Melissa works primarily in the assessment and treatment of mild to moderate mental health disorders. She has particular interest and expertise in the treatment of anxiety and adjustment disorders. Melissa provides psychological assessment and consulting services in relation to various medico-legal matters (court reports, Workers’ Compensation). Melissa has accrued over a decade of experience in psychology and counselling services. She has previously worked in counselling roles for child abuse and neglect, sexual assault, corrections, vocational rehabilitation, general and private practice.

In addition, Melissa has previously held the role of Consultant Psychologist to the St John of God Hospital (Bunbury) Pain Management Program, providing group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) intervention for individuals with persisting pain difficulties. Aside from her psychological treatment experience, Melissa has a solid background in psychological assessment more broadly. She has previously been employed as an Assessment Specialist with the NSW Department of Corrective Services, and has amassed considerable experience in private practice conducting various forms of medico-legal assessment, including (but not limited to) psychological functioning, intellectual functioning, pre-liability stress assessment, parental capacity assessment, risk of recidivism, vocational assessment, fitness for work, and drug and alcohol treatment needs.

Doctorate of Psychology (Clinical) (currently undertaking)
Bachelor of Social Science (Psych) (Hons)
Bachelor Behavioural Science (BBSc)
Certificate in Professional Management (Cert Prof Man (Open))

Registered Psychologist – Psychology Board of Australia
Member of the Australian Psychological Society
Accredited Psychology Board of Australia Supervisor (Principal and Secondary)

Committee Member – Australian Psychological Society South West Branch Western Australia

Justin is Principal Couples and Family Counsellor, and a Social Science Researcher with SWEAP and Nudge Psychological Assessment and Consulting. Additionally, he is an Adjunct Lecturer in Psychology with Charles Sturt University, supervising Honours, Masters and PhD level research projects.

Justin has extensive experience in couples and family counselling for relationship and parenting problems. He also has considerable experience in the delivery of therapeutic programs addressing domestic violence, anger management and positive parenting for parents of children with a disability.

With a passion for delivering proven and evidence-based family interventions, Justin has conducted—and subsequently published—a number of program evaluation studies. Justin’s Goal Attainment Scaling instrument and manual for Early Childhood Intervention Services is only one example of this kind of work.

Prior to his current roles, Justin has worked for government departments (e.g. Child Protection) as well as NGOs (e.g. Relationships Australia), developing a sound knowledge of program management and organisational issues in medium to large organisations.

PhD (Psychology)
Bachelor of Psychology (Hons 1st Class)

Member of Australian Psychological Society (MAPS)

Harrison, J. M. D. & McKay, R. T. (in press). Give me strength or give me a reason: Self-control, religion and the currency of reputation. Invited commentary on Kurzban, R., Duckworth, A., Kable, J. W. and Myers, J. in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Harrison, J. M. D. & McKay, R. T. (2013). Do religious and moral concepts influence the ability to delay gratification? A Priming Study. Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis, 10(1). 25-40.

Harrison, J. M. D. & McKay, R. T. (2012). Delay discounting rates are temporally stable in an equivalent present value procedure using theoretical and Area under the Curve analyses. The Psychological Record, 62(2), 307- 320.

Luck, M. J. & Harrison, J. M. D. (2011). Funding Happiness: A study of the arguments against the public funding of life enhancement. Facta Universitatis: Series Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology and History, 10(1), 101-110.

Harrison, J. M. D., & Thompson, A. P. (2007). Evaluation of a Group Behavioural Family Intervention for Parents of Young Children with Developmental Disabilities. In Proceedings of the Australian Psychological Society National Conference 2007; Brisbane, QLD. Book

Harrison, J. M. D. (2007a). Family Support in a Transdisciplinary Context, in Davies, S. (ed), Team Around the Child: Working Together in Early Childhood Intervention. QuickPrint: NSW.

Harrison, J. M. D. (2007b). Individual Family Service Plans as a Means to Evaluate Transdisciplinary Practice, in Davies, S. (ed), Team Around the Child: Working Together in Early Childhood Intervention. QuickPrint: NSW

Tucker, A., Mazzei, E., Davies, S., & Harrison, J. M. D. (2007). Family Centred Practice, in Davies, S. (ed), Team Around the Child: Working Together in Early Childhood Intervention. QuickPrint: NSW

Harrison, J. M. D. & McKay, R. T. (2012). Worthy Impulses: Is self control really necessary for people to treat one another fairly? 2nd Asian Conference for Psychology and the Behavioural Sciences, 30th March – 1st April,Osaka, Japan.

