for supervision and has been running group supervision for some years so is comfortable working in this setting and supports practice standards for supervision for dietitians that are available on the DAA website.

Availability:
Friday at 9am AEST (sessions may begin on 8 or 15 October)

Watch this short Q&A session with dietitian Terrill Bruere APD who talks about what to expect if you join her online consultation group:

Anthea Fursland has practiced as a clinical psychologist for 40 years, in the UK, US and Australia. Over the past 15 years she has consulted with clinicians all over Australia. Anthea uses various treatments in her practice, mostly CBT-E (trained by Fairburn), and also SSCM (trained by its creator, Gini McIntosh).

Consultation Modality: Enhanced Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT-E) and Specialist Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM): I am flexible with timing and frequency of consultations. I believe that good, regular consultation improves clinician confidence and competence, thus resulting in better outcomes for our patients. I find that what works best is people presenting a case, which not only raises issues pertaining to that case, but is helpful to others in the group. Also useful is going over a particular strategy (e.g., the formulation in CBT-E), using discussion, illustration, examples and role play.

Maria Ganci is an accredited Clinical Social Worker with a Masters in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and has over 30 years clinical experience working with children and adolescents.

The past 16 years have been devoted to specialising in Adolescent Eating Disorders both in the public and private sector. Maria currently works at the Royal Children’s Hospital Specialist Eating Disorder Clinic and holds the “Parent Education and Training” portfolio. Maria is a Director of APT Therapeutic Solutions that provides treatment, resources, training, supervision and consultation on a national and international level in Adolescent and Parent Treatments for eating disorders. Maria is the author of the following which the specific focus on enhancing treatment for adolescents and families – “Survive FBT – Skills Training Manual for Parents Undertaking Family Based Treatment”; “Unpack Your Eating Disorder – The Journey to Recovery for Adolescents in Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa & Atypical anorexia Nervosa”; “Letting Go of Ed – Embracing Me – A Journal of Self-Discovery”; ED Recovery – Trait, Critic & Sage Therapy Cards.

Consultation Modality: FBT (Family Based Treatment), APT (Adolescent & Parent Treatment), AFT (Adolescent Focused Treatment), & PFT (Parent Focused Treatment).  All aspects of treatment are covered with a particular focus on developing and enhancing clinical micro skills within each modality; engaging and resourcing the adolescent; as well as building parental skills that empower them to renourish their adolescent and manage their child’s distress. Consultations are available to all levels of experience from beginners to experienced clinicians in group or service settings and will accommodate the needs of the group.

Availability: 4 x fortnightly sessions

Thursdays, 10:30 – 11:30am (AEST).

Watch this short Q&A session with Maria who talks about what to expect if you join her online consultation group:

Mandy Goldstein is a Clinical Psychologist who has worked in the treatment of eating disorders in the private practice context for more than 13 years. She has undertaken research on the dissemination of evidence based treatment to private practice, and is well placed to support those considering working in or transitioning to the private practice space. Mandy has also trained in day program and inpatient environments, and works with teens and adults across the spectrum of eating disorders.  She has provided supervision to those working in eating disorders since 2012 and runs workshops on the treatment of eating disorders. Mandy works with adults, teens and children with eating disorders, and uses a range of treatment models in her practice, most prominently Family-based treatment, and CBTe. She brings a range of experience across different treatment models, including a sound understanding of the core principles of working with eating disorders, as well as working with patients with trauma backgrounds.

Consultation Modality: Consultation groups will be via case presentation brought by consultees:

1. For those working with adults sessions will draw primarily from CBTe
2. For those working with teens, sessions will draw primarily from FBT, with some flexibility to include AFT & APT as needed.Sessions will be informed by an understanding of the core principles of eating disorders and their treatment, and will draw on other evidence based treatments including MANTRA, Interpersonal psychotherapy, and Adolescent Focused Therapy as needed. Sessions are intended to support both novice or more experienced clinicians wanting to enhance their skills and reflect on practice, and aim to support improved confidence and competence in working with this complex group of patients.
3. New: Tele-medicine consultation: multimodalThese sessions are aimed at helping manage the adaptation of your usual practice to telemedicine in the face of the pandemic. Topics will be adapted to suite individual needs in the group, but may include adapting your usual mode of practice to telemedicine, assisting patients with the impact on their eating disorder of the pandemic and social isolation, and their response to online therapy. These sessions will be useful for clinicians treating adults and / or children, working in different therapeutic modalities with a focus core principles in the treatment of eating disorders.

Availability:
Date: Starting end of May/June
Days/Time: Tuesday 11am/1.30pm or Friday 1pm (AEDT) 1 hour session
Frequency: 4 x fortnightly sessions

Watch this short Q&A session with Mandy Goldstein who talks about what to expect if you join her online consultation group:

Katryna Henry is a Senior Social Worker at Central Coast Area Health Service with the Eating Disorders Outpatient Service. Katryna has worked in the public sector for over 25 years and in the private sector over the last 7 years as a Mental Health Social Worker and Clinical Supervisor.

