Dr Bernadette Bywater

Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), P.G.Dip (Psychology), Doctor of Clinical Psychology

Clinical Psychologist

Internal Family Systems Therapist Level 2 

Psychology Board of Australia Approved Supervisor

Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician

EMDR Therapist (Attachment Informed)

Certified Psychedelic Assisted Therapist (Integrative Psychiatry Institute, 12 month course)

Innate Somatic Intelligence Trauma Therapy Approach (ISITTA, founded in Hakomi therapy)

Bernadette is a registered Clinical Psychologist (Registration PSY0001049044) and Board Approved Supervisor. She is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS, Membership No. 034478), a Fellow of the Clinical College of the APS, a member of the Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Association of Australia (EMDRAA) and a Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinician (Australia and New Zealand Academy of Eating Disorders). She was first registered as a Psychologist in 2002 and has completed postgraduate training in a range of scientifically supported therapies. Bernadette has worked in various hospital, community and forensic settings, including specialist services for the treatment of eating disorders and as a consultant for bariatric surgery clinics. In addition to private practice, Bernadette also provides clinical supervision to other psychologists for clinical consultation and as a Board Approved Supervisor. She is also co-director of EvolutionMET, a service that provides medicine assisted therapy.

Bernadette offers treatment for a range of adult issues including the following:

• Anxiety disorders including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Health Anxiety, phobias
• Depression including Post Natal Depression, low mood
• Post-traumatic stress resulting from single incident trauma or a series of traumatic life-events including childhood trauma
• Eating Disorders including Bulimia Nervosa, Anorexia Nervosa and Binge eating
• Adult survivors of childhood abuse - including emotional abuse, trauma and neglect
• Adult children of parents with mental health difficulties
• Adjustment to major life events or transitions e.g. parenthood, divorce, retirement
• Workplace conflict and issues effecting career progression
• Life goals and direction
• Relationship difficulties
• Parenting issues
• Supporters of people with mental health difficulties
• Integration of psychedelic experiences including bad/ challenging trips

Therapeutic approach

Bernadette’s approach to therapy is warm, supportive and collaborative. She will work with you to develop a thorough understanding of your strengths and difficulties and what you would like to be different. A key part of her approach is making sense of the context and intention underneath symptoms in a way that is not blaming or shaming. Bernadette is skilled in the application of a wide range of scientifically-supported therapies that are selected based on the needs of each client and does not follow a one size fits all approach. She is committed to ongoing training and clinical supervision to ensure that the therapy she provides is of the highest quality. Bernadette draws on her personal practice of meditation to inform her clinical work and ability to be fully present with the people she works with.

The therapeutic models used include:

• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
• Motivational Enhancement Therapy
• Solution-focused Therapy
• Mindfulness-based therapy 
• Narrative Therapy
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Internal Family Systems 
• Neuropsychotherapy
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy (Attachment Informed)
• Structural Dissociation (parts model)
• Somatic therapy (ISITTA)
• Psychedelic Assisted Psychotherapy (we offer psychological integration of psychedelic experiences at Centre Point Psychology and do not offer the medicine experience)

• Doctorate in Clinical Psychology
  (University of Birmingham, England)
• Diploma in Eating Disorders
  (National Centre for Eating Disorders, England)
• Post Graduate Diploma in Psychology
  (Macquarie University, Australia)
• Bachelor of Arts (Psychology)
  (Macquarie University, Australia)

Ongoing Professional Development

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Certificate I and II in Psycho-dietetics
• Supervisor Course for Psychologists Registration Board N.S.W.
• Lap-band Health Practitioners Course
• Healing Broken Bonds: Traumatic Attachment and Emotional Dysregulation
• Interpersonal Psychotherapy
• Short term schema therapy
• Neuroscience of memory and trauma
• Neuropsychotherapy for anxiety, depression and trauma.
• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)
• Structural dissociation/ ego state therapy and EMDR
• Attachment-focused EMDR
• Somatic therapy (ISITTA)
• EMDR Modified protocol and the progressive approach
• Transcendental Meditation
• Internal Family Systems (IFS) - various courses including Level 2
• Psychedelic Assisted Therapy - various courses including 12 months Integrative Psychiatry Institute (USA) course
• Bad/ Challenging Psychedelic Trip Integration
• Mindfulness-bases stress reduction (MBSR)
• Trauma informed Care and Practice: An indigenous approach to developing worker skill (We Al-Li)
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for ADHD/ Autism

Please note that Dr Bernadette is not able to prescribe MDMA or Psilocybin. She does not provide psychedelic assisted therapy medicine sessions at Centre Point Psychology.