Michaela Lakota

Michaela is a warm, down-to-earth psychologist with a focus on teaching evidence-based skills and practices to help her clients cope better with the challenges of life. Michaela spent a number of years living overseas in Kuala Lumpur, giving her a unique perspective on cultural, religious, and social issues and their impacts on mental health across various life stages. She works in private practice helping her clients with a wide range of difficulties including coping with feelings of stress, grief, anxiety and depression; managing challenging behaviours such as self-harm, substance use and eating difficulties; and building better relationships with others and themselves. 

Michaela integrates a variety of treatment approaches including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindfulness-based therapy, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and positive psychology techniques. She is especially passionate about mindfulness, both as a personal meditation practice and as a way of helping others learn to be with themselves in the hard times and use these challenges as springboards to enact change. 

 

She has also taught group mindfulness-based stress reduction classes, guest lectured in the undergraduate psychology program at HELP University in Malaysia and presented workshops on children’s mental health difficulties to parents and teachers.