Katryna has over 15 years’ experience specialising in the field of Eating Disorders with extensive experience in the assessment and provision of evidence-based practice of Family Based Treatment (FBT) in the outpatient setting, and in particular with complex presentations.

Throughout 2017-2018 Katryna was FBT Champion for the district and was involved in facilitating support, consultation and training for clinicians as part of the NSW Eating Disorder Workforce Plan.

Katryna has since continued to provide consultation and supervision to staff within the public and private setting.

Consultation Modality: Consultations will focus on clinicians building skills and confidence in the delivery of the evidence based practice of Family Based Therapy. The groups can discuss individual cases or general themes that are identified and discussed in a reflective framework. Consultations will draw primarily from FBT principles but may draw on Systemic Family Therapy, Adolescent Focused Therapy (AFT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy – Enhanced for Adolescents (CBT-E for adolescents). Group consultations can focus on the complexities of families and empowering parents in supporting their young person in recovery and managing levels of distress. Groups will accommodate the needs of each group participant. Welcome any level of experience from beginners to more experienced clinicians.

Availability:
4 x fortnightly sessions. Fridays. Flexible with times from 11:30am – 3pm AEST. 

Dr Jenny Jordan is a clinical psychologist / associate professor at the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch, NZ where she teaches and undertakes clinical research.

She has authored or co-authored SSCM publications with Dr Virginia McIntosh, and has delivered numerous SSCM training workshops to clinicians internationally.

Consultation Modality: Jenny recommends consultees wishing to join her group are: 

• familiar with SSCM, having attended an SSCM workshop
• experienced in treating those with eating disorders
• skilled in counselling or psychotherapy
• currently receiving clinical supervision of their practice.

Availability: 4 x fortnightly sessions.  Mondays 5-6pm AEST / 7-8pm NZ time.

Kellie Lavender is a Registered Psychotherapist who works with anorexia, binge eating disorder, bulimia and everything in between with both adolescents and adults. Over the past 10 years, Kellie has specialised further in working with adolescents and young adults with anorexia nervosa. 

She is currently the only clinician in New Zealand certified in providing and supervising Family Based Treatment (FBT) and is a faculty member of the Training Institute for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders (Stanford, USA). www.train2treat4ed.com.

She is also formally trained in Adolescent Focussed Therapy (AFT), an evidence based individual approach for treatment of anorexia in adolescents. Kellie also has expertise in a number of other therapy modalities. These include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Enhanced (CBTE), Maudsley Anorexia Treatment for Adults (MANTRA), Supportive Specialist Clinical Management (SSCM) and Integrative Cognitive Affective Therapy (ICAT) for the treatment of adults with eating disorders. Depending on the diagnosis and presenting issues, she also utilises Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Motivation Enhancement Therapy (MET), Psychodynamic and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is a mindfulness-based approach to recovery. 

Kellie also specialises in supervising other clinicians working in the eating disorders field and is an expert at supervising Family Based Treatment. She currently provides supervision to treatment teams across New Zealand and individuals internationally undergoing the formal FBT certification process.

Consultation Modality: FBT & AFT.

Availability: Days/Time: Tuesday or Wednesday 12pm (AEDT) / 2pm (NZ time)

Dr Annaleise Robertson is an experienced clinical psychologist who specialises in systemic and psychodynamic frameworks for working with young people, their families, and the clinicians/teams that support them. Annaleise typically provides family therapy for eating disorders, including FBT and Family Therapy for Anorexia Nervosa (FT-AN) as done by Ivan Eisler and the Maudsley team. This approach, combined with applying systemic or psychodynamic frameworks, are useful additions for therapists who are new to or familiar with FBT, or for complex cases which feel stuck due to other individual or systemic issues. Annaleise prioritises formulation driven therapy and strives to help clinicians develop treatment plans which balance best research evidence, therapist experience and patient preference. Annaleise has worked in a full-time clinical role at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead since 2012, with extensive experience in both inpatient, outpatient and group therapy. She spent the past two years (2019-2021) living in London to undertake further study in these approaches at the Tavistock and Portman Institute and to work at the Maudsley Centre for Child and Adolescent Eating Disorders. Annaleise has provided regular training, consultation, supervision and workshops in eating disorders since 2013, including for the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC), The University of Sydney and has also developed a brief DBT-based family therapy adjunct.

Consultation Modality: 

1. Family therapy for eating disorders (FT-AN) as a useful addition for clinicians new to or already using FBT (child and adolescent cases)
2. Systemic and psychodynamic frameworks to explore current cases which can apply to other modalities (e.g. FBT, CBT-E etc.). This framework encourages reflection on personal and systemic influences relating to the clinical material, as well as focusing on the therapeutic or working alliance.

The specific needs of each group can be determined once we commence, but generally the best learning opportunities come from having one person present a case which we can then explore collaboratively by developing the formulation and applying systemic and/or psychodynamic frameworks as part of evidence informed treatment. The aim is to be open to new ways of thinking about cases using a variation of the ‘weaving thoughts’ method. We can also make time for skills or education as requested. I have been described as having a thoughtful, respectful and approachable style.

