Counselling - Parents
Dr Matt O'Connor
Clinical Psychologist
Dr Matt has over a decade of experience working with adolescents, young adults, adults and parents, across diverse settings, including schools, psychiatric units, and with organisations like Defence and Queensland Police. He balances care and compassion with humour and is well-regarded for his ability to build rapport. Matt also regularly provides presentations and training to schools, parents and businesses
Lauren Keating
Psychologist & Educational and Developmental Psychologist Registrar
Lauren Keating is a joyful and down-to-earth psychologist passionate about fostering connection and growth. With experience across rural Queensland, she supports clients through mental health, perinatal care, and psychoeducational assessments. Lauren uses a strengths-based, attachment-informed approach, drawing on ACT, CBT, DBT, and COS to empower individuals of all ages.
Erin Wilson
Psychologist & Educational and Developmental Psychologist Registrar
Erin Wilson is a psychologist and Educational and Developmental Registrar, dedicated to creating a safe, collaborative space for clients. She supports children, adolescents, and adults with anxiety, life transitions, and neurodivergence. With experience across schools, hospitals, and private practice, Erin integrates creative, strengths-based approaches to enhance wellbeing, self-acceptance, and meaningful personal growth.
Debbie Green
Psychologist
Debbie Green is a psychologist dedicated to supporting individuals, particularly those who are neurodivergent. She brings experience from schools, palliative care, and equine therapy, using evidence-based approaches like CBT, ACT, and DBT to tailor her practice to each person’s needs. She values building trust and collaboration with clients and their support networks to achieve meaningful, personalised outcomes.
Tracey Beck Gude
Psychologist (and works with Dobby)
Tracey Beck Gude is a compassionate psychologist with over a decade of experience in education and mental health, including roles in schools, youth detention, and drug and alcohol counselling. She works creatively with clients to build confidence and achieve personal goals, often incorporating animal-assisted therapy with her certified therapy dog, Dobby.
Dobby
Therapy Dog and Good Girl (works with Tracey)
Dobby is a certified therapy dog, working with handler Tracey since 2021. A registered Good Girl with P.A.A.T.S and a member of Animal Therapies Ltd, Dobby supports children and young people in counselling, offering comfort, reducing stress, and encouraging engagement through play, love, and her friendly nature.
Michelle Pullen
Educational and Developmental Psychologist
Michelle Pullen is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist with over a decade of experience in schools. With a background in teaching and psychology, Michelle supports children and families facing challenges like ADHD, anxiety, and learning difficulties. Her warm, playful approach uses evidence-based therapies, including CBT and play therapy. Michelle also provides psychoeducational, ADHD and ASD assessments
Emily Locke (nee Coote)
Educational and Developmental Psychologist
Emily Coote is an Educational and Developmental Psychologist with experience supporting individuals of all ages, particularly adolescents. Emily’s approachable, empathetic style helps clients navigate challenges like emotion regulation and self-identity. She draws from therapies like CBT, DBT, and ACT to foster resilience and growth. In addition, she offers psychoeducational and ADHD assessments
Angela Bromfield
Educational and Developmental Psychologist
Angela Bromfield is an Education and Developmental Psychologist with extensive experience in schools and private practice. Originally from Canada, she has worked with children and families since 2012, helping with anxiety, depression, ADHD, and behavioural challenges. Angela is passionate about supporting children’s growth through evidence-based therapies and assessments.
Our philosophy
Being a parent is one of the singularly most mentally, physically, emotionally and socially rich activities we will ever do – rich in great ways and not-so-great ways! The juggle is real, whether that is balancing work and home, meeting your child’s needs and your own, having multiple children, being a single or separated parent.
At ConnectEd, we want to provide support to you that recognises your expertise in your children and combine that with our knowledge, to create a partnership that empowers you to be a parent you are proud of (bonus tip – that does NOT mean being a perfect parent! An imperfect parent who is trying to do better is a much more human reality). We believe that all parents benefit from some extra support on their parenting journey – to learn, un-learn or re-learn about themselves, as an individual, and as a parent.
What approaches do we use?
For some parents, the work will focus on helping grow your parenting knowledge and skills to better align with your young person. For others, it will mean working with you on some of your personal challenges that might be impacting on you being the parent you would like to be.
We use a range of approaches depending on your concern and preferences. These include thinking- and behaviour-based strategies (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy – CBT), strengthening your relationship with your child and others (attachment-based, Interpersonal Therapy -IPT) and exploring your identity and values (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy – ACT). The most important strategy we will use though is that we will do this work as a team. How you connect with your counsellor is really important to supporting you, and we will put a lot of steps in place to make sure we make a great team!
We provide a range of services to offer the most useful point-in-time care to you and your family. This includes:
Brief parent consultations (1-2 appointments to discuss an issue of concern and to access some initial advice)
1-on-1 support for ongoing concerns (this can also include with a partner/co-parent)
Parenting webinars (we promote these on our Facebook page – as well as write a lot of posts about parenting)
Parent presentations in educational settings (e.g. childcare, preschool, primary and high school)
Concerns we can support you with
Parenting practices (e.g. strategies for promoting positive behaviour and responding to unhelpful behaviour)
Attachment and relationships (e.g. support to improve connection and quality of relationships)
Personal concerns impacting your parenting (e.g. mental ill-health, post-partum depression/anxiety)
Role transitions as a parent and adjusting to change (e.g. an expecting/new parent, parenting a child vs teenager)
Balancing self-identity and care with family demands
Parent separation and conflict