Executive Biographies

Dr Kohlhoff is a Clinical Psychologist, Senior Lecturer in the UNSW School of Psychiatry and ARC DECRA Fellow. She has research interests in perinatal, infant and early childhood mental health. Her work focuses on the development, evaluation and implementation of early interventions for children and families, and investigation of the roles of attachment, early environmental and biological factors in the intergenerational transmission of parenting and psychological outcomes for children. Jane has worked with her international colleagues to develop and evaluate a new attachment-based parenting program for young children (12-24 months) presenting with disruptive behaviours called 'Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-Toddler' and is currently running a large Randomised Controlled Trial to evaluate its efficacy. Additional work includes a pilot study evaluating a web-based app to facilitate developmental surveillance for young children attending GP clinics and a NSW Health funded pilot of 'Parent-Child Interaction Therapy' delivered via the internet to families with young children living in rural and remote NSW.

Susan Williams, Vice President

Susan Williams is a social worker with more than 24 years of experience working with vulnerable children and their families. She has worked in both government and non-government organisations in Australia, England, Lao PRD and Bangladesh. Since 2012 she has focused on early intervention attachment based work. Susan is a registered Circle of Security Intensive (COS-I) supervisor, as well as a facilitator in COS-I, Circle of Security Parenting (COSP) and Circle of Security in the Classroom (COSPC). Susan has been facilitating group programs with parents for more than 20 years. Susan is passionate about supporting parents and carers to better understand their own strengths and struggles in their relationships with their children; empowering them to build confidence, develop effective strategies, and create more positive, connected, and resilient family relationships over time. She currently works at Marymead CatholicCare in Canberra where she leads a team utilising the Circle of Security framework in their work with families.

Dr. Erinn Hawkins is a clinical psychologist with fifteen years experience helping children, youth, families and adults cope with difficult emotions, explosive behaviour, relationship problems and traumatic events. She works in private practice and as the senior psychologist on the Yapatjarrathati Project with the School of Applied Psychology at Griffith University. She is involved in a number of research projects focused on translating the science of child development into everyday clinical practice. Her research projects include examining whether attachment-based therapies work, why they work, and for whom they work best; developing clinically useful assessment tools for measuring attachment security in young children; evaluating the benefits of psychological assessment; and integrating neurodevelopmental assessments into primary health care.

Dr Anne-Marie Maxwell, Treasurer

Anne-Marie Maxwell is a researcher with more than twenty years’ experience working with children and families in diverse contexts. She currently works as Research Manager for Tresillian Family Care Centres. Anne-Marie completed her PhD at Macquarie University in 2021, undertaking a multi-site evaluation of the 8-week Circle of Security Parenting program (COS-P) and a parallel qualitative study of parent and practitioner perspectives on the program. She is a registered COS-P provider. Previously, Anne-Marie worked with Save the Children Australia as Team Leader of Ryde Community Hub, after returning to Australia following 15 years living overseas, including 13 years in South Africa where she was Director of an inner-city preschool and worked in curriculum development and teacher training. Anne-Marie’s research work is enriched by her background in early childhood education and her passion for nurturing parent-child relationships.

Rebecca Reay is a lecturer and senior research coordinator at the Academic Unit of Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, Australian National University in Canberra. She conducts research into mental health problems, including trauma and post-traumatic stress, in children, adolescents and adults, with a particular focus on the perinatal period. Her research interests include the prevention and treatment of problems in parents using individual therapy, couple therapy, mother-infant attachment work and group therapy. She has a strong interest in the implementation and evaluation of attachment based interventions in ‘real world’ clinical settings. Rebecca is currently involved a multi-site controlled trial of the Circle of Security Parenting group program run by researchers at Macquarie University. She also works in private practice and is a registered COS-P provider.