Initially training in Child and Adolescent psychology, Rachel has been working in private practice in Melbourne for over 25 years. Rachel also worked as a school psychologist for 5 years and as a consulting psychologist to mother-baby parenting units in two Melbourne hospitals for over 20 years. With subsequent training in perinatal psychology, trauma therapy and environmental studies, Rachel’s current work is primarily with new parents and their babies and preschoolers.

Rachel spent 2018/19 living in Bologna, Italy, with her own family. She worked with a group of Italian psychologists affiliated with the Anna Freud Centre in the UK. Rachel assisted in the development of programs supporting new mothers and their babies and preschoolers with extreme history of trauma and addiction, in an Italian residential care facility near Bologna.

Rachel has a passion for the infancy and early preschool time in family life. The demands on families at this stage have rarely been higher, and supporting families and their children at this stage serves as a wonderful investment in the future.

Rachel believes that as a community we need to do better to provide the information, support and structural changes necessary to allow all parents to enjoy their time with their children. This is especially vital in the first five years of a child’s life, when the demands on parents are so high, and the needs of children so incredibly important.