About Thérèse

When I was nine, I watched my parents, a young Dutch couple who arrived in Australia in 1956, try to argue their way through the breakdown of their intimacy. Even then, I could see the fight wasn’t the fight. It was the pattern. Now, as a relationship psychologist and Certified Relational Life Therapist, I help couples recognise where they get stuck and discover new ways forward.

My path here has been long and winding: from building design and multimedia to the early internet industry and software. Through it all, my curiosity about people remained constant. My own relationships have taught me plenty too. I’m a mother and stepmother, a wife, daughter, sister and friend.

Relational Life Therapy™ (RLT) makes space for all of it: the families we come from, the patterns passed between generations and the ways our minds and bodies try to keep us safe. This isn’t about rehashing last week’s fight. In sessions, we often work with what’s happening between you, right as it unfolds. I’m there to notice, guide and coach, so you can try a different response. RLT is fundamentally about personal growth and insight, with the goal of moving from stuck to satisfied.

As a registered psychologist, I bring my university training and a deep love of the science. I also bring my humanity: warmth and compassion without judgement, and the courage to say what I see. It’s a privilege to be invited into a couple’s world, and their family’s. RLT isn’t just how I work. It’s how I try to live.

I see couples in St Kilda, Melbourne, in the Macedon Ranges and online.