The Cognitive Processing Therapy Australia website is hosted and supported by a group of CPT proponents in Australia.
The purpose of the website is to promote Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), an evidence-based therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), to members of the general community and mental health practitioners in Australia. This includes promoting the benefits and maintaining the quality of CPT in Australia, facilitating access to CPT for community members, and offering options for CPT education and training to practitioners.
Ultimately, our goal is to help improve the wellbeing and quality of life of individuals who have experienced trauma and developed PTSD.
Group members
Reginald D.V. Nixon, PhD
Professor Reg Nixon is a clinical psychologist and researcher in the School of Psychology, Flinders University. He has been involved in the treatment and research of traumatic stress for the past 18 years. He was trained in CPT by Dr Patricia Resick, the creator of CPT, and was the first Australian to attain CPT Trainer status.
He and his colleagues have undertaken numerous dissemination projects of CPT in Australia that have involved services such a community mental health, Veterans and Veterans Families Counselling Service and the Australian Defence Force.
Jon Finch, DPsych
Jon has worked in the trauma field for 20 years. Initially he worked with soldiers, war veterans/peace keepers at Veteran and Veterans Families Counselling Service, working in the role of Counsellor and Deputy Director. He then worked for Davidson Trahaire Corpsych as the manager of the Victorian Trauma Assist program. He moved on to work with police members at Victoria Police as the Senior Psychologist. He has since developed a private practice and has specialised in treating people with complex trauma histories and specifically Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
He has worked with people exposed to a wide range of traumatic events, victims of assault, sexual assault, childhood sexual assault and domestic violence, and those involved in motor vehicle accidents. He has used CPT for PTSD for the past eight years. In 2014 he completed training in the USA with the authors of the CPT manual to deliver training to other clinicians.
Anne-Laure Couineau, MA (CounsPsych)
Anne-Laure is a psychologist with extensive experience in the treatment of posttraumatic mental health problems in hospital and community settings. She has specialised in the treatment of war veterans and emergency personnel diagnosed with PTSD and the effects of long-term childhood sexual abuse and neglect.
Anne-Laure is a senior clinical specialist at Phoenix Australia, The University of Melbourne. She is an experienced trainer and has a strong background in education and knowledge translation. She has led several projects aimed at improving the uptake of evidence-based practice among mental health practitioners. She has received CPT training and supervision to reach US CPT standards with Professor Reg Nixon, and currently provides CPT training and clinical supervision for Phoenix Australia and the Veterans and Veterans’ Families Counselling Service.
Kirsten Yates
Kirsten Yates is a senior clinical psychologist with Monash Health, a public health service in south-east Melbourne. Kirsten’s public health experience has included inpatient and community rehabilitation, consultation-liaison psychiatry and community mental health.
She has recently been involved in providing support and delivering Psychological First Aid to healthcare staff and teams with regard to the demands incurred by the pandemic. Her particular areas of interest include the interaction of physical and mental health conditions
and the assessment and treatment of PTSD.
Kirsten is an accredited Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) trainer and provides supervision, training and CPT consultation for clinicians seeking CPT accreditation. She holds the APS Practice Certificate (Level 1 & 2) in Disaster Support and is a volunteer with the Disaster Response Network.
Marja Elizabeth
Dr Marja Elizabeth is a qualified secondary school teacher, has been admitted as a lawyer to the Supreme Court of Queensland and is a registered psychologist and accredited CPT trainer. Her career includes working with victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse and domestic violence both across Australia and internationally including as Manager Sexual Assault Support Services, CEO of the Queensland Indigenous Family Violence Legal Service and as the Gender Based Violence Specialist for the Government of Nauru.
She has a particular interest in working with veterans and first responders, having been the Regional Psychology Manager for Defence Force Recruiting, Executive Director in the Department of Corrective Services, Director of Community Corrections and Manager of the Child Protection Advice and Referral Service.
Marja is currently employed at Flinders University as a Research Fellow working with first responders in mental health and wellbeing and provides therapy, training and supervision in Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD.
Lisa Hardman
Dr Lisa Hardman is a Clinical Psychologist who has over 22 years’ experience working in public mental health and private practice. She completed a Professional Doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 2000 at Deakin University and holds degrees in Arts and Honours in Science (Psychology) from Monash University.
Lisa’s public health experience includes inpatient psychiatry, crisis assessment and treatment teams, primary mental health, community mental health, and a specialist chronic pain clinic. In 2018, Lisa was appointed to the role of Psychology Discipline Senior for the Casey Adult Mental Health Program at Monash Health, Victoria. This role is responsible for the Professional Governance for all psychologists working in the Casey Adult Mental Health stream.
Lisa is an accredited Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) trainer and provides supervision, training and CPT consultation for clinicians seeking CPT accreditation.