Fiona Smith: Psychologist & Practice Director

“There is no use trying” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I dare say you haven’t had much practice” said the Queen. “When i was your age, i always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes i’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”. Lewis Carroll

Fiona Smith is the Director of the Gifted Minds practice.  She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Honours in Psychology and a Masters Degree of Education, majoring in Gifted Education. She also has full registration with the Psychology Board of Australia and Full Membership of the Australian Psychological Society. Fiona's qualifications make her unique in the field, as she combines degrees in Psychology and Education, while specialising in gifted education.

Fiona has worked with gifted individuals for the last twenty-three years beginning at GERRIC (Gifted Education Research, Resource and Information Centre), UNSW, in 1998 and commencing her private practise in 2004. She has had extensive experience using the Stanford Binet (Fifth Edition, Fourth Edition and SB-LM) and Wechsler tests (WISC-V, WISC-IV and WISC-III).  

Fiona is frequently invited around Australia to assess gifted children and adolescents, visiting Perth, Albany, the Gold Coast, Canberra, the Sunshine Coast, the Southern Highlands, Dubbo and other venues in rural NSW. Fiona was invited to assess in Beijing, in March, 2007 and travelled to Hong Kong in 2011 to assess over twenty children. Fiona often talks to parent groups and teachers.  She has also worked with the Sydney Catholic Education Office to help identify children for their SWAS (School Within A School) Program. 

Fiona has a special interest in working with gifted adolescent girls and women who are having difficulties with their intensities and sensitivities. Her other areas of interest include literature for gifted kids, using humour in counselling and parenting, and identifying creative-divergent (invisible) gifted children who do not learn in the conventional way.

Fiona has spoken at various conferences since 1998. She has a paper on the Mensa website: An Australian Mensa Initiative: Celebrating your gifted child's sensitivity. Fiona has been published in the NAGC Parenting for High Potential Fall 2015 Issue: Patrilineal Ability: Nurturing Giftedness in Grandfathers, Fathers and Sons. She has a talk on the APS website from the Inaugral Australian Psychological Society Congress held in Melbourne in 2016: Psychologists and gifted clients: When unusual is typical and atypical is usual. Fiona has also been published in the Advanced Development Journal: Walking in another's shoes and getting blisters: A personal account of the blessing and curse of intense empathy.

Fiona is an image-free thinker (Aphantasic) and is happy to talk about this with her clients.

Dominic Westbrook: Counsellor (face-to-face, by phone and on zoom) & Practice Manager

"People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I look at a sunset, I don't find myself saying, "Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner." I don't try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds." ~ Carl Rogers

Dominic is the Counsellor/Therapist at Gifted Minds as well as the Practice Manager. Phone enquiries will be taken by Dominic and directed on as needed.

Dominic has a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in English and Sociology and a Postgraduate Diploma of Counselling from ACAP. He is a registered Counsellor with PACFA. Dominic's role at Gifted Minds is to work with gifted children, adolescents and young adults in resilience based-training to help with any negative aspects of social or emotional overexcitabilities and sensitivities. Dominic is also available to counsel adults and parents about advocating for themselves and their children. He has completed the on-line course with Dr Michael Postma from Gifted and Thriving on parenting gifted children and has a thorough knowledge of  the needs of gifted and twice exceptional children and issues with misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. 

Growing up a gifted student himself, he has an understanding of the frustration and boredom that can be a factor in some academic situations and institutions and the social and emotional ramifications that can ensue.

Using Person-Centred and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with mindfulness and strength-based techniques, he works with the client to create balance between the intellectual and social spheres, to build resilience in the face of boredom, to understand sensitivity, over-excitability and frustration and to help build and strengthen social skills and adaptability.  Dominic’s sessions provide an emotionally safe and intellectually stimulating space that provides catharsis from any boredom and frustration at school, any inter-social issues and any sensitivities.

Dominic has spoken at conferences in the US including SENG and the WCGTC (World Council for Gifted and Talented Children)

Dominic’s services include:

1-1 counselling with Gifted kids

Counselling with Parents

In person Consultation

Phone Consultations

Phone Counselling

Enrichment sessions for subjects such as Creative Writing, Reading, Mathematics, Drama, Art

Workshops

Dr Cathie Harrison: Early childhood Consultant

“Let Nature be your teacher.” – William Wordsworth

Dr Cathie Harrison is an early childhood and gifted education consultant who works in association with Gifted Minds. Drawing on her research, doctoral study and many years of experience Cathie supports parents and teachers to understand and respond to the joys and challenges of living, playing and learning with young gifted children.

Cathie can assist with gifted education and parenting strategies and recommendations for both parents and education professionals. She provides face to face or teleconferencing sessions for parents and teachers. In these sessions she listens carefully and offers practical parenting and educational advice pertinent to young gifted children, their potential and their possible challenges.

Cathie is committed to a multifaceted and relational approach to ensure that young gifted learners are recognised and supported. She is available to undertake observational visits to early learning centres and schools. During an observational visit Cathie will document her observations of the child in a familiar context, engage in a follow up collaborative dialogue with parents, teachers and educational leaders and prepare a report of observations and recommendations. This individualised and collaborative approach facilitates an effective response to unique profile of the strengths, interests and learning needs of the gifted child.

