OUR TEAM

Principal Psychologist – Kim Sheppard, M.Psych MAAPi

Kim is the Principal Psychologist and Director of CoolKid Psychology and has 30 years of experience working with children, adolescents and parents. Early in her career Kim dedicated herself to supporting neurodivergent children and their families within the home and at kinder/school. These years provided Kim with a comprehensive foundation on which to build and fine tune her therapeutic skills and provided her with the opportunity to develop a wide range of clinical skills that continue to serve her clients well today. Kim’s clinical skills have expanded to include trauma informed care, coupled with child lead and play based approaches of working with children. Kim’s clinical work extends beyond treatment modalities such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and evolved into contextualised behavioural science such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). In ACT clinicians are more focussed on the functions of thoughts and how these thoughts, actions, and the history and context that surround them, are linked to living an authentic
values driven life.

Kim is passionate about working with children and parents to assist them to develop clarity with their core values and develop the skills to work collaboratively with their children. Kim’s style of working with children and parents involves the clinician, child and parent joining together to approach problems with curiosity and warmth in order to work together as co pilots in the problem solving process, to increase awareness and develop skills within the family unit so they may navigate life together more harmoniously.

For older children and adolescents the challenge that presents in families is often one of navigating successful separation of the adolescent from the parent/s. This is a process that may include grief and conflict. As with younger children, Kim’s approach is one of collaboration and communication, guided by the core values of the family and the individual so as to maintain the family relationships as the connections evolve and transform.

Kim’s clinical work is guided by the overachieving principle of developing shared understanding, effective communication and collaboration. Psychoeducation holds a central place throughout all of Kim’s work with children and parents.

Kim’s curiosity into the humanness of others, and her passion for supporting vulnerable folx, lead her to further research. Kim found that there was minimal information and supports available to children with complex needs. To this end, Kim is currently completing a PhD in Pathological Demand Avoidance at La Trobe University and welcomes referrals of this nature. Kim is also available for clinical supervision, consultation and speaking opportunities.

Associate Psychologists

The clinicians at CoolKid include  a variety of Allied Health Practitioners experienced in supporting children, adolescents and parents.  Inward or Outward

Sanja

Sanja is a registered psychologist with 14 years of clinical experience. Sanja supports children from 12+ years as well as adults and parents. Sanja has a special interest in working with autistic and ADHD teens and adults. Additionally, Sanja’s clinical skills include, but are not limited to the following areas:

• Autism
• ADHD
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Sleep Difficulties
• Independent living skills
• Stress
• Parenting
• Child-parent conflict
• Social Differences and challenges
• Communication differences and challenges
• Interpersonal differences and challenges

Therapeutic Approach

Sanja therapeutically supports teens, parents and adults to identify barriers preventing them from living their best life. Sanja takes a client centred approach, working collaboratively to determine a client’s strengths and needs, and creating a plan to achieve their personal goals, and navigate any difficulties. Sanja provides Neurodiverse Affirming therapeutic supports by learning from those with lived experience and honouring each client’s culture and communication preferences. Sanja understands the dynamic nature of mental health and disability, assumes clients are competent and creates a safe space online that allows for open, professional and relaxed interactions that are engaging and helpful. Sanja uses a variety of creative therapeutic approaches (e.g.: art, games, Social Stories, visuals, and apps), in addition to Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Supportive Counselling, Solution Focused Therapy, and Somatic interventions, to tailor therapy to each client’s needs and interests. In supporting parents, Sanja takes an attachment-based and strengths-based approach, working collaboratively to identify the meaning behind a child/adolescent’s behaviour to work together to improve communication and connection for a more harmonious household.

Provisional Psychologists

CoolKid Clinic has a team of Provisional Psychologists that are interested in working with children and adolescents. These vibrant and passionate clinicians are at the end of their tertiary training and close to achieving  the requirements leading to full registration as psychologists. These clinicians  are supervised  by the Clinic Director and Principal Psychologist Kim Sheppard in addition to a suer-vision from their associated University.

Client Support Team

CoolKid Psychology understands that reaching out for and accessing support can be tricky and many may feel nervous when doing so. To support the community, our brilliant Client Support Team are available to answer your questions about our clinicians, services, and schedule appointments for you. We find that ‘in house’ support is best for our team and our clients so you can be assured that the person you speak to on the phone or in the clinic is a core part of the CoolKid team and is available to support to access to care. Our Client Support team are familiar with Medicare, NDIS and private health insurance. As an organisation we know that helping people well includes matching clients to their ideal clinician. Research suggests that client outcomes are more likely to improve and maintain when clients are linked with a clinician that matches their needs. To support this process, we complete a thorough phone intake when booking a client into our services, and during this time we discuss the client’s needs, preferred clinician qualities and only book them in with a clinician when the client is satisfied that the clinician’s skills and therapeutic style are matched to their needs.