Meet Our Team
To meet privacy standards and Medicare auditing requirements, secure IT platforms are used by Emerge Psychology™ and its members enjoy access to clinical advice, support, and peer networking to support their work in Telehealth.
All Allied Health Clinicians at
Emerge Psychology™ are:
Medicare Providers
Registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency or AASW
Actively engaged in CPD and peer review to support their delivery of Telehealth
Working as part of a multidisciplinary team
FAQs
What is the standard gap fee? The standard fee is $115 out-of-pocket (after a Medicare rebate), and bulk billing is limited to citing a current health care card.
Can I book an appointment on this page? Current patients are invited to book subsequent sessions with their clinician below. If you are not an existing patient of this service and book in below, your appointment will be cancelled pending an accepted referral from your GP.
How can new patients book? Referrals are screened by Intake Triage for suitability for our service. On acceptance of a referral, we will contact the patient to offer an initial intake assessment and appointment. If you have not heard back 14 business days after sending your referral phone 1300 963 723 and leave a message requesting a check on the status of your referral and we will return your message. We endeavour to notify referring GPs within 14 business days if we cannot accept a referral.
Can I request my preferred clinician? Clinicians with current availability have this listed with their profile below. Referrals can be addressed generally to Emerge Psychology™ or to your preferred clinician.
Why isn’t this a free service? As psychologists we love our work, and we wish we could provide treatment for free, but our ideals need to be balanced with providing you with an ongoing sustainable service and integrated comprehensive care. Hence our fee (after the rebate) is $115 out-of-pocket, and bulk billing is limited to citing a current health care card. Our research indicates that our fees are in line with industry standards and well below the recommended fee of the Australian Psychological Society. If you can find a comparable service that is more affordable, please let us know the details.
Nicole Hayes,
Founding Director,
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Melissa Lethbridge,
Clinical Advisor
Clinical Psychologist
Alanah Ralphsmith
Intake Coordinator
Elizabeth Ford
Psychologist
Kendall Fitzgerald
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker
Valentina Bongiorno
Psychologist
Emily Cialini
Clinical Psychologist
Natalie Trinajstic
Clinical Psychologist
Natalie, a Clinical Psychologist with over 21 years ..working with all ages ..complex mental health issues.
Emily Henderson
Clinical Psychologist
Beth Schuck
Psychologist (Clinical Masters Registrar)
With more than 20 years as a practicing psychologist, and currently completing her Master of Clinical Psychology, Beth
Susan Athaide
Clinical Psychologist and Advisor
Danielle Fallins
Psychologist
Nirali Maru
Psychologist
Tracy Spencer-Lloyd
Psychologist
Susan Athaide, Clinical Psychologist and Advisor
Susan Athaide holds endorsement as a Clinical Psychologist provider through Medicare. Susan has 26 years of experience across a range of settings and is trained as a Clinical and Educational Psychologist. She runs an established private practice in Brighton, Victoria, treating depression and anxiety disorders using cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).
Rachel Salisbury, Psychologist
Anna Oborn, Psychologist
Emily Henderson, Clinical Psychologist
Emily is a clinical psychologist with a double degree in Psychology and Legal studies with over eleven years’ experience. She has worked with individuals, couples, and small groups across a range of settings including mental health, drug and alcohol, acute trauma, and general counselling. Before settling in Melbourne, Emily lived in rural NSW and WA and has a personal understanding of issues impacting those residing in remote settings.
Emily utilises a range of therapeutic approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Solution Focused Therapy. Emily provides a therapeutic space which is warm, caring and non-judgemental. She is committed to supporting clients to strengthen problem solving skills, increase coping strategies and achieve their personal and professional goals.
