Swinburne Psychology Clinic's Free E-Newsletter

Help is on the way: Support for individuals, couples and families in the community

The Swinburne Psychology Clinic’s electronic newsletter is designed to keep the general community, health professionals, past and present clients and counsellors informed about the Clinic’s upcoming events and activities. Over 700 community members, students and health professionals have already subscribed to receive this free service. If you would also like to subscribe, please send an email to the Project Officer at abrydon@swin.edu.au.

August Edition

Edition 6 of the Psychology Clinic's newsletter announces our new psychometric training courses for provisional and registered psychologists. These courses will provide training in the delivery, scoring and interpretation of psychological tests of intelligence, memory and personality. This edition also profiles activities occurring for OCD and Anxiety Disorders week, which commences Sunday 3 August and welcomes a new staff member to the Psychology Clinic. As usual, the newsletter ends with our monthly joke.

New Staff Member to the Psychology Clinic Team

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Claire Ahern, who joined the Psychology Clinic staff in July and has taken over the role of developing and delivering psychometric training courses for provisional and registered psychologists. Claire has previously worked as a counsellor at the Psychology Clinic and her research is profiled in this edition of the Psychology Clinic's newsletter.

Training in the Psychological Assessment of Intelligence, Personality and Memory

The Psychology Clinic has released a tri-part series of PAPP courses (Psychological Assessment for Provisional Psychologists) that provide training in the psychological assessment of intelligence, memory and personality.

PAPP: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS-III) is a two-day intensive program that is conducted outside of business hours. This program is designed to provide provisional and registered psychologists with a framework in which they can achieve a level of competence in the WAIS-III that is commensurate with the requirements of Psychologists Registration Board of Victoria.

The first two-day PAPP training program for the WAIS-III will be conducted on the 13th and 27th of September 2008. The workshop will be facilitated by Dr Leasha Lillywhite and overseen by the Director of the Psychology Clinic, Dr Roger Cook. The cost of this training program includes text books, course materials and test hire.

Further PAPP programs on the Wechsler Memory Scale - 3rd edition (WMS-III) and Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) will run at later dates. There will be a 10% discount for completion of all three workshops.

To register your interest in this program, or to find out more information, please visit our website: www.swin.edu.au/clinic or contact the PAPP Project Officer at cahern@swin.edu.au or 9214 5528.

Program Summary

Dates: 13th and 27th of September 2008.

Cost: $1095 (GST inclusive)

Registration: Registration forms can be downloaded from the Clinic's website at: www.swin.edu.au/clinic

OCD and Anxiety Disorders Week

OCD and Anxiety Disorders Week commences Sunday 3 August and runs to Saturday 9 August. To acknowledge this week, the Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria (ARCVic) will be hosting a number of community events for people living with anxiety disorders, as well as their families, carers and friends. This includes a tai chi session, brunch, a workshop on mindfulness practice and an open house afternoon tea at the Anxiety Recovery Centre.

The week will end with a community education seminar on current ideas in treatment, self-help and recovery from anxiety disorders. Health professionals and interested members of the community are welcome to attend.

The keynote speakers at this workshop include Professor Michael Kyrios, who oversees the Psychology Clinic's STOP group for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Dr Chris Mogan who will be facilitating a Compulsive Hoarding and Acquiring group treatment program through the Psychology Clinic. Other speakers at the event who are associated with the Swinburne Psychology Clinic include Dr Maja Nedeljkovic and Dr Richard Moulding, who deliver the STOP group for OCD. The workshop will be held at Clarion Hotel, in Forest Hill

The Anxiety Recovery Centre advises that bookings are essential to attend planned and further information can be found on the Anxiety Recovery Centre's website at: www.arcvic.com.au

Treatment for Compulsive Hoarding

There is still a small number of places for individuals to be assessed for the Psychology Clinic's first treatment group for Compulsive Hoarding. This group is being run at the Psychology Clinic, in conjunction with the Swin-PsyCHE Research Unit and clinical psychologist, Dr Christopher Mogan. If you, or someone you know, would like to be assessed for this group, please contact Aisha Brydon on abrydon@swin.edu.au or (03) 9214 5528.

Opportunities to Participate in Research

The Swinburne Psychology Clinic is staffed by Masters and Doctoral Students completing degrees in Clinical and Counselling Psychology. As part of their degrees, postgraduate students conduct research to develop their expertise and contribute knowledge to the scientific community. Participating in research can be enjoyable, and a way to volunteer in the community. Participants are provided with an opportunity for personal reflection.

This month, the newsletter features research being conducted by Claire Ahern, who is completing a Doctoral Degree in Clinical Psychology.

Self-perceptions and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a highly disabling anxiety disorder that is characterised by unwanted intrusive thoughts, images or impulses and/or compulsive behaviour (e.g. repetitive cleaning or checking). These intrusions come involuntarily to the mind and are experienced as intense, uncontrollable and distressing. Research suggests that the nature of unwanted intrusions is similar in both non-clinical and clinical populations and so Claire's research aims to learn more about intrusive thoughts and/or obsessions and strategies that individuals use to deal with them. Given that intrusions are experienced as foreign to one's sense of self, the research also aims to explore how self-perceptions are related to intrusive thoughts.

Anyone who is interested may participate in this research and participation does not require a diagnosis of OCD. If you would like to know more information about participating in this research, please contact Claire Ahern by email at: (cahern@swin.edu.au) or on Tuesdays at the clinic by phone (9214 5528).

Important Dates

ACT and Mindfulness PD Workshop

Saturday 2 August

Registration for this workshop has now closed. We look forward to seeing all those who have registered this coming Saturday at 9am.

Treatment for OCD

August 2008

An STOP therapy group facilitated by clinical psychologist Catherine Brennan is due to start in August on a Wednesday evening. Please contact the Psychology Clinic if you would like to participate in this group.

Treatment for Social Phobia

August 2008

An 8-week Social Anxiety Group is scheduled to start in August. Please contact the Psychology Clinic if you would like to participate in this group, which will run on a Wednesday evening from 6pm-9pm.

Treatment for OCD

September 2008

A STOP therapy group facilitated by clinical psychologist Dr Richard Moulding. This group is expected to run on a Wednesday afternoon. Please contact the Psychology Clinic if you would like to participate in this group.

Treatment for Social Phobia

September-October 2008

Our final Social Anxiety Group for 2008 is due to start in September-October. The day and time of this group has not been confirmed, however we are now accepting individuals onto the assessment list for this group.

Monthly Joke

We hope you have enjoyed this edition of our newsletter. The following two jokes have been collected from the internet and offer a new twist in answering the question of how many psychologists it takes to change a light bulb.

Q. How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb?

A. Only one, but it takes at least 12 sessions.

Q. How many psychology professors does it take to change a light bulb?

A. One, with two graduate students, and they will get three papers out of it.

If there is a seasonal or psychology-related joke that has made you smile, please share it with us by submitting it to: abrydon@swin.edu.au.

About the Newsletter
This E-Newsletter is an initiative of the Swinburne Psychology Clinic to provide you with up-to-date information about with the activities and services we provide. Currently, over 700 community members, students and health professionals subscribe to this newsletter. The newsletter is produced by Aisha Brydon.

We welcome any feedback and ideas you have about this publication. If there is a topic, query or segment you would like to see in future editions please send an email to: abrydon@swin.edu.au.

To subscribe, send an email to: abrydon@swin.edu.au.