Amherst Psychology

17/12/2025

Were you a SELF-GASLIGHTER after your autism or ADHD diagnosis?
“I’m probably just lazy”
“I just over-identified with all the memes”
“I knew what they wanted me to say from all the TikToks about ADHD and autism assessments”

You’re not alone - these are common thoughts experienced after a diagnosis. Please remember, a skilled assessor can distinguish between meme-expertise and lifelong traits! And it’s likely that autistics and ADHDers grew up in neurodivergent families where these traits are the norm. It can be confronting or perplexing to have them identified as atypical and may add to the sense of, “Am I just making this up?”

15/12/2025

12/12/2025

Women In Business Afternoon on the Lawn

Our co-Director, Yvonne Kilpatrick, spoke at the City of Gosnells Women In Business Afternoon on the Lawn this month. Her presentation focused on the experience of imposter syndrome that many women in business encounter. She spoke about her own experiences and practical ways to combat self doubt through building supportive networks and not getting caught up in the thoughts.

10/12/2025

The idea of “stages of grief” came from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s work with people facing their own terminal diagnoses, not those mourning a loss. It was never intended it to be a strict roadmap for experiencing grief but has become widely accepted and misinterpreted. Modern grief research shows it doesn’t unfold in neat, predictable steps. Rather than moving through a fixed sequence, people grieve in ways that are complex, individual, and often messy.

08/12/2025

Our Clinical Team Leader, Vanessa Rankin, shared her reflections on a recent PD she attended on the Psychology Board of Australia’s new Code of Conduct that came into effect on 1 December 2025. If you’d like to know more about the new code there are details on the AHPRA website.

05/12/2025

Our team had some well-deserved time out together last week to enjoy each other’s company away from the office at a beautiful spot by the river. Some delicious food, our traditional Stealing Santa game, and interactive giant Jenga with random missions to sabotage other players. We’re so proud of our whole team and of all we’ve achieved for 2025 ✨🎄

03/12/2025

Xmas & new years office openings, book now!

28/11/2025

Whatever you're going through, support is available.

We offer compassionate, evidence-based care for children, young people and adults. Appointments available, no waitlist. Reach out when you're ready.

📞 - Call us on (08) 9456 0411 or
💬 - Submit a new client enquiry form

https://www.amherstpsychology.com.au/newclient

26/11/2025

We had a great time hearing from the wonderful Dr Daryl Chow on embedding deliberate practice in our client work and practice-wide - especially FIT Outcomes. His expertise and help with practical application has been incredibly helpful to us over the last couple of years and we loved having his input again today as we further embed FIT Outcomes across our practice.

25/11/2025

We had a huge day at the inaugural PDA Conference Australia at Optus Stadium last week. It was wonderful to see around 650 parents, health / medical professionals and educators gathered to learn about an autistic profile that was almost unheard of not very many years ago. The conference was even covered in The West Australian - fantastic in terms of raising awareness of PDA.

Our Managing Director, Zoë Parry, is proud to be a volunteer board member of PDA Perth WA Inc who hosted the event - the first of its kind in Australia. Heidi Brandis who facilitated our PDA masterclass a few months ago convened the conference as the Chair of PDA Perth WA Inc. Amherst Psychology sponsored the event via our exhibitor stall - a big thank you to our practitioners Linh Nguyen, Sonya Curran, and Olivia West for setting the stall up (super early!) and chatting with people throughout the day. Our co-Director, Yvonne Kilpatrick, also volunteered as MC for one of the sessions.

21/11/2025

Your brain isn’t your enemy.

It’s like a well-meaning alarm system -
built for survival, not accuracy.

Sometimes it reacts to comfort like it’s danger.
It’s not being mean - just overprotective.