Denise Hatzis

PhD (Clinical Psychology), BPsy (Hons) BNursing

MAPS

Prior to completing her training in clinical psychology, Denise worked as a Registered Nurse and Midwife in major tertiary hospitals in Brisbane. In addition, she worked at Belmont Hospital for three years facilitating parenting groups for women suffering from Post Natal Depression. Currently, Denise works for Griffith University in both a research and clinical capacity where she is involved in a service providing complex diagnostic assessments for young children (age 3-7) with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.

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Denise has experience in conducting cognitive and learning assessment for children, diagnostic assessments for ADHD and Autism, and in the assessment for giftedness.

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Denise has a passion for working with children and parents where family functioning has been disrupted due to stress and/or trauma. Denise has specialised knowledge about the impact that accumulated stress (e.g., mental health issues, marital disharmony, financial stress, child temperament and disrupted attachment relationships) has on parental caregiving across varied demographic groups. Denise is an accredited Parents under Pressure (PuP) therapist and provides training and supervision to therapists undergoing training in the PuP program.

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Denise also has experience with individual therapy with both adults and children using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Exposure, Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Healing Relational Trauma using Attachment-Focused Interventions, Interpersonal Therapy and Motivational Interviewing.

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Fundamental to her practice is her use of evidenced-based interventions, with a non-judgemental stance promoting a strong therapeutic relationship and working collaboratively to assist clients to meet their goals.

Denise offers supervision for those completing the Clinical Psychology Registrar program.