Dr Melissa Lethbridge, Clinical Psychologist
Dr Melissa Lethbridge, Clinical Psychologist is the is the Clinical Advisor of Emerge Psychology™. With over 10 years of experience, Melissa’s professional background involves working across a range of public mental health settings including child and youth mental health, a Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team (CATT), emergency department mental health, psychiatric triage, and as a senior clinical psychologist in a suicide prevention service. Alongside her work in public mental health, she also operated her own private psychology practice in Melbourne for many years before joining Emerge Psychology.
Melissa started her journey at Emerge Psychology by providing psychological telehealth sessions to people living in rural and remote areas in Australia. Most recently, she has joined the operations team in the role as an advisor. She provides advice on the processes and systems at Emerge Psychology to help strengthen the ongoing growth and development of telehealth services.
Stephanie Cooper, Psychologist
Stephanie Cooper is a psychologist with extensive experience providing mental health counselling to regional, rural and remote people from diverse cultural backgrounds. With a career that includes working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service whilst living in a remote community, she has firsthand knowledge of the unique challenges faced by those living and working in small communities and managing environmental hardships and isolation.
Stephanie is passionate about creating a safe and warm environment, focusing on personal strengths and skills to facilitate growth and lifelong change. Stephanie utilises a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) approach and uses skills in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and various other therapeutic approaches.
As a member of Emerge Psychology™, Stephanie is based in the Bega Valley NSW and provides bulkbilling Telehealth Psychological treatment to adults and adolescents in rural and remote areas. Stephanie has considerable experience delivering psychological Telehealth services and works with older adolescents and adults experiencing a broad range of difficulties including anxiety, depression, adjustment problems, substance use and life stress and has particular interest in trauma and abuse.
Emily Cialini, Clinical Psychologist
Emily is a dedicated clinical psychologist specialising in a variety of evidence-based therapeutic modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Schema Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Mindfulness-Based Therapy. With a profound passion for guiding individuals towards mental well-being, Emily creates a safe, supportive environment for clients seeking personal growth and healing. With a career working in the public mental health system, in both hospitals and in the community, Emily has worked with people from all different walks of life and a wide variety of issues.
Emily’s practice is founded on a commitment to tailoring therapeutic approaches to suit each individual’s unique needs. Whether addressing anxiety, depression, trauma or other challenges, Emily collaborates closely with clients to facilitate transformative changes. With a compassionate and empathetic approach, Emily is devoted to empowering individuals in their pursuit of a more balanced and fulfilling life.
Dr Melissa Lethbridge, Clinical Psychologist
Dr Melissa Lethbridge is a clinical psychologist with over 10 years of experience in the field. She grew up in country NSW and recently moved back to her hometown where she provides telehealth services to adults across the age spectrum. Melissa’s professional background involves working across a range of public mental health settings including child and youth mental health, the Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team (CATT), emergency department mental health, and psychiatric triage. Most recently, Melissa has been employed as a senior clinical psychologist in a suicide prevention service.
Melissa has expertise in treating a variety of psychological disorders including depression, anxiety, personality disorders, addiction issues, and eating disorders. She also has a special interest working with clients experiencing suicidal ideation, work stress, and relationship issues. As a clinical psychologist, Melissa uses evidence based psychological interventions which are individually tailored to meet the needs of each of her clients. She is currently completing the Advanced Certification Training in Schema Therapy and offers this therapeutic approach alongside Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in her practice. Her
therapeutic style involves guiding her clients through a journey of self-discovery to identify areas of meaningful growth and lasting positive change.
Tracy Spencer-Lloyd
Tracy Spencer-Lloyd has worked for over 30 years in the not-for-profit Community Services sector, in rural and remote Victoria, NSW, South Australia, the NT and Tasmania, and currently lives in North-West Tasmania. During that time, she has gained qualifications and experience in the fields of Narrative Therapy, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy techniques, CBT, Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy, Sandplay Therapy, Theraplay, Family therapy and therapeutic DRUMBEAT, and has applied these in therapy with children, adolescents and adults experiencing anxiety, depression, stress and other mental health issues, including the effects of trauma, sexual abuse, family violence, substance addictions, and grief. She also offers couple counselling based on Emotional Focussed Therapy approaches, and parenting programs based on attachment theory.
