Gabrielle is a general practitioner with 17 years experience, the last 10 spent predominantly working with mental health issues. She has 5 years advanced training in Solution Oriented and Ericksonian psychotherapy with individuals, couples and families. She runs workshops locally and internationally teaching Solution Oriented Family Therapy to health professionals, and has been a presenter at ASOCHA, PACFA and AFTA conferences around Australia. She also teaches counselling skills to medical students at the clinical school in Hobart.
Gabrielle works with all issues in individuals, couples and families. She has a wide experience in working with every day human dilemmas to severe chronic mental illness.
She has developed a special interest in working with children, adolescents and families. She is particularly interested in interventions which assist families and individuals to regain their strength and resilience in problem situations such as child and adolescent behavioural problems, bullying, school issues, illness in a family member, and relationship breakdowns within the family.
Her focus is both on solution generation and on preventative strategies, particularly in children at risk of developing serious and debilitating conditions such as anxieties, phobias, depression, somatisation disorders and psychotic illnesses. She believes in including parents, and building strong parent child relationships, rather than working with children in isolation. She actively includes children’s important relationships with extended family, friends, caregivers and teachers to assist their increased connectedness and actively prevent isolation and alienation which can escalate mental ill health.
A recent focus has been working with children with chronic illness who have anxieties or phobias related to medical procedures with the use of medical hypnosis. This is an extension of her work with adults with chronic pain, chronic illness, anxieties and phobias. There is growing evidence in the literature of the usefulness of hypnosis in significantly reducing pain and anxiety, reducing the need for analgesic medication as well as an associated reduction in adverse events during invasive medical procedures.
[email] or phone 0418 549 421