Clinical Psychologist
Co-Director

Tessa is a Clinical Psychologist registered with the New Zealand Psychologists Board and a full member of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists.  She has worked in both the public and private sectors, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Seattle, Washington, USA where she received supervision from Dan Finnegan and training from Dr Marsha Linehan, the developer of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).  She is a DBT-Linehan Board of Certification, Certified Clinician. 

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Within New Zealand, she has been a researcher on several initiatives, including a Cochrane Review of effective treatment for depression for adolescents and on a treatment development study for adolescents using DBT to treat eating disorders. She has also been involved in implementing the Family Connections programme here in New Zealand, which is an international programme that supports family members of individuals who experience severe emotional dysregulation. She is a registered trainer for this programme.  

 

She specialises in working with adolescents, adults, and families who are experiencing a variety of challenges including depression, anxiety, trauma, emotion regulation problems, self-harm, suicidality, relationship problems, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), ADHD, and eating disorders. 

 

She believes in using evidence-based models of therapy, and uses Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), CBT for Eating Disorders (CBT-E), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Maudsley Family Based Treatment (FBT), Prolonged Exposure (PE), and Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR). 

 

Tessa is also a trainer for DBTNZ and offers supervision and training for therapists and teams, particularly in the areas of DBT, eating disorders, trauma therapy, and DBT programme implementation. 

 

She believes it is important to work from a warm, compassionate, non-judgemental stance so that people can feel understood and to develop a genuine and connected therapeutic relationship; when change is required this can then be explored openly and collaboratively to help you achieve your goals and live a meaningful and fulfilled life. 

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