About the Provisional Psychologist Hub
The provisional psychologist hub was founded by Leza Sullivan and Susie Upton, both psychologists with over 25 years of combined experience working with children, adolescents, adults and families focusing on both psychological intervention and assessment. Leza and Susie are also the founders of Child Aware, a psychology practice in Brisbane, which has grown to multiple practice locations and 30 team members. Leza and Susie are passionate about developing provisional psychologists skills, knowledge and confidence to allow them to meet the requirements of the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) and ultimately obtain full registration. As Board Approved Supervisors they have supervised over 100 students, provisional psychologists, social workers and psychologists at all stages of their careers. To read more about Leza and Susie, see below.
The Provisional Psychologist Hub is an expansion on current services offered at Child Aware, that provide provisional psychologists with professional development, supervision, psychological practice, the opportunity to learn from fully registered psychologists and much more. Having both completed the 4+2 program themselves they understand how challenging it can be to obtain valuable experience and how anxiety provoking it can be in your early career.
Our psychology internship programs, which are available to psychology graduates across Australia are continually refined ensuring that our program is always innovative and consistent with PsyBA guidelines. As such you will gain support, guidance and development in a range of professional skills. The Provisional Psychologist Hub aims to provide a supportive environment, minimising the barriers of finding supervision, suitable professional development and access to psychometric assessments. We are able to guide you from the beginning steps of writing your Internship Program Plan for the PsyBA through to registration or just provide short-term access to supervision, or professional development to compliment your program. Don’t hesitate to contact us should you wish to discuss further. We look forward to assisting you to reach full registration.
Our Supervisors
Meet our team
Co-Founder and Practice Owner
Leza is a registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia and is a Full Member of the Australian Psychological Society. Leza has over 14 years of experience working with children, adolescents, parents, families and adults across the private, non profit and government sectors. Leza is also a Board Approved Supervisor and has extensive experience supervising provisional psychologists, registered psychologists, other health professionals (support workers, social workers) and large teams.
Leza commenced her career in 2004 working as a provisional psychologist under the 4+2 program. Her first role was for a non-profit organisation where she was tasked with the entire set up and operation of a community counselling service. This job, which was the steepest learning curve in her career set her up to go onto manage large teams and eventually co-own a large group practice in Brisbane that has over 30 team members across 3 locations. Leza has had a varied career working therapeutically with clients across the lifespan and has held positions within a private paediatric practice conducting diagnostic assessments, within a trauma focused organisation, in work rehabilitation, as a school counsellor, and has held many senior management positions including National Operations Manager before opening Child Aware in 2013.
Leza is passionate about ethical and evidence based practice but equally about supporting those in the early stages of their careers to feel supported whilst learning the skills, and knowledge to become fully registered psychologist. Leza recalls her own experience of being a provisional psychologist to ensure that adequate support and guidance is provided. Leza has a special interest in trauma informed treatment and psychometric assessment, including for the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Learning Disorder, Intellectual Disability and other difficulties affecting children.
Contact Leza
Susie Upton
B.Psych (Hons), MAPS
Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor
Co-Founder and Practice Owner
Susie Upton is a generally registered Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia and a member of the Australian Psychological Society. A graduate from Griffith University holding a Bachelor of Psychology with First Class Honours, Susie chose to undertake the 4+2 pathway to achieve general registration. Susie’s motivation and passion lead her to undertake 2 years of supervised psychological practice developing competence and confidence working with children, young people, parents, adults and families.
Commencing her psychology career in a vocational rehabilitation role Susie learnt the importance of time management and communication skills when working with adults experiencing a mental illness. Following this, Susie challenged herself working with homeless young parents and their children in inner Brisbane. She had many invaluable experiences in rapport building, working alongside the child protection system, working with young people affect by trauma and experiencing substance abuse. During this role Susie leant the importance of boundaries, teamwork and supportive supervision. Throughout her career Susie has practiced within the private and non-for-profit sectors first undertaking private practice in 2010 - 2012 specialising in children and adolescent counselling intervention. In 2012, a move back into the non-for-profit sector enabled Susie to work specifically with children, adolescents and adults affected by child sexual assault. As a Practice Supervisor and then Manager of south-east Queensland therapeutic services her role was to oversee and supervise counsellors, social workers, provisional psychologists and psychologists within 3 counselling services.
