Our goal is to help you become a flexible, thoughtful, and confident therapist.

You’ve completed your Postgrad study and the somewhat daunting search for clinical work begins. But it’s a big jump between Masters and working independently, with lots more to learn. And that’s where the Redleaf Registrar Pathway can help.

The Redleaf Practice offers a comprehensive registrar pathway for Clinical Psychology Registrars. While our clinic is primarily focused on eating disorders, the skills you will learn while at Redleaf are transferable and will provide you with a solid set of therapeutic skills that will serve as a cornerstone for you throughout your career.

How do we facilitate your learning?

  • Weekly individual supervision with our Clinical Director, Chris Thornton
  • Fortnightly early career clinician training
  • 2-Monthly group case consultation with an external supervisor
  • Access to 20+ years’ worth of clinical resources, including course notes, treatment materials and session videos
  • Financial assistance for ongoing professional development in evidence-based treatments for eating disorders to enable credentialing
  • An established practice, with excellent referral sources and waitlist
  • Extensive administration support including calendar, payment, Medicare, and phone management, so you can focus on your learning
  • A contemporary workspace, with a well-equipped staff room (and snacks!) and a large team of supportive therapists
  • Reasonable caseloads and flexible working hours, with no weekend work required

We are looking for Psychologists who have:

  • Registration with AHPRA as a Psychologist and undertaking a Clinical Psychology Registrar program
  • Availability to provide assessment and treatment for clients at the practice as a contractor, ideally 2 days a week
  • Eligibility for a Medicare Provider Number and Working with Children Check
  • Commitment to evidence-based practice and ongoing professional development
  • Willingness to work as part of a multidisciplinary team
  • Interest in learning about eating disorder treatment

Your Supervisor – Chris Thornton

Your supervisor will be Redleaf’s Clinical Director, Chris Thornton. Chris has worked in the industry for more than 30 years, with his efforts leading to a ANZAED Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020. Chris has extensive experience training and supervising therapists and will adapt his teaching to your current level of knowledge.

Chris’s approach to therapy focuses on the value of the therapeutic relationship and applying manual based techniques in a formulation-informed way. He draws from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Psychodynamic Therapy, as well as specific trauma therapies.

Learn more about Chris Thornton >

What sort of learning will you do?

You will learn in various ways throughout the pathway, including:

  • Attending training on evidence based treatment for eating disorders, such as cognitive behaviour therapy and family based therapy with financial assistance.

  • Providing psychological assessment and intervention to clients via our referral base. You will be provided with support for your cases in individual supervision.

  • Weekly individual supervision

    • Cases will be discussed in individual supervision. Supervision typically involves developing a formulation and looking at the ways evidence based treatment may meet your clients needs.
    • There is the opportunity to present session videos to enhance your learning.
    • Chris and other members of the team typically work on an “open-door” policy. If the door is open, there is an opportunity for consultation about cases as required.
  • Fortnightly Early Clinician supervision

    • Typically this involves watching session videos of Chris Thornton and discussing the process and interventions used.
    • At times early clinician supervision involves topic based learning such as engaging with ambivalence, the therapeutic relationship, expanding self concept, mirror exposure and non-negotiables of therapy.
  • Monthly team supervision

    • This involves a team member presenting a client and getting feedback from the collective wisdom of the team.
    • This is an invaluable opportunity for young clinicians to receive supportive feedback and also improve case presentation skills.
  • In-house presentations from internal and external presenters

    • Recent topics include ASD in Females, Trauma & Eating Disorders, Functional Neurological Disorder and Health at Every Size

A note on working in the eating disorder sector

You’ve probably been taught in your Masters program that eating disorders are one of the more complex presentations you will see. While there are certainly some complexities and specific skills that you will need to develop, you will find that the skills you have learnt in your Masters training are a great foundation to working with patients in eating disorders.

Some of the core principles of helping someone with an eating disorder that you will likely already know:

  • How to develop a therapeutic relationship
  • How to use motivational interviewing to help with ambivalence
  • Strategies to help deal with affect regulation
  • Ways to help people change their relationship to their thinking, and how to help people change their behaviour
  • Risk assessment and management

Many are worried by the medical risk that may be present when working with eating disorders. However, as you are not a medical professional, this is not your responsibility in the multidisciplinary team. An important part of the Registrar Pathway is learning how to engage and educate medical providers. This means that they can effectively manage the medical risk and you can focus on therapy.

The benefit of completing your Registrar training at an established practice such as Redleaf is that we are connected with many other leading treatment providers and have psychiatrists on our team, which can help make your training experience feel contained and safe.

Concerned about Private Practice?

We’ve all heard about how private practice can be an isolating and overwhelming experience, particularly as you start out. However, the benefit of working in a large group practice like Redleaf is that there are always others around looking for a debrief, procrastination chat, or to grab a coffee.

At Redleaf we have created an encouraging and growth-focused workplace. We believe that burnt out therapists don’t do their best work, so practice what we preach to clients and model self-care and work-life balance.

If you are feeling unsure, please reach out. We are always happy to meet with you for an informal chat to see if the Redleaf Registrar Pathway is a good fit for your current needs.

Apply for the Redleaf Registrar Pathway

To apply for our Registrar Pathway, please fill in our form.

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