Tracy has had first hand experience living and working in a number of rural and remote communities across Australia, and is currently a member of the APS Rural, Regional and Remote Advisory Group, using her experience and knowledge to advocate for appropriate services for these populations. She is passionate about supporting wellbeing in wholistic and creative ways that build on the strengths and opportunities of rural living. Tracy believes that wellbeing for individuals, families and communities is achieved when we can express our preferred identities and live in accordance with the values that matter to us.
As a member of Emerge Psychology™, Tracy is based in North West Tasmania and has had considerable experience delivering psychological Telehealth through both phone and video, and including with those experiencing COVID lockdown. She has recently completed all requirements for full Registration as a Psychologist.
Michael McSweeney
Michael is an AASW Accredited Mental Health Social Worker with 13 years’ experience. He has worked in community mental health and private practice in general counselling. Michael gained accreditation as a counsellor in 2014 and has provided general counselling since that time. He gained his Masters in Applied Mental Health in 2017. As a member of Emerge Psychology™, Michael provides treatment across the lifespan.
In counselling, Michael uses a range of therapeutic approaches especially CBT and Mindfulness-CBT, elements of ACT and Solution Focussed therapy. Michael supports the principles of Trauma-Informed Care and a family/systems-based approach that includes the context of a person’s life. Michael has worked across the lifespan and with families and children. He has a strong interest in human psychological development.
In the Community Mental Health setting, Michael provided acute care to the general population, as well as to older people as a specialty in the rural/remote setting. He undertook research in providing care to older people and has written a book distilling his experiences in this field, titled “Mental Health, Recovery and the Older Person”.
Michael engages with the community through community theatre and gained a Winston Churchill Memorial Fellowship focused on engaging isolated people in rural and remote communities through theatrical performance. He has strong values about community connection as related to mental health and wellbeing.
Elizabeth Ford
Liz is a registered psychologist with over ten years of experience working with adults across community, health, corporate and correctional settings. Liz is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for clients while working with clients to reach their goals and improve wellbeing and health. Liz utilizes various approaches including; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Schema Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing techniques to address a variety of issues including; mental health, interpersonal problems, adjustment and grief, workplace stress and trauma.
Elizabeth Ford
Liz is a registered psychologist with nine years of experience working with adults across community, health, corporate and correctional settings. Liz is committed to providing a safe and supportive environment for clients while working with clients to reach their goals and improve wellbeing and health. Liz utilizes various approaches including; Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Schema Therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing techniques to address a variety of issues including; mental health, interpersonal problems, adjustment and grief, workplace stress and trauma.
Valentina Bongiorno
Valentina, registered psychologist, is passionate about well-being and works with adults, adolescents, children and parents to create a supportive environment where clients can explore their lives with care and understanding. She brings a warm, joyful approach to her practice, offering a range of therapeutic techniques including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to adults needing support with anxiety, depression, stress, life transitions, parenting and interpersonal difficulties. She believes that working collaboratively with clients forms a strong base for overcoming challenges and fostering significant, meaningful and lasting change.
Sandra Pucci
Sandra is a clinical psychologist with over 26 years of experience in working with children and adults in a variety of settings, including hospitals, community health services and private practice. Sandra has extensive experience in working with children and adults from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
Sandra uses CBT in her work treating depression, anxiety and managing stress, grief, addiction, migration issues, and self-esteem concerns.
Sandra’s therapeutic aim is to work collaboratively with her clients to enable them to have access to their best resources.
Natalie Trinajstic
Natalie is a Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years in working with people with complex mental health issues. She works with all ages, including couples and families with issues with anxiety, depression, substance use, emotion regulation, trauma and relational issues.
Natalie provides psychological interventions using an eclectic approach drawing on her skills in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and family systems therapy. She adopts a collaborative, client centred approach, with an emphasis on helping clients gain an understanding of their story to empower them to make healthy changes in their life.
