Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Dr Morton graduated both a Bachelors of Science in Psychology, and Medicine with first class honours, at the University of Queensland. She is a qualified Psychiatrist with sub-specialty training in children and adolescents.

She is qualified to treat all mental health and behavioural disorders from a biopsychosocial framework, including ordering medical tests, prescribing medication, and providing individual, family, or group psychotherapy. She is also mother to two spirited kids of her own.

Dr Morton has additional skills in:

• Schema Therapy
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
• Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)
• Family Therapy
• Sandplay Therapy
• Art Therapy

She also has research experience in:

• Self-injury in adolescents
• Neuro-imaging, emotional mirror neurons, and attachment theory
• Tourette’s Syndrome

Career Profile:

After graduating Medicine in 2002, Dr Morton completed her medical internship at Logan Hospital. She accepted a Principal House Officer position in Logan Adult Mental Health Service the following year, working in the inpatient unit and community clinic. She subsequently joined the Psychiatry training program and completed training terms in Adult Mental Health, Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Basic Training, Forensic Mental Health including working in Prison Mental Health and the High Secure Unit at The Park – Centre for Mental Health, and Psychiatry of Old Age at Robina Hospital.

She began her Advanced Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 2008, spending 18 months at the Barrett Adolescent Centre, the only remaining long-stay treatment program in Queensland, reserved for the most complex and challenging cases. She was awarded one of two Research Registrar Positions in Queensland Health across all medical specialities for her neuro-imaging project studying emotional mirror neurons, attachment, and self harm in adolescents. During this deployment she trained with world experts in mirror neuron research at the La Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, and was one of the youngest presenters to be invited to speak at the World Congress in Biological Psychiatry in Paris, France, on the topic of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of severe Tourette’s syndrome. She also consulted as a medical advisor for the SBS documentary The Silent Epidemic, on the topic of the science of self-injury.

In recent years, she has put her heart and soul into private practice, running a number of therapy groups at the Kooky Clinic, including the “Bubble & Squeak” group for families living with Tourette Syndrome, and “The Healing Circle”, a recovery-focused group for young people recovering from self harm. She is involved in the clinical supervision and education programs for Griffith University Psychology Students, and lectures Psychiatry trainees undertaking their Advanced Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition, she presents regularly at conferences around Australia, to her clinical colleagues, on a variety of topics. She is passionate about connecting with young people, supporting families, finding creative ways to transform suffering, uncovering hidden strengths, and helping kids to follow their bliss.

“The day the child realizes

that all adults are imperfect,

he becomes an adolescent;

 The day he forgives them,

he becomes an adult;

 The day he forgives himself,

he becomes wise”

-Alden Nowlan