Justin is an experienced Clinical Psychologist with over 10 years’ experience working with adolescents and adults.
Following completion of his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, Justin held a senior and team leader role within a dynamic multidisciplinary mental health service at Eastern Health. He worked at this clinic for a total of eight years with client’s presenting with complex, and often co-occurring, difficulties, including relationship problems, depression, anxiety, PTSD/trauma, attachment difficulties, personality disorders, eating disorders, substance use, and neurodevelopmental issues (e.g., ADHD/ASD).
​
Over the past five years, Justin has worked in private practice (with rooms in Hawthorn and Box Hill North) supporting adolescents and adults, offering both short-term, goal-focused treatment (e.g., those with stress, anxiety, and/or depressed mood related to work, school/university, family, or relationship stress) as well as longer-term therapy (especially for those with chronic issues and trauma) providing an opportunity for deeper work, greater insights, and lasting change.
​
Justin has particular interest and expertise in working with adults and adolescents who present with: depression or depressed mood, anxiety (especially generalised worry and social anxiety), low self-esteem/self-critical, relationship difficulties (e.g., rejection sensitivity, triggered easily/over-react, clinginess, passivity, and avoidant behaviours etc.), and those who also have these problems that date back to early life adversity and trauma. Justin also enjoys working with clients who have, or think they may have, ADHD.
​
Justin also works closely with parents of teens, assisting them to better understand, engage, and support their child with their emotional, social, academic, or behavioural difficulties.
​
His approach integrates thorough assessment, followed by extensive feedback, with evidence-based therapies including Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy, Schema Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, and Psychodynamic-informed therapy.
​
He is a Board-Approved Psychology Supervisor and Member of the Australian Psychological Society (MAPS).
SERVICES OFFERED
·Thorough assessment, diagnosis (if relevant) provided, and insightful explanation provided to clients of psychological underpinnings of their presenting issues.
·Justin offers both in depth therapy - where he can help clients understand the factors that may underlie patterns of thinking, feeling, and relating to others - as well as targeted interventions to help with specific problems.
·In addition to building a warm, safe, and trusting therapeutic alliance, Justin uses modalities such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Schema Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, and Psychodynamic informed therapy to achieve the above aims.
·For adolescent clients, parent appointments are advised (Medicare allows for up to two full sessions with parents only). These sessions involve gathering parents’ concerns/perspectives on the problems, and offering support and feedback/recommendations regarding how to understand and engage in a more attuned way to their child.
·Cognitive (IQ) testing and report writing.
·Supervision for Clinical Psychology registrars & students
COMMON DIFFICULTIES TREATED
Assessment, diagnosis, and treatment with adults and adolescents including for problems such as:
·Depression and low mood/irritability
·Anxiety (e.g., generalised/excessive worry, social anxiety, panic attacks/disorder, phobias)
·Life stress and adjustment/situational difficulties, such as relationship, study, employment problems
·Early life adversity and trauma (e.g., exposure to verbal & emotional abuse, such as invalidating/dismissive/unpredictable/critical caregiving, history of other challenging circumstances growing up such as parental separation, having a parent with a mental illness, exposure to bullying by siblings or peers etc.) & ongoing effects (e.g., poor self-image, self-criticism, emptiness, relationship problems, guilt/shame/anger/sadness, reliance on unhealthy coping tools etc.)
·Substance misuse
·Difficulties with body image and eating disorders
·ADHD (adult and childhood)
​
·Some of these issues may manifest as:
Stress and anxiety related to work, study, or relationship/family issues
Often feeling flat, anxious, or angry (and possibly also being unsure why)
Generalised worry and social anxiety
Losing interest in or having no energy to see friends or engage in hobbies
Being easily triggered by people and/or reacting or overacting (either with self criticism, frustration, having rejection fears, or withdrawal from others)
Reduced functional capacity e.g., at work, socialising etc.
Feeling life has no purpose or direction
Reliance on unhealthy coping (e.g., substances, withdrawal, bottling up feelings, gaming etc.)
Feeling anxious in, and over thinking, relationships
Having low confidence and self doubt
Being passive and struggling with assertiveness
Feeling lonely, struggling with socialising or intimacy with others
Being perfectionistic and having unrealistic expectations of oneself
Frequent procrastination
Having complicated or mixed feelings about partners or parents
Having unhappy or unresolved childhood experiences
WHAT TO EXPECT
·Justin believes that commencing with a sound assessment starts the process of developing insight and leads to direction in therapy.
​
·Some general aims of talk therapy include building insight into the self, using these insights to modify unhelpful thoughts and beliefs, uncovering patterns of behaviour and relating to others that cause problems or distress, enhancing emotion regulation capacity & learning strategies to cope and manage symptoms, and enacting behaviour change to improve current circumstances.
​
·Short-term individual therapy which provides an opportunity for those with more straight forward problems to discuss current stressors and difficulties and learn ways to manage or resolve these.
​​
·Longer-term (e.g., 10 or more sessions, sometimes over the course of more than one year / one mental health plan) individual therapy which involves providing a space to express oneself & being given support to put potentially complicated, confusing, and complex experiences, thoughts and feelings into words, make sense of these, and heal in a safe, validating, unbiased, and confidential space.
​
·An important aspect of therapy for some is being provided an experienced, thoughtful, and containing space to process and come to terms with painful experiences early in life, often relating to difficult relationships with parents (e.g., who have been critical, unavailable, rejecting, volatile, unpredictable, inconsistent etc.), other family problems (e.g., parental separation/conflict, conflict with siblings), being the subject or bullying, or other relationship problems.
FEES AND REBATES
A standard consultation fee is $198 per 50-minute session.
​
If you are eligible for a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, you will be able to claim a Medicare rebate of $145.25 for up to 10 sessions per calendar year.
​
Your Private Health Insurance may also cover some of the cost of sessions. Please contact your Private Health insurer to discuss your cover.
Justin believes in quality care that is also reasonably priced. His philosophy it that it is more satisfying work (both for himself and his clients - where the working relationship and possibility for lasting change is stronger) to be able to access and use all ten sessions rather than cost being a barrier.
​
PUBLICATIONS
Justin's academic publications
Tomyn, J.D., Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M., Richardson, B. et al. A Comprehensive Evaluation of a Universal School-Based Depression Prevention Program for Adolescents. J Abnorm Child Psychol 44, 1621–1633 (2016).
​
Colla, L., Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, M., Tomyn, A.J. et al. Use of weekly assessment data to enhance evaluation of a subjective wellbeing intervention. Qual Life Res 25, 517–524 (2016).
CONTACT JUSTIN
Clients and GP's can contact Justin via phone or email to discuss their referral.
921 Station Street Box Hill North 3129
&​
Suite 2, 114-116 Auburn Rd Hawthorn 3122
0419 588 740