Patrea O'Donoghue - Brisbane Psychologist

With over 30 years experience across a broad range of mental health issues and a great variety of clients Patrea has become a highly respected Brisbane Psychologist producing positive results in her clients.

Are you looking to commit to making changes in your life or to cope better when change unexpectedly comes your way? Maybe you’d like to make changes in these areas:

Develop healthy approaches to managing the multiple stressors of modern life
Be happy so that you are not on a roller-coaster of emotions such as anxiety and depression
Have greater wellbeing and resilience so you don’t fall in a heap when the inevitable ‘bad stuff’ in life happens
Communicate more effectively so you can have more harmonious relationships and put your points across in a way that is more likely to result in you feeling heard
Make decisions about your weight or relationship
Move on from past difficult life events so that you can more fully participate in and enjoy life today
Stop worrying about future challenges so that you can be more present to what’s happening today in your life
Be more effective so you can better prioritise what’s important for you to make it happen rather than wait till ‘some day when I have time…’
Develop greater ability to concentrate on what you’re doing, even if that is sleep!

Specialists in Human Behaviour

Psychologists are specialists in human behaviour. They learn and understand what shapes the way people think, behave and feel, and the evidence-based strategies and tools to help people to overcome challenges and improve performance. They help people to develop the skills needed to function healthily and to prevent ongoing problems. Psychologists also work with people who don’t have a problem per se, but would like to perform even better than they already are or to develop a greater level of self-awareness. This is where Positive Psychology plays a large role.

Focussed Psychological Strategies

Patrea regularly attends conferences and training to stay up to date with current best practices. This enables Patrea to adopt a set of evidence based strategies which are effective and also comply with guidelines recommended by Medicare Australia. These focussed psychological strategies are:

1. Psycho-education (including motivational interviewing)

2. Cognitive-behavioural Therapy including:

Behavioural interventions
Behaviour modification
Exposure techniques
Activity scheduling
Cognitive interventions
Cognitive therapy

3. Relaxation Strategies

Progressive muscle relaxation
Controlled breathing

4. Skills training

Problem solving skills and training
Anger management
Social skills training
Communication training
Stress management
Parent management training

5. Interpersonal therapy (especially for depression)

Make a Wise Choice

The decision to seek help for your problem or problems is yours and yours alone. Whilst anyone can see a psychologist, a referral from your GP is required before you can access Medicare rebates. However, the most important thing is that you seek out the help you need now.

Living with cancer that ultimately took his life, the value of life became ultra apparent to Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. In his speech to the 2005 graduating class of Stanford University he shared the following wise words:

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and own intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become.
Everything else is secondary.”

Group Psychology Sessions

Learning in a group setting can accelerate the development process by hearing different perspectives, gaining support, and giving and receiving encouragement from your fellow participants. Patrea runs a number of groups including resilience and mindfulness.

If you are interested in attending or arranging on online group, please click the following online contact form.

Patrea is based in the greater Brisbane area of the Redlands. (Patrea O’Donoghue Brisbane Psychologist)

Please note that for the moment, Patrea is conducting all sessions by phone or video.