Dr Holly McGovern

Clinical Psychologist

“ I am keen to debunk family therapy and support parents and carers to regain confidence in their inherent parenting skills and reclaim their role as family leaders. This can be incredibly challenging for parents as it asks them to take their focus off their struggling child and refocus their energy and efforts back onto themselves.”
 
Dr Holly firmly believes that every individual is already equipped with the capacity to thrive but acknowledges that this can be easily derailed by any number of complex stressors. This is particularly so when parents are faced with a struggling child who inevitably attracts their full attention and efforts to fix or change them. Holly believes a young person can only thrive if parents provide them with the space to do so and hence believes that the best way a parent can become an essential resource to their child is by refocusing their efforts back onto themselves and investing energy into their own role and responsibility within the family unit. Investing energy into oneself when a child is struggling can be incredibly difficult and feel very uncomfortable for parents, but experience allows Holly to guide parents through this challenging process in order to see the positive impacts it has on their child’s autonomy and responsibility.
 
Dr Holly brings a wealth of expertise and experience to her practice having worked in child and adolescent psychology for more than 20 years. In addition to private practice she has worked in settings that include the Child, Adolescent and Family Psychiatry Unit at Westmead Hospital, the Child Protection Unit at Sydney Children’s Hospital, and the CYMHS Outreach Service for Children and Adolescents at Royal North Shore Hospital. She also believes in the importance of maintaining the professions clinical integrity and curiosity by lecturing at Macquarie University, contributing to curriculum development at the University of Western Sydney, and providing a variety of professional development opportunities for allied health and education professionals. Clinically Holly is skilled in a number of evidence-based therapies including individual approaches (CBT; DBT; ACT) that boost a young persons’ resiliency and promote independence and accountability for themselves in their family, social circles, and wider community. To create space for them to do this work Holly strongly encourages integrating parent and family therapy (Bowen Family Therapy; Circle of Security; and group treatments) to promote parents clarity and confidence in their role in the child’s growth process. Where appropriate Holly utilises the young persons’ wider support systems including school staff and /or medical and allied health professionals.