Our Psychologists
Sarah Swanson
Senior Clinical Psychologist & Clinical Supervisor
Sarah is a senior clinical psychologist with over twenty years of experience in working with children and adults with a wide range of presenting issues, with a background in both specialist and generalist child and adult health and non-for-profit settings. Sarah enjoys working with both children and adults for psychological, parenting, and relationship issues using a number of therapeutic interventions such as acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive-behavioural therapy, EMDR, positive parenting, family therapy, and attachment-based therapies. She has been trained in and runs the Westmead Feelings Program group for children. She is also able to provide psychological and diagnostic testing and reports for children and adolescents. She also has expertise in working in perinatal health and with very young children and their parents.
Sarah is very experienced and passionate about supervision, including supervising Psychologists, Clinical Psychologists, Clinical Psychologist Registrars, School Counsellors as well as other health professionals. Sarah also works for the University of Newcastle as a Senior Conjoint Lecturer where she teaches and supervises into the Masters of Clinical Psychology & Professional Psychology programs. She has supervised many postgraduate students over the past 20 years in numerous settings, including public health, not for profit, and school settings. She is looking forward to providing placements for provisional psychologists at Generational Psychology over the next few years.
Outside of work, Sarah enjoys spending time socialising with family and friends. She loves going to the beach, reading and playing tennis.
Sarah currently provides clinical psychology and supervision sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Ellen Smith
Clinical Psychologist
Ellen is a Clinical Psychologist with a Master of Psychology (Clinical) from the University of Newcastle. With over 10 years experience working across multiple settings including specialist child and family, and generalist primary health before moving into private practice.
Ellen is passionate about working with children and adults across a range of presentations including anxiety, mood or adjustment difficulties, trauma, parenting, and behavioural or developmental difficulties. She has particular interest in working with children, families and
perinatal mental health.
Ellen understands the importance of building a respectful and collaborative therapeutic relationship, through which meaningful change can occur. She uses a range of therapeutic interventions including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Eye Movement De-sensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), as well as Schema Therapy and attachment–based family therapy. She is also able to provide psychological and diagnostic testing and reports for children and adolescents. She also runs the Westmead Feelings Program group for children in conjunction with Sarah Swanson.
When she’s not working, Ellen loves spending time outdoors, especially the beach and exploring rock pools, or enjoying the sunshine with a book.
Ellen currently provides clinical psychology and supervision sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Tanya Hanstock
Senior Clinical Psychologist
Tanya is a Senior Clinical Psychologist with over twenty-five years of experience in working with children, adolescents and adults with a wide range of presenting issues including severe mental health issues. Tanya has a background of working in public health (inpatient and community services), headspace and university teaching and supervision. She enjoys working with children and adults for psychological and parenting issues and using a number of therapeutic interventions such as cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), parent child interaction therapy (PCIT), family therapy, narrative therapy, schema focused therapy and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT). She is also very experienced and interested in providing clinical supervision. Tanya provides assessments for learning disorders, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Autism.
Tanya currently also works for the University of Newcastle where she teaches and supervises into the Professional and Clinical Psychology programs. She also helps run an outreach psychology program (with a team of postgraduate clinical psychology students) to a local primary school.
Tanya currently provides clinical psychology and supervision sessions on Tuesdays.