Team

Professor Fitzgerald is a qualified psychiatrist, and has a Masters of Psychological Medicine and research PhD.Professor Fitzgerald was an elected board Member of the International Society for Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (ISTS) and was an invited member of the World Federation of Biological Psychiatry Taskforce on Brain Stimulation (2006-2009).He is currently a committee member for the Electroconvulsive Therapy and Neurostimulation Special Interest Group with The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP), and serves on the board of directors for Neurosciences Victoria. He is Psychiatric deputy editor for the journal ‘Brain Stimulation’ and is on the Editorial Boards of ‘Psychiatry Research’ and the ‘Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry’.As the head of the School of Medicine and Psychology at the Australian National University, Fitzgerald has conducted over 20 clinical trials of TMS and related methods and has published over 500 scientific papers and has personally treated over 1500 patients with TMS.

Monarch Mental Health is recognized as Australia's first outpatient clinic offering assisted therapy and is the largest provider of outpatient magnetic stimulation therapy, among other advanced treatments. Previously, from 2004 to 2015, Dr. Cassidy was the co-founder and Chief Psychiatrist of The Hills Clinic Hospital and medical centers, which treated over 10,000 patients during his tenure.

Dr Lau is a medical doctor trained in addiction and adult psychiatry. His treatment services include inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care tailored to individual needs and cultural backgrounds. He has experience in managing addiction, mood disorders, OCD, PTSD, generalised anxiety disorders and psychosis including TMS and trauma-informed addiction services.

Dr Samir Ibrahim is a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at The Monarch Clinic and is Director of the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Program at Northpark Private Hospital. Dr Ibrahim is also an international member of the American Psychiatric Association and is the Co-Chair of the Family Research and Interventions Sections at the World Psychiatric Association. Dr Ibrahim is also an international member of the American Psychiatric Association and is the Co-Chair of the Family Research and Interventions Sections at the World Psychiatric Association. Dr Samir Ibrahim has been a psychiatrist for 39 years, and practices in Sydenham and Bundoora. He arrived in Australia from Egypt 25 years ago and has a passion for helping people who have mental health conditions find their voice.

She has previously held public appointments at Monash Health in the inpatient and community health settings in the area of Old Age Psychiatry and Chronic Pain management. Her clinical interests include both general adult and old age psychiatry. Dr Shankar's special interests are in addiction, pain medicine and neurostimulation. Qualifications BSc (Med) MBBS(UNSW) MPsych(Melb) FRANZCP.

He completed his medical degree at the esteemed University of New South Wales and went on to obtain his Master of Medicine (psychiatry) from the University of Sydney. His psychiatry training was completed through the South East Sydney Area Health Service, where he also served as the senior registrar at St George Hospital. Dr. Cocker has worked in diverse psychiatric areas including general psychiatry, addiction medicine, emergency psychiatry and perinatal psychiatry, affording him a broad knowledge and deep expertise in the field.

She graduated in medicine from Monash University and completed specialty training in New South Wales. While Dr Cheah finds all aspects of psychiatry interesting and rewarding, she’s particularly interested in computational neuroscience, global mental health, and the intersection of psychiatry and emerging technologies on an academic level.

In addition, she has experience with inpatient and community settings in Monash and Frankston Health. Dr Das has a vast range of special interests including anxiety disorders, depression, drugs & alcohol and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as well as women’s mental health.

He completed his undergraduate medical degree and Master of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne.  He is a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, having completed his specialist psychiatry training at ACT Health in Canberra and  Alfred Health in Melbourne. Dr Modak's interests include mood disorders and ADHD.  His training has focused on general adult psychiatry but he also has experience working in a specialist youth mental health service. Dr Modak has experience with a range of treatment modalities, including neurostimulation, pharmacological interventions, and psychotherapy.  He has published research in the area of transcranial magnetic stimulation and has clinical expertise in this area.  Alongside biological interventions, he has interests in psychodynamic psychotherapy and mindfulness-based psychotherapy.  Finally, he has a strong interest in emerging and innovative treatments, including next-step medications.

Peter is working from our Sydney Office and Nationally. Peter has extensive experience working with clients from diverse backgrounds, from school age to older community members and has extensive experience working with clients with diverse presentations and abilities, history and cultural backgrounds. Over the last ten years has worked clients with complex medical, social and clinical presentations to improve their psychological, social and emotional functioning. With experience working therapeutically with clients with have a range of social disadvantage, disabilities, ASD ADHD Anxiety and Depression, Trauma. He a particular interest working with clients who have experienced significant medical or life changing events, chronic pain or loss of social and physical function, he takes a holistic approach to aide physical, social and emotional recovery and restore quality of life. Peter has extensive experience working with LGBTQI+ clients, working with young people, individuals in transition, older individuals adjusting to life changes and social and emotional challenges, relationship breakdown and loss and grief. Peter is an accredited Gottman Practitioner, has provided couples, families and relationship counselling. With many years working with young people with learning issues, psycho-social challenges and anxiety or depression, disabilities of various kinds he recognises that for all clients, mental health and well-being is a lifelong journey that is based on developmentally appropriate techniques, skills, insight and support.

