Lifting Minds Psychology

affordable care, equal access

Lifting Minds was created to provide affordable and accessible mental health care and supervision for all people, with a focus on those from cultural and/0r gender diverse backgrounds. While liberation may be difficult when considering systemic inequities and power imbalances due to Australia’s colonial history, Lifting Minds was created to empower individuals within the community through a decolonised lens of health.

The purpose of therapy should not be to pathologise your struggles, which can lead to isolation and can often put the onus on the individual to ‘get better’ (individualistic care). Rather, at Lifting Minds, you can expect to work collaboratively to recognise the different areas of your life that may need tending to, in the context of

  • Childhood experiences,

  • Cultural background,

  • Social standing,

  • Societal inequities

  • Life experiences

About Edwina (எட்வினா) (she/they)

Edwina Vejayaratnam started her psychology journey in 2011, when it was quickly evident that psychology had been (and still is) created by and for the Western population. As a result, Edwina places a strong importance on a decolonised perspective (unfortunately, still within a capitalist framework) to ensure the people she works with have a holistic understanding of their current situation and experiences.

Edwina is, firstly, a proud queer Tamil (தமிழ்) person, and, second, a clinical psychologist and board-approved supervisor with AHPRA. In addition, she is currently completing a PhD in Clinical Psychology, exploring the history of psychological wellbeing within the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora and how it is understood and impacted by post-migration and the Sri Lankan civil war. Edwina speaks Tamil (somewhat fluently).

Edwina works with adults across the lifespan and primarily works with those experiencing symptoms relating to anxiety, depression, grief, workplace stress, family conflict, gender affirmation and racial and sexual trauma. Edwina has extensive experience working with survivors of child sexual abuse and religious abuse, and with those who identify as lesbian, gay, bi-Sexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) individuals. She has a special interest in South Asian mental health and complex trauma (cPTSD) and is trained in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioural therapy (DBT), schema therapy and EMDR.