Cathie has extensive experience in adult education and is also available to deliver professional learning seminars and workshops for teachers or parent education sessions for parents and carers. Cathie also presents keynote presentations and workshops at local and international conferences.

Professional Background

Cathie has been an academic, teacher, researcher, writer and consultant and has over thirty-five years of experience in early childhood and tertiary education. She was a teacher education lecturer and senior lecturer in the university sector for twenty-seven years and an early childhood advisor for the ABC children’s television program, Play School for twenty-two years.

Cathie’s Master of Education degree focused on gifted education and her doctoral study combined interests in gifted education and contemporary approaches to learning in the early years. Cathie is the author of the books Giftedness in Early Childhood, Young Gifted Children - Their Search for Complexity and Connection, and co-author of Rethinking Learning in Early Childhood Education and articles on giftedness in the early years in academic journals.

In 2010 Cathie was invited to work with colleagues from NSW Department of Education to develop a resource “Gifted and Talented Kindergarten” [GKY] to identify gifted children from low socio-economic and minority groups. The acknowledgements within GKY state, ‘The wisdom and inspirational work of Dr Cathie Harrison has guided the development of the Gifted and Talented Kindergarten Resource Package.’

Cathie has been an invited member of the Victorian Government Expert Panel on Gifted and Talented Children. In 2016 Cathie represented gifted education on the national Early Childhood Australia expert panel on inclusion and in 2017 authored Gifted and Talented - Inclusion and Exclusion for Early Childhood Australia. She has presented her research at national and international conferences and delivered keynote addresses at international, national and state gifted education conferences. Cathie retired from the university sector in 2019 to focus on consultancy and writing.

Relevant Publications

Books

Robinson, C., Treasure, T., O'Connor, D., Neylon, G., Harrison, C., & Wynne, S. (2018). Learning through Play - Creating a Play Based Approach within Early Childhood Contexts. London: Oxford University Press.

Harrison, C. (2017). Gifted and talented: Inclusion and exclusion. Watson, ACT: Early Childhood Australia

Yelland, N., Lee, L., O’Rourke, M., & Harrison, C. (2008). Rethinking learning in early childhood. London, UK: Open University Press.

Harrison, C. (2005). Young gifted children - Their search for complexity and connection. Sydney: Inscript Publishing.

Harrison, C. (2003). Giftedness in early childhood. Sydney: GERRIC, UNSW.

Dr Helen Van Vliet: Teaching and Well-being Consultant

"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves." Carl Jung

Helen's interests are in the areas of child development; child mental health, wellbeing and resilience; gifted education; and, learning motivation. Helen has lectured in child and adolescent development; early childhood pedagogy and curriculum; and, student wellbeing and resilience.   

Helen’s PhD research focused on effective ways to support the mental health and wellbeing of students in the school setting. She designed, developed and trialled an internet course to teach adolescents about healthy ways to cope with stress. She has worked on a project to design curriculum for adolescents to support self-directed learning and goal-directed motivation. Helen has also worked at GERRIC where she completed research concerning academic acceleration in gifted individuals and ran workshops for gifted young children.   

Helen has been involved in a number of research projects. One project aimed to develop a course to enable communities (including parents, teachers and other carers of young children) to learn about effective ways to support the development of children in the early years. Another project concerned the study of phonics-based approaches to teaching early literacy. Helen was also involved in a project aimed at providing teachers of gifted children with school-friendly information concerning psychological assessments and profiling. It is hoped that this will be an effective way to enable gifted children to learn more effectively in the school setting. Helen welcomes opportunities to work within schools to improve teaching and learning for students and teachers.  

Helen completed a Bachelor of Medicine/Surgery degree with Honours and worked as a resident medical officer for four years. She completed two terms in paediatrics and spent time at Tumbatin Developmental Clinic, Prince of Wales Hospital learning how to diagnose and effectively address the needs of children with special learning requirements. This experience has led to an interest in teaching and research concerning provisions for children with special needs, including auditory processing disorder, attentional disorders and behavioural problems.  

After completing a Master of Teaching degree with honours and a Certificate in Gifted Education with high distinction, Helen has worked for a number of years in state and independent schools as a teacher; Coordinator of Science, Maths, Personal Development, Health and Peer Support programs; Stage Convenor; and, Learning Support Coordinator. Helen then took up lecturing and tutoring roles at the UNSW and the University of Sydney. She completed her PhD studies at the UNSW in 2008. Since then she has been on the staff at Australian Catholic University, tutored at Notre Dame University and been employed as a Gifted Consultant at Clovelly Public School.

Dr Anna Westbrook: Literacy Consultant

"The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." - Alan Bennett

Anna Westbrook is a Sydney-based writer who is currently writing her second novel, reviewing for Arts Hub, tutoring gifted students in English and getting her thesis ready for publication. Her debut, Dark Fires Shall Burn (Scribe; 2016), is a literary crime novel.

She has been a lecturer in literature and creative writing at New York University in Sydney, and holds a PhD from the University of New South Wales, and has 15 years’ experience working as a tutor and mentor.

She has been shortlisted for The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award and received an Australian Society of Authors' Mentorship Award. Anna has been anthologized in Herding Kites (Affirm Press) and online in The Disappearing (Red Room Poetry), and published in harlequin creature (USA), The Bastille (France), Voiceworks, Cuttings, Pony, and WQ (Australia).