Nirali Maru
Nirali is a registered psychologist who strives to offer a warm, respectful and nurturing therapeutic space to assist clients in reaching their goals and achieving a balanced quality of life. Nirali has worked across the lifespan over the course of 6 years within the private setting and has a particular interest in working with adults from all walks of life and challenges.
Nirali utilises a transdiagnostic integrative clinical approach, attending to each clients assessed needs. This includes evidence-based interventions such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness – Based Therapy, Motivational Interviewing (MI), and Solution Focused Therapy, Schema Therapy. Nirali endeavours to provide a compassionate, engaging and non-judgemental environment to safely explore past and current difficulties to enhance psychological wellbeing.
Natalie Trinajstic
Natalie is a Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years in working with people with complex mental health issues. She works with all ages, including couples and families with issues with anxiety, depression, substance use, emotion regulation, trauma and relational issues.
Natalie provides psychological interventions using an eclectic approach drawing on her skills in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and family systems therapy. She adopts a collaborative, client centred approach, with an emphasis on helping clients gain an understanding of their story to empower them to make healthy changes in their life.
Beth Schuck
With more than 21 years as a practicing psychologist, Elisabeth has enjoyed working together with people to make sense of things and find ways to enhance their life in spite of what it presents. Beth has worked across public, private and community mental health services drawing on therapeutic approaches such as Cognitive behaviour therapy, Dialectical behaviour therapy, Interpersonal psychotherapy and Solution-focused therapy. She currently works with adolescents and adults across a range of issues within a secure and compassionate therapeutic relationship. Beth values learning and is currently completing her Master of Clinical Psychology.
Danielle Fallins
Using Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness-based therapies and Motivational interviewing and with 15 years of experience in providing therapy across a range of psychological presentations, Danielle is a supportive and friendly psychologist. Danielle has genuine interest in listening to people’s stories and understanding the challenges they face with practical and evidence-based strategies tailored to the individual needs of each client, Danielle works with those aged 12 years and above.
Tracy Spencer-Lloyd
Tracy, Psychologist, works with children, adolescents and adults. Tracy has worked for over 30 years in the not-for-profit Community Services sector, in rural and remote Victoria, NSW, South Australia, the NT and Tasmania, and currently lives in North-West Tasmania. During that time, she has gained qualifications and experience in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy techniques, CBT, Family therapy among other modalities, and has applied these in therapy with children, adolescents and adults experiencing anxiety, depression, stress and other mental health issues, including the effects of trauma, sexual abuse, family violence, substance addictions, and grief. She also offers couple counselling based on Emotional Focussed Therapy approaches, and parenting programs based on attachment theory.
Tracy has had firsthand experience living and working in a number of rural and remote communities across Australia, and is currently a member of the APS Rural, Regional and Remote Advisory Group, using her experience and knowledge to advocate for appropriate services for these populations. She is passionate about supporting wellbeing in wholistic and creative ways that build on the strengths and opportunities of rural living. Tracy believes that wellbeing for individuals, families and communities is achieved when we can express our preferred identities and live in accordance with the values that matter to us.
As a member of Emerge Psychology™, Tracy is based in North West Tasmania and has had considerable experience delivering psychological Telehealth. She has recently completed all requirements for full Registration as a Psychologist.
Leonie Patrice
Leonie is a registered psychologist with over 35 years of professional experience. Leonie is a compassionate listener, who will introduce you to a range of traditional psychological skills and evidence-informed cutting-edge techniques.
Nicole Hayes
Nicole, Clinical Psychologist, and Founder of Emerge Psychology loves working through Telehealth, both with her Melbourne patients since the pandemic, as well as with rural and remote Australians. Nicole is taking limited referrals as she is almost at-capacity, so new referrals are to be sent to intake for consideration.