Harrison, J. M. D & McKay, R. T. (2010). More than vice and outrage: temporal discounting and priming moral virtue. 5th European Conference for Positive Psychology, 23-26th June 2010, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Harrison, J. M. D. & McKay, R. T. (2010). Time to do what’s right: the relationship between discounting rates and moral foundations. International Journal for Arts and Sciences Conference, 30th 3rd June, 2010, Bad Hofgastein, Austria.

Harrison, J. M. D. (2010). Automaticity, morality and the role of the ideal self. Free Will and Responsibility Symposium, February 2010, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.

Davies, S., Harrison J. M. D., & Luscombe, D. (2006). The Transdisciplinary Team Approach Combining Practice with Theory in the Australian Context. In Proceedings of the Early Childhood Intervention Association National Conference 2006; Adelaide, South Australia. Adelaide: ECIA.

Master of Clinical Psychology
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Research Master in Neuropsychology (graduated with Cum laude)
Bachelor of Science and Technology (1st class Honours) Double major in Psychology
Bachelor of Science (Neuroscience) Double major in Pharmacology and Neuroscience

Registered Psychologist – Psychology Board of Australia
Member of the Australian Psychological Society (MAPS)
Member of the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS)
Member of The British Psychological Society (BPS)

Klaassen, E.B., Evers, E. A. T., de Groot, R. H. M., Backes, W., Veltman, D. J., Jolles, J. (2014). Working memory in middle-aged males: age-related brain activation changes and cognitive fatigue effects. Biological Psychology, 96, 134-143. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.11.008

Klaassen, E.B., de Groot, R. H. M., Evers, E. A. T., Nicolson, N., Veltman, D. J., Jolles, J. (2013). Cortisol and induced cognitive fatigue: effects on memory activation in young and middle-aged males. Biological Psychology, 94, 167-174. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.05.015

Klaassen, E.B., de Groot, R. H. M., Evers, E. A. T., Snel, J., Veerman, E., Ligtenberg, A., Jolles, J., Veltman, D. J. (2013). The effect of caffeine on working memory load-related brain activation in middle-aged males. Neuropharmacology, 64, 160-167. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropharm.2012.06.026

Evers, E. A. T., Klaassen, E.B., Rombouts, S., Backes, W., Jolles, J. (2012). The effects of sustained cognitive task performance on subsequent resting state functional connectivity in healthy young and middle-aged male schoolteachers. Brain Connectivity 2(2), 102-112. doi:10.1089/brain.2011.0060

Stefanovic, A., Brandner, B., Klaassen, E., Cregg, R., Nagaratnam, M., Bromley, L., Das, R., Rossell, S., Morgan, C., Curran, H. V. (2009). Acute and chronic effects of ketamine on semantic priming: modeling schizophrenia? Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 29(2), pp124 – 133.

Freeman, T., Morgan, C., Klaassen, E., Das, R., Stefanovic, A., Brandner, B., Curran, H. V. (2009). Superstitious conditioning as a model of delusion formation following chronic but not acute ketamine in humans. Psychopharmacology, 206(4), pp563 – 573.

Klaassen, E. B., Plukaard, S., Evers, E. A. T., de Groot, R. H. M., Backes, W. H., Veltman, D. J., & Jolles, J. (2016). Young and Middle-Aged Schoolteachers Differ in the Neural Correlates of Memory Encoding and Cognitive Fatigue: A Functional MRI Study. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 10, 148. http://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00148

Klaassen, E., Evers, E., de Groot, R., Veltman, D., Jolles, J. (2011). Episodic memory encoding in middle age: effects of ageing and cognitive fatigue on brain activation. Annual meeting for the international society for neuroimaging in psychiatry, Heidelberg.

Klaassen, E., Evers, E., de Groot, R., Veltman, D., Jolles, J. (2011). Age differences in brain activation associated with verbal learning and fatigue. School for Mental Health and Neuroscience Research Day 2011, Maastricht.

Klaassen, E., Evers, E., de Groot, R., Veltman, D., Jolles, J. (2010). Fatiguing the brain: the effect of induced fatigue on brain function during working memory. International Neuropsychological Society conference, Krakow.

