Vanessa Allen

Kind, caring and passionate about helping others

Vanessa is the founder of Evolving Minds and wanted to create a space where children, teens and adults would feel heard and valued.  She also wanted to create a space of calm and caring.  Vanessa is a Mental Health Social Worker, Psychotherapist and Counsellor.

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Vanessa is an empathetic clinician who strives to empower her clients in achieving and maintaining change that is in line with their values.  Vanessa has worked with people from diverse backgrounds, across the lifespan and enjoys working with people of all ages.

Vanessa's greatest joy is seeing others thrive, realise their potential, harness their strengths and walk beside them as they overcome challenges.   Vanessa is able to gain rapport with even the most resistant clients and feels this is due to her calm, authentic and caring nature.

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Vanessa is also an avid learner and is constantly updating her skills and knowledge in line with evidence based, best practice.  As well as a love of learning, Vanessa is also a gifted teacher and presenter.

​Before moving into private practice, Vanessa worked in the government and non-for profit sector in the area of child protection and out of home care, providing assistance to children, adults and families who were impacted by trauma. She is experienced in working with complex behaviours and presentations, including oppositional defiant disorder, ADHD, ADD, sensory processing disorders, difficulty with self-regulation, suicide prevention and self-harm.  Vanessa also works in the area of eating disorders, is a member of ANZAED and is listed on the Butterfly Foundation Referral Database.

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Vanessa's approach in working with families is both multidimensional and collaborative, as she believes our best outcomes come from working collaboratively with family and key stakeholders.  Vanessa is also a trained family counsellor.

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Vanessa is highly qualified and has a special interest in counselling children, adolescents and adults in the areas listed below:

therapeutic interventions

• Acceptance and Committment Therapy (ACT)

• Art and Play Based Therapy

• CBT-E

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

• DBT-E

• Dialectal Behavioural Therapy (DBT)

• Family Therapy

• Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)

• Maudsley Family Based Therapy

• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

• Motivational Interviewing

• Narrative Therapy

• Psychodynamic Therapy

• Schema Therapy for Eating Disorders

• Solution Focused Therapy

• Strengths Based

• Theraplay Informed Practices

Special interest in

• Abuse (Sexual, Physical, Psychological)

• Anxiety

• Body Image/Self Esteem

• Depression

• Developmental Trauma

• Domestic Violence

• Eating Disorders (Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, Disordered Eating)

• Family Violence

• Identity

• Lifestyle Management

• Neglect

• Parenting

• PTSD

• Reparative Parenting

• Self-harm

• Suicide Prevention

• Trauma

qualifications

• Master of Social Work

• Graduate Diploma in Psychological Science

• Graduate Diploma in Counselling

• Graduate Certificate in Developmental Trauma

• Bachelor of Applied Social Science (Management)

• Certificate in Group Work Theory and Practice

• Certificate IV in Training and Assessment

• Level Two Theraplay and Marschak Interaction Method

Facilitator of:

• Peaceful Kids

• Bringing up Great Kids

• Tuning Into Kids

memberships and professional registrations

• Australian Association of Social Workers

• Australian Psychological Society (Affiliate)

• Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia

• College of Psychotherapy

• ANZAED (Australia and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders)

• Butterfly Foundation Approved Clinician

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