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About us
The Lives Lived Well Specialist Centre helps people from all backgrounds to achieve a healthier mind and body in a non-judgemental, inclusive, confidential and caring environment.
Our health centre is part of the Lives Lived Well network: a leading organisation in the delivery of counselling and drug rehabilitation services across Queensland and New South Wales, with a long history of supporting people on the Gold Coast.
We’ve brought together a team of private practitioners including GPs, psychologists, psychiatrists and a variety of visiting allied health professionals. Depending on your needs, you can access excellent medical care or therapeutic treatments for a range of mental health conditions, trauma, family issues and support for problematic substance use.
Why operate this way? We recognise that flourishing in life is complicated – it’s more than feeling physically well. It’s also about how we feel, think, and our connections with others.
We’re not your typical doctor’s clinic. We treat the whole person: we listen, seek to understand, and create space for positive change. Read more about each practitioner below and then get in touch to start your journey towards wholeness. You can also view FAQs for our Centre here.
Psychologists
Matthew McGregor
Psychologist
Matthew is a professional and empathetic psychologist with a client-centred and outcome-informed approach to therapy, which means he is committed to helping you achieve your goals. Matthew has extensive experience helping people from as young as 12 years old, through to adults, and has the skills to support people experiencing most mental health conditions or relationship difficulties (with the exception of Autism spectrum disorders).
His areas of special interest include family and relationship therapy, working with parents having difficulties with their children or teenagers, and helping people to overcome substance use disorders. He utilises cognitive behaviour therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy and motivational interviewing.
Sarah Coric
Clinical Psychologist
Sarah has worked as a psychologist for more than 10 years across a range of settings including an adult psychiatric hospital, treatment centres for substance use disorders, chronic pain management and vocational rehab, as well as her own private practice. Her work is guided by aspects of cognitive behaviour therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and dialectical behaviour therapy, among other modes of intervention.
Sarah has a keen interest in the role of family and other significant relationships in recovery from addiction, but has experience in all aspects of general adult psychology such as anxiety, mood, loss, feelings of meaninglessness, relationship difficulties, and self-esteem issues. She is also a published author on the topic of personality and coping strategies in adolescents who self-harm.
Dr Carla Schlesinger
Clinical Psychologist
Carla is an AHPRA Registered General Psychologist with 18 years experience working with individuals, couples and families, of all ages. She welcomes clients from all cultural backgrounds as well as LGBTQIA clients. Her areas of speciality include: mood, anxiety, adjustment and personality disorders; grief and loss; trauma; relationships and family change; addiction; and identity issues and crises.
She has a compassionate nature and uses a variety of evidence-based therapies including: cognitive behaviour therapy, solution-focused counselling, acceptance and commitment techniques, motivational techniques, interpersonal therapy, pain management, systemic family therapy, relaxation and mindfulness strategies and psycho-education.
Fiona Gibson
Clinical Psychologist (MSc)
Fiona has years of experience in helping people understand and change anxiety and depression. Emotions can be daunting. They need to be aired, listened to, then managed. Fiona uses therapy techniques (e.g. ACT, CBT, Transactional Analysis, EFT and EDMR) to bring about change in longstanding patterns, some of which are the result of past trauma. Together, defence mechanisms can be respectfully challenged so that behaviours that no longer serve you give way and change.
Marina Radeka
Psychologist
Marina has completed a Master in Clinical Psychology and has experience working with clients of various ages and mental health challenges. She offers a non-judgmental and supportive therapy by using best-practice, evidence-based therapeutic approaches, such as CBT and ACT, as her foundation. Marina creates collaborative process with her clients and is very attentive to their needs. She helps her clients to recognise their core issues, which underly their problematic emotions, thoughts, and behaviours, to facilitate improvement in their mental health.
Cheryl Freeman
Psychologist
Cheryl understands as human beings we all experience some degree of anxiety, stress and/or depression, and that for some of us those feelings can be debilitating. She offers her clients a safe space to tell their story where they feel heard, respected, and cared for. Her holistic approach shows compassion towards challenges related to adverse experiences, relationship difficulties, identity issues, work/study problems, major life changes, grief and loss, and addiction.
Cheryl has facilitated drug and alcohol relapse prevention in Queensland prisons, run women’s self-esteem workshops, and worked with therapy clients ranging in age from 6 to 103 years old. She tailors evidence-based therapies (e.g., CBT, ACT, motivational therapy, relaxation and mindfulness strategies, EMDR techniques and psychoeducation), that help retrain the brain to affect productive, value-driven change within the individual and their world.
Allied health
Gita Denise
Social Worker
GIta has worked as a qualified Social Worker since 2004, obtaining postgraduate qualifications in life coaching, business, and a diploma in mental health, specialising in drugs and alcohol. She specialises in the areas of problematic substance use, addiction recovery, suicide prevention, anxiety and complex trauma. She has experience working with individuals, couples and families.
Gita uses different counselling modalities that include Client – Centred therapy, Narrative therapy, Strengths-based practice, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Inner child therapy, and Solution focused therapy. Gita takes holistic approach when working with clients, and is passionate about healthy living.
Lisa St Henry
Physiotherapist
Lisa has been practising physiotherapy for over 18 years and has a heart to see healing in people experiencing pain and limitation due to physical and emotional stress or injury.
She has gifted hands and uses manual therapy techniques, postural muscle re-education and core-strengthening exercises to prevent ongoing pain and dysfunction. She also provides Dry Needling, Hydrotherapy, Pilates and Home Exercise Programs.
Peter St Henry
Accredited Practising Dietitian
Peter is committed to helping anyone who is wanting or needing to improve their health through nutrition.
He has over 17 years of experience as an accredited practising dietitian in hospital, community and private clinic settings. He has had further training in several conditions including chronic disease and eating disorders.
The science of nutrition and the behaviour of eating are two very complex paradigms and can often create confusion and despair in our relationship to our body and our food. Peter provides evidence based dietetic support to those needing to navigate through this challenging area.
Alastair Gibson (Al)
Mental Health Social Worker
Alastair Gibson (Al) is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker (AMHSW) living and working on the Gold Coast. Al works from a person-centred approach which meets clients where they are at and works collaboratively towards individual client’s goals. Al is trained in a range of therapeutic modalities including Acceptance and Commitment therapy, Eye Movement Desensitisation an Reprocessing (EMDR) and Motivational Interviewing.
Al has particular interest in treating Trauma-based conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Al is a easy-going and approachable person and values creating safe, supportive and collaborative therapeutic relationships as central to all effective therapy.
Lives Lived Well recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the original inhabitants of the land now known as Australia and their continuing connection to land, air and sea. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands across which we work and live, and pay our respects to elders, past and present.
Lives Lived Well celebrates diversity and is committed to providing inclusive services and workplaces. Everyone has the right to live well, with dignity and respect. We offer support to all people without judgement or discrimination.
