Monique Hiskens
sohrab
About sohrab
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Auckland Group for the Psychoanalytic Study of Subjectivity
This group is run by Dr Dean Kilian for mental health professionals with an interest in contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy; this group is currently at capacity.
Auckland Personality Disorder Study Group
2nd Thursday of the month
6pm-7:30pm starting 13 February.
Applications for the group from interested mental health professionals are now closed. This group is now full.
Mentalisation-based Treatment group for Borderline Personality Disorder
Tuesday evenings 5pm-6:30pm
starting 1 October.
If you are interested in this group or wish to refer someone to this group, please use the contact form.
Personal Growth and Development
Sometimes, people come to therapy simply to grow and develop, to enrich their lives and make sense of their experiences of being humans in the world. Maybe you want to understand more about yourself and to make sense of the family from which you come. Maybe you want to feel more and experience the world more three dimensionally. Maybe you want to find ways to express yourself using drama and art and to expand on your self-knowledge.
Most of our therapists are skilled in longer-term work and able to work psychodynamically or psychoanalytically with an aim to exploration of the self and its potential for growth. Depth work is a speciality of most of our psychologists and psychotherapists and can be discussed with them as an option for treatment.
Supervision and Therapists in Therapy
The principal clinician in this practice, Dr Dean Kilian, has been supervising clinicians over many years and has worked with psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers, occupational therapists, psychiatrists, and counsellors in supervision in order to hone their therapeutic skills and bring quality therapeutic practice to their clients. His supervisory work has occurred in private practice, in hospitals, schools, student services, correctional facilities, special needs education, counselling services, and military settings. If you are seeking supervision, contact Dean directly and open up a dialogue about your supervisory needs.
In addition, Dean has focussed on working with therapists in therapy over the past two decades, with specific attention to the unique needs therapists have when they enter treatment, sometimes for the first time. Therapists bring unique histories and stories that require an empathic form of listening to help them work through childhood/developmental trauma and to manage the burnout of the work that they do, with the inevitable reminders of earlier trauma they have experienced. Supportive and exploratory work with therapists is often most successful and allows for healing and growth, alongside enriching your practice as a clinician.
Sexual and Other Trauma
Do you have intrusive memories of events in your life that you would rather not remember? Maybe it feels like events are happening long after they stopped, they feel fresh and real. Maybe, you find yourself dissociating, not feeling like you are in your body. Maybe, you are often angry without reason, or sad without reason; maybe you blame yourself for something that happened in your life, things over which you had no control. Trauma can take many forms: sexual and physical being the most common forms of trauma for which people seek treatment. Some people may have survived volcanos, tsunamis, cyclones, and other acts of nature.
Trauma is more common than you might imagine and may affect your daily life, your relationships with partners, children, and family, your ability to commit and carry through on long-term goals, daily self-care, your relationship with yourself, and your performance at work or school. Our psychologists and psychotherapists will work with you to process and manage trauma with a view to finding ways to live more successfully and peacefully in the aftermath of trauma sustained in childhood, or more recently in your life.
Developmental trauma is also a focus for some of our psychologists and psychotherapists who may adopt a trauma-informed approach to treatment generally. Some of our therapists have worked with survivors of tsunamis, sexual abuse, and war-related trauma. In our practice, psychologists and psychotherapists draw from a variety of models, including mentalization-based treatment (MBT), EMDR, mindfulness practices, exposure-related work, and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in order to find an approach that will work for you and your specific needs. Please note: some of our therapists are registered with ACC to do sensitive claims work, specifically working with people who have experienced childhood sexual abuse and/or sexual assault.
LGBTQ+ Therapy Needs
Sometimes, it can be difficult to speak about things that seem so specific to being part of the LGBTQ+ community: sex, polyamory, queer rights/issues, trans medical needs, societal trauma, HIV- and STI- related issues. Maybe, you need someone to help you figure out how to come out or tell family and friends, maybe even to figure out if you are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Diverse and specific needs can be found in the LGBTQ+ community for a variety of reasons and speaking to therapists who have an understanding of these issues usually makes for a good fit and for a good experience of therapy.
In our practice, some psychologists and psychotherapists are themselves part of the LGBTQ+ community, while others are allies/friends who have much experience working with LGBTQ+ people. Get in touch with our psychologists and psychotherapists to find out what you might need and whether they can help with the specific issues you may want to bring to the therapy room.
Children and Adolescents
Child and adolescent psychotherapists are qualified mental health clinicians trained to work with emotionally disturbed young people and their families. The focus of a child and adolescent psychotherapist involves a thorough exploration of your young person’s inner feelings via observation, dialogue, play, and creative expression. This involves a process of relationship building which can be thought of as an individualised, bespoke experience. Over time, the therapist develops an understanding of the patterns at play which appear to be interfering with the young person’s healthy development. The underlying meanings of these patterns, and the connections between present behaviours and past experiences are clarified further. Our child and adolescent psychotherapists also work in collaboration with the family/caregivers to make use of these understandings and restore your child’s capacity towards growth. Child and adolescent psychotherapy is a client-centred process which works at the pace of your young person, respecting their right to confidentiality and safe practice as per HDC guidelines.
Our therapists are equipped to work with a range of acute and chronic presentations including those with diagnoses of personality disorders or complex PTSD. Other common psychological health issues may include: Developmental delay due to social and emotional factors Navigating the effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuse Navigating the effects of trauma, loss and grief Child-parent problems Attachment problems Aggressive and violent behaviours Family dysfunction Depression and anxiety Deliberate self-harm Suicidal ideation Eating and feeding issues Deficits of emotional/social skills Children with chronic or terminal illness Identity or self-image issues Wetting and soiling Child and adolescent psychotherapy typically involves regular weekly sessions and regular parent feedback sessions. For children under the age of 5, your therapist will likely require a parent to also be present for these sessions. Psychotherapy can be a short-, medium- or long-term form of therapy depending upon the presenting issue. If you are unsure whether psychotherapy is the right fit for your child, please enquire further.