Availability: Day/time: Monday 1pm. Consultation frequency is flexible although I generally find regular supervision works best on a fortnightly or monthly basis. 

Watch this short Q&A session with Dr Annaleise Robertson who talks about what to expect if you join her online consultation group:

Michelle Roberton is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and  has over 30 years experience as a dietitian working in mental health and eating disorders. She has worked in a wide variety of care setting including eating disorder specific services and private practice.

Michelle is currently the Manager of the Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders which she has been associated with for the last 14 years as a senior clinician providing clinical consultation, professional development and service development support for Victorian health professionals working with people experiencing eating disorders.

Consultation Modality: Dietetic. Consultation will focus on the role of the dietitian working with people experiencing eating disorders, in particular in community settings. This includes care team planning and functioning; professional responsibilities, boundaries and self-care needs.

Dietetic consultation and care to complement and support evidence-based mental health interventions (eg FBT or CBT-E). Consultation will take a case based approach, for each session 2 participants will be requested/nominated to present a case or situation for the group to discuss and reflect on.

Michelle has extensive experience in provision of single practitioner and group case consultation for all professions involved in eating disorders care and management.

Availability: Day/Time: Thursdays 4pm (AEST). 4 x Fortnightly sessions. 

Dr Amy Talbot is the director, founder and senior clinical psychologist at The Talbot Centre, a centre of excellence and innovation that houses Australia’s largest private multidisciplinary outpatient feeding clinic. In 2018 she was awarded Australian Psychologist of the Year at the inaugural Australian Allied Health Awards. With over 10 years research and clinical experience, she has published multiple articles, and delivered keynotes, workshops, and training focused on feeding disorders across the lifespan. Amy is trained in a range of modalities appropriate to working with feeding disorders, including cross-disciplinary approaches and has been providing supervision and case consultation in this area for over 5 years.

Consultation Modality: ARFID. Consultations will focus on increasing participants confidence and skills for working with individuals across the lifespan presenting with ARFID and other feeding challenges. Consultees will be exposed to a range of emerging treatment approaches for working with these populations and will be supported to utilise a formulation driven approach to determining how best to support those in their care. Participants will be supported to consider how to best establish appropriate team care arrangements given the multifactorial nature of ARFID presentations and will engage in case discussion and reflective practice. Ideally consultation groups will be comprised of practitioners from varying disciplines to assist in enhancing the capacity to apply multiple lenses to understanding individual cases. Groups may be age specific (i.e., child and family; older adolescent and adult) or mixed depending on participant interest.

Availability: 4 x Fortnightly sessions.
Preferred Times: 9am or 10am AEST on Fridays.

Joan Thompson is an Australian psychoanalyst who is currently working in London at the Margaret Street Practice. She qualified as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist (adult) with the British Psychoanalytic Federation in 2009 and a psychoanalyst with the British Psychoanalytic Association in July 2011.

Consultation Modality: I am a psychoanalyist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist, with a special interest and experience treating patients with bulimia and other eating disorders, and supervising clinicians treating patients with eating disorders. I am very keen to bring my psychoanalytic experience to bear upon treating eating disorders and supervise eating disorder clinicians working with different models to:

• Explore their cases from a psychoanalytical & psychodynamic perspective.
• Incorporate analytical ways of thinking into their practice.
• Extend analytic ways of thinking and interpreting complex problems of eating disorders which may differ from the models and manuals they are used to.

Availability: Tuesdays 6pm AEDT; 5pm AEST | Fortnightly | From early 2021

Andrew Wallis has been booked out. We will let you know when he is open to take bookings for his second group consultations.

Dr Andrew Wallis is a Clinical Social Worker and Family Therapist. He has been working with adolescents and their families for more than 25 years. In 2003 with colleagues at The Children’s Hospital, Westmead, he established the first Family-Based Treatment program in Australia, and Multiple Family therapy for Anorexia Nervosa in 2014. He has been providing training, consultation and supervision in Australia and New Zealand for more the last 15 years, helping to support public and private services to implement family therapy approaches to adolescent problems. Andrew has also been involved in family therapy research with more than 25 per reviewed papers and book chapters including his PhD research on the impact of Family Based Therapy on family relationships during treatment. He is currently Co-lead of the Eating Disorder Service at Sydney Children’s Hospital Network – a tertiary service in Sydney, Australia.

Consultation Modalities:

Consultation Modality: Clinical Supervision Skills for Mental Health Clinicians – This consultation group will support new and experienced supervisors with a reflective practice opportunity to discuss experiences, develop good structures and processes for supervises, as well as troubling shoot current issues they may be experiencing with an experienced supervisor.

Clinical Supervision for Mental Health Professionals – This consultation is suitable for beginning supervisors and experienced supervisors. Discussions will aim to enhance current practice and support reflection, development of good structures and problem solving of current dilemmas. The agenda will be flexible to the consultants needs.

Availability: Preferred day is Monday and is flexible with time.