Susie’s passion has been to provide counselling intervention and training services within the child mental health sector as well as provide a bridge between the public and private sectors. In 2013 Susie co-founded Child Aware, a counselling and psychology service working with children, adolescents, parents and families. Susie, now the Clinical and Operations Manager of Child Aware, oversees the Brisbane based counselling service, which has 2 office locations and provides psychology services to over 160 clients each week.
Awards and Recognition
- In 2017, Child Aware was named as a finalist in the Queensland Mental Health Achievement Awards.
- In 2016, Susie was named by Griffith University as an Outstanding School of Psychology Alumni for her contribution in the field of psychology.
- In 2015, Susie Upton was named Queensland Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year
Vanessa Allen
Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor
Vanessa is a registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia, a Full Member of the Australian Psychological Society and is a Board Approved Supervisor. Vanessa is a General Psychologist with over 10 year’s experience, working with children, adults, couples and families in a range of areas; including anxiety, depression, crisis/trauma, cancer care, confidence/self-esteem and adjustment difficulties, to assist with improving health and wellbeing. Vanessa assists parents with developing their parenting skills, including support with the management of social and behavioural difficulties with their children, family counselling and relationship counselling. Vanessa also has a background in working with veterans, long term unemployed and disability, employee assistance programs and work rehabilitation. Vanessa also enjoys providing supervision and development opportunities for psychologists, and manages provisional psychologists spanning the entire Country, to gain full registration.
Contact Vanessa
Fanoula Tsakrios
B.PsychSc (Hons), Assoc. MAPS
Senior Psychologist - Contractor
Board Approved Supervisor
Fanoula is a registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia, an associate member of the Australian Psychological Society. Fanoula is experienced in using evidence based interventions to assist children, adolescents, families, parents and adults in overcoming their challenges and supporting them in reaching their potential. Fanoula works with a range of presentations, including but not limited to anxiety, depression, behavioural issues, trauma, social difficulties, self-esteem and eating difficulties. Fanoula has extensive experience with working with developmental disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Fanoula is trained in Family Based Therapy for Eating Disorders which has the strongest evidence based support for it's efficacy in recovery from eating disorders. Fanoula has a special interest in the fields of child and adolescent mental health, eating disorders and is passionate about training new professionals.
Fanoula is also a Board Approved Supervisor, and provides regular supervision to provisional psychologists and peer supervision to registered psychologists. Fanoula also facilitates group programs at Child Aware as well as facilitating training workshops to professionals.
Contact FanoulaJasmin Singh
B.Psych (Hons), MAppPsych
Counselling Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor
Jasmin is passionate about providing early intervention to children and young people, and believes that therapy works best when grounded by a sense of safety with a focus on the needs of the client. She has a special interest in trauma-focused therapy, neuropsychotherapy and expressive therapies. Jasmin presented her post-graduate research on the neuroscience behind detecting emotional disturbance in children’s drawings at the International Congress of Applied Psychology. This research was published in the International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy.
Jasmin is also a Board Approved supervisor and is passionate about supporting early career psychologists to reach their full potential.
Contact Jasmin
Lauren Hobbs
Clinical Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor
Lauren is an endorsed Clinical Psychologist registered with the Psychology Board of Australia, a full member of the Australian Psychological Society, and a Board Approved Supervisor. With over 8 years experience, Lauren achieved full registration in 2013 and clinical endorsement in 2016. Lauren is also a certified practitioner of Clinical EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and a member of the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.
