Clinical Psychologist and Practice Director

 

Niclés is a clinical psychologist who is passionate about supporting people to improve their wellbeing and mental health. She believes that all people deserve the space and support to find deeper meaning in their lives, have opportunities for connection and belonging, to find healing and have hope for the future. She values people’s expertise in their own journey and recognises the importance of lived experience in recovery and healing.

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She has a wealth of experience across various settings, including private practice, counselling, community mental health, and school wellbeing. She’s passionate about offering support to people from all walks of life and works with adults and adolescents experiencing trauma, dissociation, mood and anxiety, psychosis, and self-harm. Niclés supports people who are experiencing eating disorders and people who are wanting to heal their relationship with their body or food, from a Health at Every Size approach. She also works with people experiencing grief and loss, relationship difficulties, life transitions and who are seeking to explore their identity. She offers assessments for dissociative disorders, Autism and ADHD. 

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Niclés has a special focus on trauma and dissociation, including working with PTSD, Complex PTSD, personality disorders, dissociative experiences, dissociative disorders and plurality. She also works with people who identify as having overwhelming inner absorption/maladaptive daydreaming experiences.

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Niclés is dedicated to helping her clients recognize their unique strengths and resources, supporting them to work towards their personal goals. Her approach is warm, compassionate, neuroaffirming and non-judgmental, and she strives to create a safe, inclusive space where individuals of all backgrounds, including those who identify as neurodivergent and/or members of the LGBTQIA+ community, can feel heard and supported.

Niclés uses a range of therapies to support clients, including Internal Family Systems Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), mindfulness-based therapies, and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT). 

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Niclés also offers clinical supervision and secondary consultation for professionals working with trauma and dissociation and for clinicians wanting to deepen their experience of Internal Family Systems (IFS). She is a board-approved supervisor and offers primary and secondary supervision to provisional psychologists and clinical registrars and secondary supervision to general psychologists seeking endorsement in other areas of practice.

 

Outside of her professional work, Niclés enjoys spending time with loved ones, reading, being in the forest, swimming, and spirituality.

 

Qualifications and Professional Associations

Master of Psychology (Clinical) (Swinburne University of Technology)

Graduate Diploma of Psychology (Deakin University)

Diploma of Counselling (Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors)

Bachelor of Arts (The University of Melbourne)

 

Member of the Australian Counselling Association

Member of the Australian Psychological Society

Member of the EMDR Association of Australia

Level 2 Internal Family Systems

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Publications

Bestel, Niclés, Williamson, Danielle, Tirlea, Loredana & Mackelprang, Jessica (2024): Dissociation Training and Symptom Identification Accuracy Among Australian Psychologists. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, DOI:10.1037/tra0001717

 

Ruby Hamer, Niclés Bestel & Jessica L. Mackelprang (2023): Dissociative Symptoms in Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review, Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, DOI: 10.1080/15299732.2023.2293785

 

Availability

Niclés sees clients on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

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