Our Team

Val has been a registered psychologist since 1991.  She has a background as a Social Worker and a Psychometrist and has worked with a diversity of population groups across a number of fields, including child welfare, care of the aged, mental health, rehabilitation, trauma counselling, outplacement services, performance assessment and medical legal assessment.  Val has been working in private practice in St Leonards for the past seven years.

Val enjoys the collegiality of working in the COPP team, and is energised by working with provisional psychologists to identify and develop their strengths and competencies. 

Robin has been a fully registered psychologist for more than 10 years and has been supervising and mentoring provisional psychologists for approximately the last 8 years. He has worked in the Drug and Alcohol field all of this time which has given him a broad range of clinical, case-managing and counselling experience and currently is employed with the Drug and Alcohol Services with the Royal North Shore Hospital.  His passion is to help change the lives of drug-dependent individuals and families through evidence-based treatments; this also involves working actively in research as well and updating his skills on an ongoing basis.

Robin says he finds supervision personally and professionally satisfying. 

Chris has been working as a supervisor with COPP in excess of 10 years now. He has worked for Department of Community Services in various roles and in TAFE as a Counsellor. Chris has worked privately since 1991 and continues to operate a generic clinical practice assisting clients with anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship issues and workcover/insurance-related intervention and medico-legal assessments and report writing. Along the way, Chris has managed an Employee Assistance Program, lectured in the university system as well as TAFE and provided training and consultancy to organisations. In addition, Chris works as an approved counsellor with victims of crime and several agencies.

Chris has enjoyed his supervision and involvement with COPP and its provisional psychologists. "Working with committed and talented intern psychologists is a wonderful way to contribute to our profession and put something back in. It also keeps one fresh and abreast of the latest developments and therapeutic approaches. Over the more than 10 years involved in COPP, I have met many highly professional, ethical, and dedicated psychologists who have humanity and demonstrate high levels of skill and ability. It constantly reaffirms for me that the profession (and the public requiring psychological services) is indeed in very good hands".

Valerie has been involved with COPP since its inception in 1993 and was the Principal from 1996 to 2000. Since then, Valerie has been heavily involved with COPP as a presenter and supervisor and as a source of guidance and support for those provisional psychologists encountering personal challenges.

Valerie previously held senior management and academic positions with the University of NSW with a particular focus on human resources management, particularly recruitment and selection, professional development and counselling.   

Emma is a clinical and forensic psychologist with over ten years experience in assessment, report writing, treatment and consultancy. Emma divides her practice between clinical and forensic psychology. In her clinical practice, she has specialised in child and adolescent counselling, treatment of a range of disorders that include anxiety and depression, interpersonal issues, trauma and abuse, and substance abuse issues. In terms of her forensic practice, Emma worked in the Prison Service in England before establishing herself in Sydney from 1998. She has since worked in the areas of juvenile assessment and treatment, forensic, intellectual and violence assessments and risk management. She has specific interests in the treatment of sexual offending, risk assessment, workplace violence and internet offending.

Emma enjoys working with COPP for the opportunity to teach others about the areas of clinical and forensic psychology. 

Lil is currently employed as a senior clinical and forensic psychologist with Concord Centre for Mental Health and is Head of Department there and the Professional Senior for Psychology in the North East Cluster of Area Mental Health SSWAHS. 

Lil has over 22 years experience as a psychologist having worked in Child and Family Services; Mental Health, UTS Union Careers Service; Mulawa Women's Correctional Facility and 14 years in Sexual Assault at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. The last 2 years at RPAH, Lil was appointed Head of Department, Psychology. She has also worked as a solicitor. Lil is  particularly interested in the impact of trauma work on professionals and her Masters research looked at vicarious trauma and criminal lawyers, which she  plans to further develop by undertaking PhD studies in the next few of years. Lil is currently a reviewer on Traumatology, a thesis examiner with Macquarie University and clinically supervises interns from a number of universities as well as being a guest lecturer at COPP. 

Emalynne completed her registration program at COPP in 2003 and has since worked as a Psychologist in the areas of occupational rehabilitation, employment and disability services. Her main interests are in clinical health psychology, specifically chronic pain, anxiety, and eating disorders. 

Emalynne takes a cognitive behavioural approach to treatment and has provided psychological treatment to a wide variety of individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She is also interested in the impact of the cross cultural differences in psychological therapy. Emalynne is currently one of the COPP supervisors.