About MBTAA

Dr Clara Bookless is a psychoanalyst and psychologist with a particular interest in the early prevention of mental health disorders and treatment of Personality Disorders. Clara has developed a specialist interest in the psychotherapy of adults who grew up in the care of parents with mental health problems. Prior experience includes over ten years as Senior Consultant Psychologist in the development and clinical support of a State-wide Early Intervention and Home Visiting Programme in South Australia, and 25 years teaching and researching in University Departments of Psychiatry. Research areas include, the impact of various traumatic experiences on development over the life span, the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and recovery from clinical depression (her PhD research funded through an NH&MRC Fellowship).

Apart from maintaining a private psychotherapy practice, Clara works as a clinical consultant to agencies and clinicians providing adult psychotherapy, child protection and child - parent psychotherapy. She supervises the therapeutic work of a range of clinicians and psychotherapy trainees across a number of government and private services and is a supervisor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry trainees in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Clara is an accredited Mentalization Based Treatment supervisor and has been supervised by Professor Anthony Bateman.

Michael Daubney is a Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist with clinical interests in psychotherapy, trauma, infant mental health and adolescent inpatient and outpatient treatment.

He is Medical Director of Specialist Teams CHQ HHS and the consultant psychiatrist to Brisbane north, Brisbane North and Caboolture Assertive Mobile Youth Outreach Services and the Day Program Brisbane North.

He is the current Chair of the binational Committee Section of Psychotherapy (RANZCP), an Accredited Mentalization Based Therapy supervisor with the Anna Freud Centre and is undertaking a Higher Research Degree at Griffith University developing an instrument assessing social emotional development in 3 year olds.

He is the supervisor of the junior and advanced Child and Adolescent Psychiatry trainees in psychodynamic psychotherapy, conducts supervision of other professionals including GPs and maintains a psychotherapy component in his private practice.

He has been receiving psychotherapy supervision from Professor Bateman for a number of years.

Associate Professor Lynn Priddis brings over 30 years’ experience working with infants, children, adolescents and their families in health, education, and private practice contexts in Western Australia to MBTAA.

Lynn is an accredited supervisor in Mentalizing Based Treatment and applies this to her teaching, local and international supervision and in her private psychotherapy practice.

Lynn currently works full-time as an academic at Edith Cowan University where she directs and teaches in both the Clinical Psychology and newly established Master of Infant Mental Health programmes and where she also supervises student research for postgraduate degrees.

Lynn’s research interests include applications of mentalizing practice to mediation in families where there are young children; clinical applications of mentalizing and infant mental health perspectives to young children and their mothers, fathers and caregivers as well as how they may be better supported by the communities and systems in which they live.

Some of Lynn’s published research is from her work in a local non-government community based organisation where she introduced psychotherapeutic groups for both children and their parents and also where she collaborated on a model of reflective practice for the organisation.

Lynn continues to play a significant role in advocacy for infants and young families and is a member of the working group that has bought, modified and introduced the Mi-AIMH Competency and Endorsement Guidelines for Culturally Sensitive, Relationship-focused Practice Promoting Infant Mental Health ® to Western Australia.

Lynn is a past president of the Australian Association of Infant Mental Health (AAIMHI) and also of the West Australian Branch of AAIMHI.

Margie has over 20 years’ perinatal mental health experience working with infants, children and their families in public and private health systems.

Margie is the Senior Clinical Psychologist and Allied Health Coordinator at Karitane, a parenting organisation where she practices MBT and applies MBT principles in supervision to clinical psychologists, postgraduate students, advanced trainees in Psychiatry and mental health workers in juvenile justice and child protection.

Margie maintains a private practice delivering clinical services to adults and children as well as providing education and clinical supervision to MBT practitioners. She is an accredited MBT supervisor and has been supervised by Professor Anthony Bateman since 2011.

Margie is also an accredited practitioner of the infant-parent therapy Watch, Wait and Wonder and has trained in the use of the Parent Development Interview to assess Parental Reflective Functioning.