Marijn Cugati (She/her)Psychologist (Provisional)

Marijn sees clients aged 14 and up. Marijn is a clinician with a strong passion for her work and life-long learning. As a clinician, she works with respect and genuine interest as key foundations for building a therapeutic alliance. She uses evidence based interventions to enable insight and positive change for clients. She is registered as a Provisional Psychologist with AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Registration Agency) and is an Associate Member of the APS (Australian Psychological Society). Prior to training and working as a Psychologist, Marijn held positions as a senior executive in corporate finance and treasury. Interest Areas Marijn works with a wide range of presentations, including depression, anxiety (generalised, social, phobias, panic), substance use, trauma, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and grief, anger, stress and self-esteem concerns. She further has a specific interest in sleep-wake problems, including insomnia and circadian rhythm disorder. Approach Her therapeutic approach emphasises the development of a therapeutic alliance, which has been proven to be important for the positive outcomes of psychological interventions. Her approach is friendly, respectful, open, and non-judgemental and she has a genuine interest in people and their (life) stories. She works collaboratively with clients, working through what is going on, desired outcomes, and what can be done to achieve the required change. While working through this, she engages the client to consider a broad perspective, including emotional, physical, intellectual, social, occupational and spiritual aspects which impact psychological wellbeing. When working with clients to create insight and positive change, Marijn uses psychometric assessments and interventions which are supported by scientific evidence for their efficacy. Her main therapeutic approaches include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI). She also uses principles of Mindfulness, Problem-solving and Positive (strengths-based) Psychology. Were indicated, she integrates strategies from different approaches to suit the needs, circumstances, and preferences of each individual client. Applying these therapeutic approaches, Marijn works with clients to address emotions, thoughts (and other cognitions), behaviours, their interaction and underlying drivers.