About Marianna
I am a Clinical Psychologist and Mindful Self-Compassion Qualified Trained Teacher.
My psychology qualifications:
Grad.Dip. Psych., M.Clin. Psych., MAPS, FCCLP.
My core aim is to empower people by helping them face life’s challenges, particularly helping people become more compassionate towards themselves.
Before clinical psychology, I spent many years in the corporate world doing consumer research, strategy and training. Following this, I trained and worked as a Clinical Hypnotherapist. My qualifications include a Masters in Food Science and Nutrition, Advanced Diploma in Hypnosis, Masters in Clinical Psychology, and I am a Qualified Trained Teacher in Mindful Self-Compassion.
I have spent many years studying mindfulness and meditation and to continue I am currently enrolled in a Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP).
As a Clinical Psychologist I work with an array of mental health disorders with a particular focus on anxiety and post traumatic stress. My experience is in both private and public sectors and I work with people of all ages.
I take a holistic and empirically driven approach to determine the type of therapy used with a client. My choices are based on my client’s needs, life situation and issues; where I use a range of therapies which could include: Schema therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), Compassion Focussed Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment therapy and hypnosis.
My Journey To Mindful Self-Compassion
Over many years and long before I became a Clinical Psychologist, I had been exploring, learning and practicing meditation, mindfulness and hypnosis as a way to cope with life’s trials.
Like all people, I have been through my fair share of life’s challenges, and these techniques and way of being helped me cope.
I read Paul Gilbert’s Compassionate Mind in 2012(ish)– and this was my light-bulb moment! His work resonated with me so much; I loved the mingling of science and ancient practices, and started to integrate compassion into my work.
Being the learning-lover that I am, I also started to explore these techniques further and in 2020 when Covid struck us all I completed a course on Mindful Self-Compassion. It was quite a defining time for me – learning to treat myself like a good friend and being aware of my inner critic.
I was so passionate about what I learnt, and the new tools that I now have, that I want to share this wonderful work with everyone!
So, I took the path of becoming a trained teacher in the empirically-supported program developed by Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer: Mindful-Self-Compassion (MSC).
