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Areas of specialty
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Academic Qualifications
BA (University of Canterbury)
MA (University of Canterbury)
Alcohol Counselling Certificate (University of Canterbury)
Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology (University of Canterbury)
Professional Registration
I am registered with the NZ Psychologists Board in the Clinical Scope of Practice
Professional Affiliations
I am a Fellow of the New Zealand College of Clinical Psychologists (FNZCCP)
I belong to the Family Courts Association of New Zealand
Recent specialisation training
Over the last five years, I have achieved Gottman Training in Couples Therapy, Levels 1, 2 and 3.
In 2017, I completed 3 years of training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP).
Experience and current work environments
I am now in part time private practice operating under the originally named Child and Family Psychology Centre that I started with Dr Fran Vertue. This developed after many years in the public service, specifically the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) in the Child and Family area. I now spend most of my working week seeing clients face to face, writing reports, or preparing for sessions or research.
I enjoy attending professional development training opportunities and am passionate about learning. I am committed to professional and ethical practice and have been a member of the Ethics Committee for the NZCCP over recent years. I have contributed to two series of articles about children’s psychological difficulties published in The Press (Christchurch). These are available as Fact Sheets on this website.
My training in Clinical Psychology equips me to assess and treat a variety of presenting problems and assist with the development of insight and skill acquisition. Historically, my area fo specialisation has been child, adolescent, and family psychology. The focus was on a wide spectrum of psychological problems including family adjustments and stress, behavioural problems and the assessment of learning difficulties, including intellectual disability. Much of this work involved parent training and the well-being of adult individuals and their interpersonal relationships. This interest in adult well-being heralded the move into more focused work with older adolescents and adults. As a result, I only very occasionally work with children these days. I am interested in children’s attachment relationships, anxiety disorders, grief, and the stress associated with trauma.
In recent years, I have developed a great interest in profound personal change in my clients, and improved well-being in individuals and in couple therapy, which I provide for couples generally, and for those involved with the Family Court. I enjoy providing professional supervision to my colleagues within the same or other areas of practice, and regularly attend peer supervision myself. This is to ensure that I maintain professional and ethical standards in my work.
It’s great to have variety in my work and I love the fact that no two people or situations are quite the same. I am often impressed by the trust and courage shown by people in their help-seeking and I understand the leap of faith involved in taking this step. It is a challenge to be explicit about my approach to this work and I do not adhere strictly to one particular model. My assessments are informed by a broad, multifaceted, biopsychosocial framework, which means that the individual’s biology and physical functioning, emotional world, social and interpersonal functioning, intellectual functioning, and history are explored. The contexts within which the individual developed, and currently functions, form an extremely important part of this enquiry.
My therapeutic models are primarily informed by:
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT):
This is my training background. However, CBT is integrated with various additional approaches depending on an individual’s developmental needs, their context and whether therapy is with an adolescent, adult, individual, couple, family or group.
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy:
My recent training in ISTDP has, I believe, developed my knowledge and practice in ways that have improved my effectiveness and been rewarding and motivating.
Fees and services
The current fee is NZ$180 per 50-minute consultation. A written report will incur further cost.
Availability
I am available for consultations on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9am to 5pm. I am usually able to provide an appointment within 2 weeks of contact.
Articles of interest written for The Press newspaper
Suicide and grief
Step-parenting
Mindfulness
How Children Feel When Parents Fight
Ritual, Recovery and Guy Fawkes
The Christchurch Earthquakes and Ongoing Stress
Distorted Thinking
Psychological Defences
Emotion and Reason in Relationships
Testimonials
“I saw Prue for supervision for over a year. She’s supportive, open, and accepting but also direct and clear when she needs to be. I never felt like I needed to hold anything back in sessions because I could trust that she’d react in a supportive and kind way. I’ve also referred clients to Prue.” – Dr Alice Boyes
Contact details
Prue Fanselow-Brown
Child and Family Psychology Centre
P O Box 7544 (for all postal mail)
Unit 3, 5 Wordsworth Street
Sydenham 8240
Christchurch
Tel: +64 3 3665267
Fax: +64 3 3665264
Email: prue@psyc.co.nz
