In addition to her private practice Belinda is a lecturer in Postgraduate Clinical Psychology (Child & Adolescent) and provides teaching, supervision and conducts research in Autism, Intellectual Disability and Mental Health. Belinda maintains strong links with the Children’s Hospital at Westmead where she worked for over a decade in the development, evaluation and dissemination of the award winning Westmead Feelings Program (formerly called Emotion-Based Social Skills Training for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Mild Intellectual Disability). Belinda has published her research in peer reviewed journals and regularly presents on developing emotion and social skills for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability at national and international conferences.

Belinda has received multiple awards and prizes in recognition for her work, including the 2018 People’s Choice Award in the Western Sydney University Research Impact Competition for her work in “Preventing Mental Health in Autism”. Belinda was previously awarded the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disability (IASSID) MENCAP Early Career Research Scholarship in 2016. Belinda was also awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award and a University of Sydney Merit Award to undertake her PHD research, as well as a scholarship under the Mental Health Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme to undertake a Masters of Clinical Psychology at Charles Sturt University. Belinda completed her Bachelor of Science (Psychology) at the University of Sydney where she received First Class Honours and the prestigious University Medal.

Daniella has a special interest in child and adolescent mental health. She has undertaken specialist training in these areas and in psychometric testing with Dr Belinda Ratcliffe.

Daniella is committed to taking a collaborative, holistic and evidence-based approach to helping individuals understand their experiences and achieve their goals. Daniella has experience working with children, adolescents, adults and families in community and forensic mental health settings. Daniella tailors the treatment approach for each individual. She has training in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, amongst other treatment approaches.

In addition to her role at the Emotions Clinic, Daniella is a Clinical Psychologist at Prince of Wales Hospital where she is collaborating on projects involved in screening for autism and mental health treatment in autism.

Daniella is passionate about working in research to inform clinical practice. She has published her research in peer reviewed journals and is a Sessional Academic at Western Sydney University, teaching units in Psychology Honours.

Publications

• Saleme, D. M. (2020). The multifaceted nature of risk-taking in drug addiction. In A. A. Moustafa (Ed.), Cognitive, Clinical, and Neural Aspects of Drug addiction (41-60). Academic Press: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816979-7.00003-0
• Saleme, D. M., Kluwe-Schiavon, B., Soliman, A., Misiak, B., Frydecka, D., & Moustafa, A. A. (2018). Factors underlying risk taking in heroin-dependent individuals: Feedback processing and environmental contingencies. Behavioural brain research, 350, 23-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2018.04.052

Laura has a special interest in autism and intellectual disability and has undertaken training and extensive individual supervision with Dr Belinda Ratcliffe in this area.

In addition to her role at the Emotions Clinic, Laura works in a specialised multidisciplinary intellectual disability and mental health team within NSW Health. In this role, she provides clinical assessment, consultation to other psychologists, and engages in research in intellectual disability and mental health. Indeed, Laura is passionate about research and has published several research articles in peer reviewed journals. Laura continues to collaborate with Western Sydney University, where she also teaches in psychology.

Previously, Laura has worked as a School Psychologist, based in a High School in South-West Sydney, and in a non-government disability service in Southern Sydney.  Laura takes a warm, empathetic and non-judgemental approach to working collaboratively with all patients.

Publications

Garrido, S., Cheers, D., Boydell, K., Nguyen, QV., Schuber, E., Dunne, L., & Meade, T. (2019). Young people’s response to six smartphone apps for anxiety and depression: focus group study. JMIR Mental Health.

Garrido, S., Stevens, C.J., Chang, E., Dunne, L., & Perz, J. (2019). Musical Features and Affective Responses to Personalised Playlists in People with Probable Dementia. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias.

Dunne, L., Perich, T., Meade, T. (2018). The relationship between social support and personal recovery in bipolar disorder. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal.

Garrido, S., Stevens, C. J., Chang, E., Dunne, L., & Perz, J. (2018). Music and dementia: Individual differences in response to personalised playlists. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Garrido, S., Dunne, L., Perz, J., Chang, E., & Stevens, C. J. (2018). The use of music in aged care facilities: A mixed-methods study. Journal of Health Psychology.

Garrido, S., Dunne, L., Chang, E., Perz, J., Stevens, C. J., & Haertsch, M. (2017). The Use of Music Playlists for People with Dementia: A Critical Synthesis. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Novembre, G., Knoblich, G., Dunne, L., & Keller, P. E. (2017). Interpersonal synchrony enhanced through 20 Hz phase-coupled dual brain stimulation. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

Talia has a special interest in autism and intellectual disability, and enjoys working with children, adolescents and young adults. Talia has also conducted and published research under Dr Belinda Ratcliffe at Western Sydney University in the area of emotion regulation of children with autism. This research was presented at the Asia Pacific Autism Conference at Singapore in 2019.

In addition to her role at the Emotions Clinic, Talia is a Clinical Psychologist (registrar) at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Inpatient Ward at Campbelltown Hospital/ (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) at Liverpool Hospital). This role involves Talia working within a multidisciplinary team (such as psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists) to holistically support young people with complex mental health needs. Talia is trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (TF-CBT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), and has previous experience as a support person in the disability sector.

Talia is also an online facilitator for the Westmead Feelings Program (WFP): Facilitator Certification Course at the Australian Council of Educational Research (ACER) Institute, where she assists the learning of professionals to achieve certification in the WFP course.

Talia takes a warm, kind and empathic approach when working with all individuals within a collaborative framework.

Publications

• Burton, T., Ratcliffe, B., Collison, J., Dossetor, D., & Wong, M. (2020). Self-reported emotion regulation in children with autism spectrum disorder, without intellectual disability. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 76 1750-9467. Doi: 10.1016/j.rasd.2020.101599.

• Camfield, D.A, Burton, T.K., De Blasio, F.M., Barry, R. J., & Croft, R.J. (2018). ERP components associated with an indirect emotional stop signal task in health and depressed participants. International Journal of Psychophysiology 124 12-25. Doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2017.12.008.