Nicole Hayes
Nicole, Clinical Psychologist, and Founder of Emerge Psychology provides face to face sessions for Melbourne patients since, as well as for rural and remote Australians through Telehealth. Nicole is almost at-capacity, so new referrals are to be sent to intake for consideration.
Kendall Fitzgerald
Kendall is an accredited mental health social worker and his career experience in the helping profession (17 years) has been both in generalist counselling roles through his employment positions in statutory Government departments and more recently in adult community mental health. Kendall has had exposure to counselling across the lifespan from youth to adults and older generations. He has also had experience working with Indigenous clients and those from other diverse communities who use English as a second language.
Kendall has a passion for working with clients to better manage both anxiety and depression. Kendall employs a range of strategies when working with clients including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and motivational interviewing (MI). Kendall has a strong interest in mindfulness as an approach to managing various mental health conditions and he describes his overall approach to working with clients as operating from a strengths perspective, which is essentially about identifying the strengths that are inherently present in everyone.
Kendall has, during his career, been deployed to support community members “on the ground” at several disasters including both bushfires and floods and he is aware of the unique requirements of those needing support in such a crisis.
Being a father to three young adults, Kendall is very aware of the stressors that can be experienced by young people who are facing the challenges that the contemporary world presents (both good and bad) and can assist by teaching strategies that can be employed by both parents and young people alike to better manage these stressors.
Kendall holds the view that a client comes to therapy to address problems that they are encountering but that they hold the answers and solutions to these problems. It is the role of the counsellor to help and assist the client to find those solutions and to provide strategies to help them manage and overcome their presenting problem(s).
Alanah Ralphsmith
Coordinator, with incredible great attention to detail. In addition to working at Emerge Psychology, Alanah works as a Pharmacy Assistant part-time while working towards completion of qualifications in Nursing.
Important Information:
Referral Information for GPs
A note to GPs: All referrals received are examined for suitability for Telehealth and suitability for our service on a case-by-case basis. This may take some time and patients must be adequately supported across this transition time. Indeed, due to the limitations of Telehealth, patients do require local support, and ascertaining that adequate local supports and safety plans exist, is part of our intake assessment process. GPs must indicate upon referral, whether the patient is going to book in themselves, or whether GPs would like us to contact the patient to arrange an appointment. We will advise referring GPs if we require further information to complete our intake assessment and will reply to the referrer in the event that we are not able to accept your referral.
New Policy
Our psychologists at Emerge Psychology™ all work independently in their own thriving private practice locations around Australia. The precious resources of their skills must be best-utilised, therefore, we regret to advise that a $50 cancellation fee will apply to cancellations with less than 24 hour’s notice, in the unlikely event that we are unable to re-fill the appointment.
Clinical Advisor
Dr Melissa Lethbridge, Clinical Psychologist is the is the Clinical Advisor of Emerge Psychology™. With over 10 years of experience, Melissa’s professional background involves working across a range of public mental health settings including child and youth mental health, a Crisis Assessment and Treatment Team (CATT), emergency department mental health, psychiatric triage, and as a senior clinical psychologist in a suicide prevention service. Alongside her work in public mental health, she also operated her own private psychology practice in Melbourne for many years before joining Emerge Psychology.
Melissa started her journey at Emerge Psychology by providing psychological telehealth sessions to people living in rural and remote areas in Australia. Most recently, she has joined the operations team in the role as an advisor. She provides advice on the processes and systems at Emerge Psychology to help strengthen the ongoing growth and development of telehealth services.
Operations Manager
Mark is the Operations Manager of Emerge Psychology™. Mark is a member of MFAA and has many years of experience in Customer Service.
Before your session please be aware of the following
By using this resource and attending sessions through Emerge Psychology™, you are agreeing to the provisions of this Disclaimer and the Consent Agreement – must be read and agreed to before the first session
Please ensure you have read the following prior to your initial session and advise your consultant psychologist of any questions:
Consent Agreement – must be read and agreed to before your first session