Contacts and to Make Appointments

Room: 1336 Malvern Road | Malvern

Phone: 03 9804 3748 | Mobile: 0417 323 783

E-mail: tonycatanese@glenirispsychology.com.au

Word Picture

Present

Tony has provided psychological services to people in our community for over 29 years. The services provided by Tony are typical of any community psychologist for people who are confronting daily life challenges. When asked what his general theoretical approach is, Tony replies: "My goal is to empower the individual or couple to resolve the issues that are causing them distress. This requires you as a psychologist to respect the individuality of the experience/s and tailor your assistance to that experience. If I am forced to describe a theory, I would describe it as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy in a supportive Empathic Counselling Systems framework. The one common theme of people presenting is the presence of a concern or worry to that individual across a wide range of everyday life issues. The psychologist's role is to assist that person to develop their ability to manage and deal with their respective concern, whatever that may mean."

Issues that Tony assists people with are:
- Anxiety,
-Depression,
-Relationships concerns,
-Consequences of unforseen and unpredictable events (car accidents, health scares, victims of criminal acts),
-Gambling,
-Injury, disability and adjustment issues and,
-General psychopathology.

In addition, Tony has specialist assessment skills in conducting personality and intellectual assessment in complex, difficult and hard to assess circumstances. Because of his specialist experience, psychologists seek professional supervision either for registration, specialist registration or for particular cases.

This specialist experience is also sought out to provide consultancy and training seminars to professional staff and in the provision of expert evidence in legal matters. For example, Tony has provided numerous professional development courses on assessment, managing acute psychological distress, effective management of suicidal behaviour, minimising the impact of aggression and general introductory courses to mental health for non mental health workers. The expert evidence provided involves a range of legal matters including the Supreme, County, Magistrate's and Family Courts as well as Tribunals.

Background and History

Tony's initial professional position after graduating from the University of Melbourne in the mid seventies was as a Graduate Personnel Officer for an International Insurance Company. After a brief time in this position, he returned to study to obtain his first postgraduate qualification in Psychology after which he began a career specialising in the provision of clinical psychology services to children and adults with neurological impairments and their families and carers.

During this period (1984 to 1989) while working full time, he returned to study part time and completed a Master of Clinical Psychology degree. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1989 and in 1992 received a three year National Health & Medical Research Council Grant to evaluate an early intervention program for young children.

In September 1990, he began a small private practice working from a General Practitioner's rooms in Springvale South where he continues to work two sessions per week to this day. In mid 1992 he left his position as a Senior Psychologist for a large Non Government Agency to develop this practice further. At the same time, he obtained a sessional clinical position at Monash Medical Centre on the Emergency Department Psychiatry Team where his major duties were acute assessment and treatment, staff support and teaching/supervision of trainees.

In 2000, he resigned from the hospital position due to pressure of work and concentrated on private clinical and consulting work.

In October 2001 he, together with Southern Health obtained a three-year project grant under the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, He presently manages/consults to this project two days a week in addition to his private practice. The project has been extended with additional funding for 2005/2006.

Academic Qualifications

Bachelor of Science, University of Melbourne, 1977.
Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Psychology, Adelaide University, 1981.
Master of Psychology, La Trobe University, 1990.
Registered in the State of Victoria as a Specialist Clinical Psychologist

Awards

Churchill Fellowship, 1989.
National Health and Medical Research Council Grant 1993 to 1997

Professional Memberships

Australian Psychological Society
College of Clinical Psychology
College of Health Psychology
Australian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress
Churchill Fellows Association of Victoria
Australian Cognitive Therapy Association