Lauren has a wide range of experience in a variety of roles that have included teaching, training, assessment, case management, clinical therapy, and advocacy. These roles have included worker’s compensation and vocational rehabilitation, adult mental health, trauma and post traumatic stress disorder, sexual assault, child psychology, disability, weight management and chronic disease. Lauren’s passion lies in the overlap between traumatic stress issues and health psychology, and the factors involved in helping children and adults live their most successful life. As a result, Lauren currently works with individuals to assist with symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress and trauma, family of origin/childhood trauma issues, chronic health or disability, family distress, workplace stress, and health behaviour change. Lauren utilises an eclectic blend of cognitive therapies and body based strategies to assist her clients to achieve positive outcomes.
Lauren was very lucky to receive a variety of great supervision during her training across all environments (university, workplaces, private practitioners) and as a result models the same support and guidance. Recently returned from Maternity Leave, Lauren currently works in Private Practice and provides supervision through the Provisional Psychologist Hub.
Contact LaurenLouise Pitcher
Psychologist and Board Registered Supervisor
Serena Lee
Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor
Tanya Nasr
B.Psych (Hons)
Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor
Tanya Nasr is a generally registered Psychologist and Board Approved Supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia. A graduate from University of Western Sydney holding a Bachelor of Psychology with Honours, Tanya chose to undertake the 4+2 pathway to achieve general registration. Tanya undertook 2 years of supervised psychological practice developing competence and confidence working with children, young people, and adults.
Tanya has over seven years working with physically and psychologically injured workers full time and almost five years working with school aged children and adolescents on a part time basis (one on one interventions, behavioural management support and group based counselling). Tanya started off worked at a number of schools during this time as well as took on one on one clients at Learning Links.
During her seven working in the rehabilitation space, Tanya has assistant a variety of clients including; Police officers, Australian Defence Force staff members, hospital officers, ambulance workers, educators, blue collar workers and white-collar workers suffering from a variety of physical and psychological workplace injuries. Tanya has also worked with various organisations to development and deliver spoke mental health workshops. Tanya has provided individualised training to clients with a focus on Adjustment to injury counselling, vocational counselling and Health Coaching (within a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment (ACT) framework), providing clients with the practical skills and techniques to challenge their thinking styles and positively impact their recovery and approach to daily functioning to help manage the impact of their conditions.
Tanya currently Volunteers and consults with Youth Insearch Foundation who run Therapeutic programs and support groups across Australia for adolescence between 14 and 20 years old in a group based setting. Many of these adolescents are impacted by problems stemming from poverty, broken / dysfunctional homes, domestic violence, sexual, physical / emotional abuse, death, grief and other traumatic events. The aim of the program is to intervene early and assist at risk young people to improve their lives. The program is delivered through weekend workshops, support groups, peer support, leadership and individual care. Over the last year as part of her involvement in this program, Tanya has co-established and facilitates a weekly support group for young people in the Castle and Riverstone area of NSW as well as attending six weekly weekend workshops.
Over the last few years Tanya’s passion has been to foster the growth of Provisional Psychologists and Counsellors by assessing training needs, providing training in gap areas and providing advice around crisis support
Contact Tanya
B.A. Psych Sci (Hons Psych (Clinical Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychology)
Board Approved Supervisor
Katie is a registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia, completing her registrar programs in the areas of Clinical Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychology. Katie is experienced in neuropsychological assessment for a range of presentations, including neurodevelopmental, psychiatric, neurological, and neurodegenerative. She also has clinical experience with varied presentations across the lifespan, such as anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorder, parenting, dementia, palliative care, and chronic pain. Katie has been fortunate to work across a number of settings, including correctional centres, hospitals, outpatient, and private practice. She is passionate about the diagnostic power of neuropsychological assessment, and empowering her patients to live well.
Katie is also a Board Approved supervisor and has experience facilitating training. She is currently working within a hospital setting in neuropsychology and clinical psychology, providing services to patients with complex conditions, such as dementia, and stroke, and patients at the end of life.
