About Kallena

I began my career as an artist, initially working in ceramics here in Melbourne, then in Riga, Latvia, during the time the U.S.S.R collapsed and Latvia re-gained it's independence. On my return to Australia in 1992 I had to find a new professional direction and, in an attempt to understand better what I had experienced, studied social work at The University of Melbourne. A career in various health, mental health and palliative care settings followed. 

​In time I realised I needed to devote time and energy to further my own healing, and with that I also began my studies and work understanding the impacts of complex trauma and dissociation.​

As I focussed on my own psychotherapy, I also read widely in areas on early human development, from psychodynamic through to biological, neurobiological and psychoneuroimmunological growth, health and mental health, trauma, dissociation and modern developments in psychodynamics and psychotherapy. Through this work, as I healed myself, I also gained broader insight and understanding into how this process of growth develops throughout our lifetimes, how it may be severely damaged and also healed. We are relational beings: as we grow and develop in relationship, we can be damaged in relationship but, through relationship we can heal. Both my studies and my personal experience have shown me that we humans are much more complex than bio-medical diagnosis of emotional distress can explain, that we are powerfully impacted by our experiences and the social and political contexts in which we live. 

Returning to professional practice as a social worker and counsellor, I gained further qualifications in trauma, mental health and clinical psychotherapeutic practice.​

My psychotherapeutic practice is based around my understanding of the effects of attachment disruptions and traumas, particularly through modern self-psychological psychodynamic, somatic and Gestalt approaches, with emphasis on recognising and understanding the impact of developmental experiences on our capacity for regulation of our affects and emotions. I am also familiar with the ISSTD and the Blue Knot Foundation guidelines for working with complex trauma together with holding an explicitly feminist approach to my practice.

I maintain my own psychotherapy and clinical supervision to ensure that I continue to gain insight and understanding and am able to maintain ethical clinical practice. I am also a member of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self-Psychology, the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, the Blue Knot Foundation and the Victorian Association of Gestalt Practitioners, have presented at various conferences on themes related to understanding the impacts of childhood trauma and am familiar with the processes of the Victims of Crime Assistance Scheme in Victoria. Between 2006 - 2016 I also exhibited widely as an artist photographer. Some of the works created during this time can be viewed here on the 'Art' pages.

More recently I have completed Advanced Clinical Studies in Relational Gestalt Psychotherapy at Gestalt Therapy Australia. I continue to engage in ongoing training in clinical work in complex trauma and am registered on the Blue Knot database of trauma-informed clinicians.

I commit myself to establishing a warm and non-judgmental environment in which you can feel secure exploring any themes that may be inhibiting your capacity to live fully and well. 
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