Robert O’Hara Email & Phone Number

Newcastle, Nsw, Au

Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

Program Facilitator for the Waves of Wellness Foundation, running clinical mental health surf therapy programs in Bondi and the Northern Beaches in Sydney.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

In this role I lead a team of 12 mental health clinical program facilitators to manage the delivery of Waves of Wellness (WOW) surf therapy programs across Australia. Program management also involved communicating with a range of stakeholders and regularly reporting to funding partners of the WOW Organisation. Collaboration with the facilitators and other members of the WOW executive team was a key aspect of this role, so I pride myself on the ability to work well within a team and support individuals from a range of professional backgrounds in achieving organisational goals.

Australia

Delivering evidence-based psychological support and AOD interventions to support youth at risk of using drugs and alcohol in the Newcastle community.

Sydney

As Student Counsellor I provided individual clinical mental health support for students. This involved delivering one on one therapy sessions on campus (or via Zoom), collaborating with academic staff to provide students with relevant academic support where needed, referring students to further clinical resources and interventions as appropriate and conducting risk assessments to ensure the wellbeing and safety of all students attending the college. My focus in this role was also to develop wellbeing and inclusion support resources for the college community, to ensure all students feel welcome, supported and respected during their time at ACPE.

In this role, I worked with a range of children – many of whom experienced mental health challenges or lived with various disabilities. From this work, I learned the importance of considering and adapting to the needs of individuals and gained valuable experience in catering to, motivating and engaging children with a range of psychological conditions (e.g. various anxiety-related disorders, Autism Spectrum Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and cognitive disabilities.

My primary roles in this position firstly included fostering and maintaining a safe and respectful community atmosphere throughout the college, which involved providing student-counselling to students who were experiencing a range of mental health challenges (primarily including anxiety and depression), working with college staff to support the wellbeing of students across the college community and supporting students who were in crisis or had experienced trauma (e.g. aiding them throughout the process of reporting sexual assault). This work provided invaluable therapeutic experience working with university students - statistically, a significant age group for the onset and development of ongoing psychopathologies. Following my contributions in this role, I was awarded the 'Golden Fleece' college-spirit award.

Master'S Degree, Clinical Psychology

Activities and Societies: Student representative for the Master of Clinical Psychology 2023 cohort

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Psychology

Bachelor of Science with Honours in Psychology

Bachelor Of Arts/Bachelor Of Science

Activities and Societies: Edinburgh University Surf Club MemberSemester long exchange at the University of Edinburgh

Bachelor Of Arts - Ba, Philosophy

Education record

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Clinical Psychology

PhD in Clinical Psychology assessing the benefits of walk and talk therapy vs. traditional office-based therapy for men with depression..