Dr Louise Smith

PhD, PG Dip Clin Psych, MNZCCPsych
Registered Clinical Psychologist

Louise completed her Doctorate in psychology and a Post Graduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology in 1994 from the University of Otago. Her doctoral work was in the field of establishing community based family support services for families affected by traumatic brain injury. Following this she branched out into other areas of child and family work (parent management, working with parents with personality disorders) and spent many years engaging in in-depth therapy work with adults and children affected by sexual, physical and emotional abuse. She has a particular interest in supervision and training and established a diploma level training programme for counsellors which is registered on the NZQA framework. She has held membership on disciplinary and ethics committee and has acted as a consultant to a wide range of community organisations (e.g., Salvation Army, Auckland City Mission). Since 1994 she has been a specialist report writer and expert witness for the family court, presenting on family law topics for colleagues and lawyers alike. Louise has also been involved in programme evaluations (e.g., the evaluation of the court education service for young witnesses).

In 2001 Louise joined the Towards Well Being programme team. As part of this programme she has presented training for social workers and mental health workers on suicide risk assessment and case management. She has worked extensively with social workers to ensure they provide high levels of service, both following suicide attempts, deaths, and in terms of prevention. She has also been called upon to assist in the management of suicide clusters (both with attempts and completed suicides) and has liaised extensively with community organisations, educational workers, and community groups. She has latterly been the Clinical Manager for the Postvention Support Initiative.  Louise is currently a CASA Consultant.