Monica is also a mother, yoga teacher, gardening enthusiast and book nerd. Her clinical experience includes working with people who have experienced childhood and adult trauma, especially veterans, current and former serving defence personnel, First Nations peoples, domestic violence survivors, and victims of crime. She has worked within inpatient and outpatient psychiatric hospital settings, in private practice, and prisons. Monica has expertise in the field of substance use, having worked across opiate substitution clinics, community settings and residential rehabilitation services. Monica has been involved in the training, supervision, and well-being of other mental health professionals for the past decade. She provides clinical supervision to health professionals, counsellors and peer workers, provisional, registered, and clinical registrar psychologists, as well as professionals with conditions posed on their registration by AHPRA. Monica believes that the relationship between client and therapist is the heart of effective therapy and that the relationship between supervisee and supervisor is equally as important. She is a warm, insightful therapist whose approach depends on the needs of the person. Her therapeutic style draws on strengths-based approaches, relational and interpersonal psychotherapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR), IFS, somatic psychotherapy, mindfulness and non-dual meditation practices. Monica is an Accredited EMDR Practitioner with EMDRAA, an Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level 1 Practitioner. She is a Certified iRest Yoga Nidra teacher and has co-authored research on yoga and mental health. She is also a non-executive committee member of a domestic violence charity in Newcastle.

Clara holds an honours degree in Psychology and a master's degree in Clinical Psychology, both from Macquarie University. She is in her final years of a PhD at the Matilda Centre, University of Sydney, with her thesis examining people’s experiences of therapy while engaged in the NSW Drug Court Program, using both qualitative and quantitative methodology. Clara is registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and is a member of the Australian Clinical Psychology Association (ACPA). She is a registered supervisor with AHPRA and provides supervision to both provisional psychologists and clinical psychology registrars. Clara has a 20-year history of clinical work within the forensic, clinical and substance misuse fields of psychology, working in both public and private facilities. She has worked extensively with children and adults, specialising in the assessment and treatment of complex presentations where a person may have multiple comorbidities and have endured traumatic experiences. For the past 14 years, Clara has worked privately providing psychological therapies to adults experiencing clinical mental health disorders. She has also been providing psychological assessments and reports to the Courts specialising mainly in drug use disorders. For the past two years, she has been consulting with Ngaoara providing psychological interventions and support to Aboriginal children with a history of trauma and limited social support. Clara utilises several clinical interventions in her work, including Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Radically Open Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (RO DBT), Schema Therapy and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. She is particularly interested in relational psychodynamic approaches to therapy.

During the final year of studies, Alessandra/Ali submitted her research thesis project on cognitive rehabilitation of individuals with schizophrenia, while also undertaking employment in a shelter for women and children escaping from domestically violent relationships. Upon graduation, Alessandra/Ali moved to Australia and worked in the mental health disability sector while waiting to obtain formal recognition of her overseas degree. Upon validation of her degree, Alessandra undertook 2 years of post-graduate training; this involved training in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of mental health and psychological across all age ranges and cultural backgrounds. Alessandra enjoys working with a wide array of people who live with problems associated with depression, anxiety, attachment/complex trauma, personality disorders, and parenting issues. Alessandra draws her therapeutic approach from relational psychodynamic psychotherapy, interpersonal and narrative psychotherapy, yoga and somatic therapies, as well as cognitive therapies like CBT and DBT. Alessandra has also a strong interest in psychedelic integration. Alessandra offers a warm supportive environment in which she operates according to the belief that an individual can achieve meaningful changes in their lives through insight, understanding and validation.

Angela graduated with a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and a Master of Professional Psychology both from Macquarie University. She is a provisionally registered psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia and has been counselling, assessing, and treating adults and young adults for 2 years. Angela is passionate about improving her client’s quality of life and is experienced with adults from late adolescence through to the very elderly. Angela is trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and has experience working with a broad range of clinical presentations, including alcohol and other drugs, depression, anxiety, PTSD/C-PTSD and ADHD.

Bernadette has over a decade of experience in clinical research including pharmacological and device-based clinical trials. She has received >10 awards for her research including being invited to give the 2021 Tess Cramond Lecture at the Australasian Pain Society Meeting, the 2018 Australasian Brain Stimulation Society Early Career Award and was selected for the 2018 Veski Inspiring Women in STEM Sidebyside program. She is currently an executive member of the Australasian Brain Stimulation Society and was recently the founding Chair of the Australian Brain Alliance Early to Mid-Career Brain Science Network, an initiative of the Australian Academy of Science (2017-21).