Location: Adelaide CBD

Allison Carcary
Psychologist
B.Sc. Psych (Hons), Grad. Dip. Mental Health Sciences (Child, Adolescent, Family Therapies), MAPS MCCOUNP

Allison is an experienced psychologist who is able to respond therapeutically with warmth, respect and empathy to those experiencing the often intense thoughts, feelings and sensations that can accompany the varying experiences related to childbearing. She is informed by the experience of her own pregnancies as well as 25 years of working with individuals, couples and families within both the private and public sectors.

Allison was employed in the National Perinatal Depression Initiative for a number of years and has developed her skills and expertise so as to focus on the individual’s experience in relation to the narratives of pregnancy. She is able to provide a safe and nurturing environment for individuals to express their concerns in relation to adjustment issues, mental health problems and their emotional wellbeing, as they negotiate the stages from preconception and pregnancy through to their child’s third birthday.

Individual therapy is provided to address issues which may be within the internal world of the individual such as coping with adjustment, changes in identities, perinatal grief and loss, or an increase in stress levels. Difficulties might be with current interpersonal interactions with the partner and/or baby, such as transitions and adjustments in family roles and infant-parent attachment. Concerns may also emerge in terms of the individual’s own early childhood experiences including their own experience of being parented.  Allison works to understand those anxieties, moods and conflicts that may accompany the many facets of pregnancy.

Allison engages collaboratively with the individual to establish a clear understanding of the presenting concerns employing a combination of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Mindfulness Based Therapies and Schema Therapy.  In Schema therapy clients work together with their therapist to address and modify deeper patterns or themes also known as schemas. The schemas that are targeted in therapy are enduring and self -defeating patterns that typically begin early in life. Schemas develop in response to our needs not being met (needs such as safety, love, emotional connection and attention) and are usually repeated throughout our lives within our relationships as adults. This is consistent with an understanding of child development and is informed by Attachment Theory.

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