Randwick

  • Cristina

    Registered Psychologist Sydney

    B Psych (Hons); Grad Dip Int Comm; PhD; MAPS

    Hart Centre Certified

    100% Trust and Satisfaction Guarantee In Relationship
    LOCATIONS
    • Randwick, NSW
    • Bondi Junction, NSW
    About Cristina

    This Hart Registered Psychologist has over ten years of experience specialising in couples counselling and marital preperation, providing a variety of evidence-based techniques and therapeutic approaches. Her approach to support counselling is caring and empathic.

    In addition to her honours degree in Psychology, she holds a PhD from the University of Western Sydney (Australia) and a Postgraduate Diploma on Intercultural Communication. She has worked as a Psychologist in private, academic and corporate settings.

    She is also a lecturer and researcher, and teaches several psychology units (postgraduate and masters levels). She has worked as a cultural consultant in several countries focusing on expatriates stages of adaptation. Her PhD thesis was on expatriates’ strategies of integration in Australia, and she particularly looked into intermarriages and conflict resolution styles during adaptation. As an academic, she has presented several papers in international conferences and published several book chapters and peer-reviewed papers in renowned journals. She speaks English, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

    She is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

    How many years counselling experience do you have?

    Over 20 years.

    What are three strengths you have as a Psychologist/Counsellor?
    1.  Knowledge
    2. Empathy
    3. Experience 
    What is the most satisfying and fulfilling part of the work you do?

    Assisting people to break barriers, helping them to perceive themselves from a different perspective and create new possibilities to improve themselves and their relationships, finding strengths they were unaware of before.

    What’s an example of a couple you have helped the most?

    I can think of so many couples who were brave to face the challenging task of deeply listening to each other and also looking into themselves. I admire all of them.

    I choose a couple that perhaps resonates to many people reading this profile. This couple are in their early 30s, neither had done individual therapy before, so it was unknown territory for both. They were dating for 7 years and were living together. They were both born in Australia, but came from different backgrounds in terms of expectations and communication styles. They saw me after months of struggling with communication, feelings of resentment and increased emotional distance. There was also a break of trust and they considered separating. They were questioning why this happened so early into their relationship, as they expected this would only happen after many years of being married or having children.

    I usually say that lack of communication tends to be a lack of connection and empathy, and recovering trust should be team work; one cannot recover trust alone. Accepting help is by far the biggest step, as it can give the feeling of “we have failed” or “we are not capable”.

    We explored how each one of them felt dis-connected and the barriers they faced.  They learned how to really listen to each other, identifying their communication and attachment styles, and understanding that recovering trust takes work but is possible. Like many other couples, they re-invented their relationship, as the one they had was not functional anymore.

    They are still together and stronger than before. They have grown so much both as individuals and as a couple, as they stepped outside of their comfort zones and did the work. This happened years ago, and sometimes, every two months or so, they do a “check-up” of their relationship with me, which helps them avoid falling back into unhelpful patterns and relationship pitfalls.

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