Specialist Assessment, Intervention and Consultation.
Anna Westlake provides specialist occupational therapy assessment, intervention and consultation tailored to the needs of individuals, families, care teams and broader support systems. Services are flexible and may be delivered individually, with families or care teams, through telehealth or in community settings.
Individual, dyadic, family based or systemic assessment, clinical formulation and intervention
Functional capacity assessments for children and adults with mental health issues, autism or neurocomplexity
Attachment informed clinical and reflective supervision and mentoring for professionals
Reflective supervision and training for care teams and schools
Mentalization Based Treatment for children and parents
Telehealth for parents and adults
Outreach to regional and remote areas (by negotiation)
Collaboration and systems liaison with government and non government systems.
Specialist training and expertise.
Anna’s clinical approach is informed by extensive postgraduate training and specialist professional development across mental health, attachment, mentalization, neurodevelopment and occupational therapy.
Anna’s specialist evidence based training includes:
Mentalization-Based Treatment for Children (MBT-C) – Practitioner, Anna Freud Centre, UK
Anna is a certified MBT-C Practitioner, bringing specialist training in mentalizing with children and their parents, including the development of attention control, emotional regulation and explicit mentalizing using sensory and relational modalities.
Circle of Security ®
Anna is trained in Circle of Security approaches, supporting parents and caregivers to understand attachment needs, strengthen the parent-child relationship and respond more effectively to children's emotional and relational needs.
Westerman Aboriginal Symptom Checklist (WASC/WASCA)
Anna is trained in the use of the Westerman Aboriginal Symptoms Checklist Youth (WASC-Y) and Westerman Aboriginal Symptoms Checklist Adult (WASC-A), culturally informed assessment measures developed by Dr Tracy Westerman and Indigenous Psychological Services (IPS) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Inslander adults and youth.
Occupational Therapy
Anna is a registered Occupational Therapist with almost two decades of experience across occupational therapy, mental health, developmental practice and complex clinical presentations. Anna also draws on training and clinical experience in polyvagal theory, neurosequential model of therapeutics, clinical formulation and systemic liaison.
Understanding people,
relationships and what
makes change possible.
Anna believes that meaningful change happens in the context of relationships.
At the heart of her work is keeping the person in mind - being curious about what they may be thinking, feeling and experiencing and helping them make sense of themselves and others.
Anna’s work brings together attachment, mentalization, psychotherapy and occupational therapy. Looking beyond behaviour to understand what might be happening underneath, including the emotional, relational and sensory experiences that shape how we respond and participate in everyday life.
Anna’s occupational therapy background means she will also consider how these experiences affect the things that matter in everyday life - relationships, work, education, routines, self-care and participation.
Anna works with both children and adults, taking a whole-person and relational approach. With children and young people, this includes keeping the child and the important people around them in mind, and working with parents and carers to strengthen connection and understanding. With adults, it may involve exploring patterns in relationships, emotional responses, identity and everyday life that can be difficult to understand or change.
Anna’s aim is to create a space where people feel understood, where their experiences can be explored with curiosity, and where new ways of understanding themselves and others can develop. Ultimately, it is about keeping minds in mind - and using that understanding to support meaningful change.
Holding Mind, in Mind.
Sometimes what a person is experiencing cannot be understood in isolation.
The way we think, feel, behave and connect with others is shaped by many things - our relationships, experiences, development, environment and the systems around us.
At Minds in Mind Occupational Therapy and Consulting, Anna brings together almost two decades of post graduate expereience in child, adolescent, adult mental health with specialist knowledge in occupational therapy, attachment, mentalization, personality vulnerabilities and neurodevelopmental complexity.
Anna’s work is grounded in understanding the whole person - including what sits beneath behaviour, how relationships influence our experiences, and how cultural emotional, relational and sensory factors can affect everyday life and participation.
Alongside clinical work, Anna provides professional consultation, care-team supervision and clinical education, with experience in university teaching and guest lecturing.
Make a referral.
Minds in Mind Occupational Therapy Consulting welcomes referrals from individuals, families, support teams, health professionals and other service providers.
Complete the referral form to provide information about the person’s needs and goals. If you’d prefer to discuss a potential referral first, please contact Anna Westlake on 0461 538 162.