Laura Hann is an experienced Psychologist, Family Therapist and a Clinical Psychology Registrar. She opened Finding Balance Psychology and Counselling in Bedford in 2013, and in late 2017 moved the business to its permanent home in a beautifully renovated premises in Embleton, a tiny suburb on the border of Bayswater, Bassendean and Bedford.
She loves being a Psychologist and knows that people can significantly improve their wellbeing with simple, effective strategies. She has a particular interest in supporting people to develop a healthy relationship to food, eating, weight and body image using mindful eating / intuitive eating and ‘Health at Every Size’ (HAES) strategies, which are also known as ‘non-diet’ or ‘weight neutral’ approaches. She is skilled in working with people with eating disorders using cognitive-behavioural therapy for eating disorders (CBT-E) and Maudsley Family Therapy. She also sees people with low mood, anxiety and depression.
She is a Guest Lecturer in the postgraduate counselling programme at Notre Dame University and was invited to be a panellist at the Weigh Free May launch in 2019.
Laura’s Qualifications
Laura completed an Honours degree in Psychology in 1995, followed by further postgraduate qualifications in School Psychology (1998) and Family Therapy (2005). In 2018 she received her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, with a focus on eating, weight and body image issues. Her thesis research evaluated a peer support group for women with eating disorders, ( a support group which is run by women who have recovered from an eating disorder, to help women who have an ongoing eating disorder).
She is completing a Clinical Psychology Registrar program, which is a period of 2- 3 years of intensive supervision from an experienced senior Clinical Psychologist to earn the title of Clinical Psychologist. The focus of her Clinical Psychology Registrar program is on eating disorder treatment in private practice using CBT-E, Maudsley family therapy and Health At Every Size models, and she is undertaking further, intensive training in these models in 2019 and 2020.
Laura is registered with the Psychologists Board of Australia and provides services under Medicare’s Better Outcomes scheme as a Registered Psychologist. She is a full Member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), the Australia and New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders (ANZAED), and is a verified provider with HAES Australia and The Centre for Mindful Eating (TCME).
Laura’s Business and Practice Values
- People matter – that’s why we’re here. We value our clients and our staff equally.
- Excellent service – we follow the Australian Psychological Society’s recommendation to see no more than 5 clients per day to ensure that each client receives the same, high quality service. (Would you want to be the 8th client that day, or the 40th client that week?).
- Excellent skills – we value life-long learning to ensure we possess excellent clinical skills and use contemporary therapies
- Integrity – we practice what we preach, lead by example, and never ask clients to use strategies we don’t use ourselves
- Honesty – if we’re not the right fit for you we’ll tell you, and help you find the right service for you
- Transparency – we are open and upfront about the services we do and don’t offer, including our fees and the rebates you can expect
- Valuing Mental Health and Wellbeing – Our fee reflects the skill and training of our clinicians and the true value of mental health care
- Support local – wherever possible we use Australian-made products (from our stationery to our air-freshener) and support other local businesses (graphic design, signage, accounting, legal, business coaching) rather than using cheaper, off-shore services.
- Social responsibility – we use recycled and environmentally sound products as much as possible, we support a number of local charities such as the Salvos and the animal havens, and we donate to a bursary to help ATSI psychology students and to Kiva (micro lending).