Klaassen, E., Evers, E., de Groot, R., Veltman, D., Jolles, J. (2010). Fatiguing the brain: the effect of induced fatigue on brain function during working memory. School for Mental Health and Neuroscience Research Day 2010, Maastricht.

Klaassen, E., Morgan, C., Cregg, R., Nagaratnam, M. Brandner, B., Curran, H. V. (2007). The role of dopamine and glutamate in superstition: an investigation using ketamine. 20th Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, Vienna.

Klaassen, E., Hammond, G., Fox, A. (2005). Electrophysiological correlates of preparatory motor processes. International Neuropsychological Society conference, Dublin.

Klaassen, E. Mental Fatigue and Learning. Miniconference: ‘Biopsychological determinants of learning’. November 2011, Utrecht, Open University.Davies, S., Harrison J. M. D., & Luscombe, D. (2006). The Transdisciplinary Team Approach Combining Practice with Theory in the Australian Context. In Proceedings of the Early Childhood Intervention Association National Conference 2006; Adelaide, South Australia. Adelaide: ECIA.

Romney is a Clinical Psychologist with experience across a range of treatment settings including Child Protection, Community Adult Mental Health, and Private Practice. He is experienced in working with a broad range of mood and anxiety disorders including Depression, Recurrent Depressive Disorders, Bipolar Disorder, General Anxiety Disorder, Panic, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Social Anxiety. He also has experience working with Personality Disorders and addictions, and has a strong background in working with trauma.
 
In working with adults Romney draws on a range of treatment approaches including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Schema Therapy, and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. In working with children and families, he has a strong focus on attachment and child development and draws from a range of attachment based models including the Circle of Security, Dan Hughes’ PLACE model, and the ARC (attachment, regulation, competence) model. Romney also has a specific background of working with complex trauma and is trained in both child and adult EMDR protocols.
 
In 2016 Romney was invited to present at the WA Child Protection Psychology Services Conference on the topic of treating complex developmental trauma and his Master’s thesis, completed in conjunction with CAMHS in 2014, analysed coronial data on child and adolescent suicides in Western Australia. Romney also has a specific interest in the interconnection between mind and body. In his honours year he pursued research interests in psychophysiology, and more recently he has focused on the application of sensory-motor psychotherapy principles in his clinical practice.
 
Romney is a registered Medicare provider, and is eligible for Medicare Clinical Psychology rebates and is also eligible for rebates under most private health care funds.

Master of Clinical Psychology, Murdoch University (2014)
Bachelor Arts (Psych, Hons) Murdoch University (1997)

The Australian Psychological Society (APS)
Association for Contextual Behavioural Science (ACBS)

Christopher is a Senior Associate and Organisational Development Consultant with SWEAP (Nudge Psychology’s sister organisation). He possesses extensive experience in the corporate sector and in academia. A former Customer Service Manager within Telstra’s commercial division and Nordberg Asia-Pacific, Christopher has also performed the role of Senior Consultant in quality management at one of Perth’s largest TAFE colleges and served on the board of management at the WA Youth Jazz Orchestra. Shifting toward academia, Christopher lectured in the arts management program at Edith Cowan University for a period of 10 years, specialising in the areas of business law and managerial accounting. He also instructed in management, organisational behaviour and international management at Curtin University.

As a post-doctoral researcher, Christopher was the principal investigator in a large study that focused on the psychosocial wellbeing of breast cancer survivors in South West WA. He has published several papers in Australian and international conferences and journals, and has performed numerous professional consultancies. Christopher presently lectures in strategic management and international management at the University of Western Australia, and also in business communications and analysis at the Perth Institute of Business Technology.

BA
PG Dip Bus
PhD (Management)

Heidi has recently commenced in an administration support role with Nudge Psychology. She has extensive administration and reception experience having worked in the allied health sector since graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Human Communication Science) from Curtin University in 2006. Heidi is a qualified Speech Pathologist by training. She has worked for over eight years as a Speech and Language Support Officer with statewide speech and language services, providing professional support to individuals and schools to aid in identification, referral & educational planning for students with speech, language and/or literacy difficulties.

BSc (Human Communication Science)

Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship (2006)
Commendation for Excellence in Academic Performance (2003 and 2005)
Rotary Scholarship Recipient (2000 & 2002)
Citizenship Award (1997)