Our team

Dr Davinia Shannahan

Davinia is a registered Psychologist and board-approved supervisor. She has considerable experience working with children, adolescents and families facing a wide range of challenges. Davinia utilises creative and playful approaches to supporting young people and their families to explore difficulties, forge new understandings and develop alternate stories about life and it is not unusual to hear laughter coming from her consulting room. She adopts a systemic approach to problems, engaging with families and their community as a means of helping young people and those who care about them to see problems they face within the wider context of their lives.

Davinia holds a Professional Doctorate in Child and Educational Psychology and has worked with diverse populations in schools, not-for-profit organisations and in independent practice. This includes closely engaging with schools, specialist organisations, multi-disciplinary professionals and higher education establishments to support children and young people to meet their full potential. As well as counselling support, Davinia provides comprehensive cognitive and educational assessments towards exploring specific learning disabilities, ADHD, intellectual difficulty and giftedness.

Davinia’s areas of interest include:

  • Helping people to reclaim their lives from intrusive fears and anxieties

  • Standing with people struggling with experiences of depression to get life back on track

  • Working alongside families who want relationships to be better or who are concerned about family conflict and its effects

  • Supporting young people facing significant struggles with attention and concentration in partnership with their family (and school staff where appropriate)

  • Working with people living with Autism and neuro-diversity

  • Supporting gender and sexually diverse young people and their families

  • Responding to parenting challenges

  • Supporting families to tame challenging behaviours exhibited by young people in their care

  • Creating possibilities for people to experience an increased sense of resilience, confidence and belief in themselves and their relationships

  • Assessment and consultation in relation to Specific Learning Disorders (commonly known as Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dysgraphia), Intellectual Disability, Cognitive and Academic Giftedness and ADHD.

Davinia utilises a variety of approaches to support clients, including but not limited to, Attachment Based Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Positive Psychology and Mindfulness.

Ben Shannahan

Ben (he/him) is a Family Therapist and Clinical Member of The Australian Association of Family Therapy (AAFT). He is not affiliated with any pirate organisations, however enjoys pirate jokes and good humour with young people and families he consults with. Ben aims to support people to tell their stories in ways that make them stronger (Wingard & Lester, 2001) and strives to work in creative ways that address injustices, honour the struggles people are engaged in and facilitate people discovering hidden stories of their lives that contribute to a renewed sense of possibility.

Family therapy can be undertaken with individuals, couples, other relationships and families (and/or a combination of all of these). Ben’s areas of interest include working with families/people who are:

  • Concerned about family conflict and/or would like relationships to be better

  • Concerned about theirs or their children’s emotional wellbeing and/or behaviour (including child and adolescent-to-parent violence)

  • Impacted by mental health struggles (including depression, anxiety, PTSD/traumatic experiences etc)

  • Seeking to address actions they have engaged in that have caused harm to others

  • Facing challenges in supporting and adapting with young people who are navigating gender and sexual diversity

  • Responding to the effects of injustice and violence

  • Experiencing parenting challenges

  • Fostering or have adopted children

  • Adjusting to significant life events / changes

  • Impacted by experiences of grief and loss (including suicide bereavement)

He holds a Masters in Systemic Psychotherapy and a Masters in Narrative Therapy and Community Work. Ben draws upon over 20 years of experience working in diverse contexts with individuals (adults and young people), couples, and families in public, not-for-profit and independent sectors in London, UK and in Perth, WA.

Reference: Wingard, B., & Lester, J. (2001). Telling our stories in ways that make us stronger. Dulwich Centre Publications.