Seminar: Polyvagal Theory

About the presenter:

"I am a Clinical Psychologist and Pilates Instructor who started working as a registered psychologist in 2002. I first started out working at a prison, providing treatment, behaviour management, and assessments for inmates and others on parole and probation. This primarily involved writing reports for the parole board, and writing sentencing and dangerous criminal assessments for court.  

I later moved into private practice at “ForensiClinic” which I co-founded with another Forensic and Clinical Psychologist. It was at this time that I had to give up my practice due to ME/CFS and was unable to work for a number of years. After I regained some capacity, I retrained as a Pilates Instructor, completing a Diploma of Professional Pilates Instruction. I worked for about 4 years at a boutique Pilates studio, primarily focused on rehabilitative movement – often for people with chronic illnesses. After further improvement in my health, I regained my psychology registration and returned to private practice – online and from the flexibility of my own home. I also continued to teach Pilates at my home studio and group classes in the community. 

My return to psychology practice had me focusing solely on supporting people with  chronic illnesses, primarily ME/CFS, POTS, MCAS, Fibromyalgia, EDS, hEDS. These are conditions for which I have lived experience and also carer experience – my 21 year old daughter became unwell when she was 13. After undertaking additional nervous system and somatic training, I began to focus on providing support for my clients through the lens of the nervous system. 

More recently, although my approach continues to come from a nervous system perspective, my focus has organically started to pivot towards supporting individuals experiencing peri-menopause, menopause and other challenging mid-life transitions.  

Dr Jane Direen
Clinical Psychologist
B.A. (Hons.); D. Psych (Clinical); MAPS; FCCP
Pilates Instructor
Dip. Professional Pilates Instruction