About Maria

Hi, I'm Maria Selvey. 

I have been working with attention/training and mindfulness for over a decade and found the effect of clients healing quite extraordinary when applied well. I teach clinicians who have had difficult or even traumatic experiences with applying this and similar therapies how to work with it safely. 

Let me introduce myself: 

I have a bit of an inherited science brain, and after moving from a registered nursing profession I studied and registered as a psychologist in 2005. I became interested in trauma informed (T-I) practice long before it became commonplace, as the effect of complex trauma on the brain and body matched my science driven curiosity. I have never been satisfied with managing my client's symptoms, I am most interested in getting those symptoms 'out the door'!

I have been practicing now in the trauma field for the past thirteen years as a sexual assault therapist and privately in a small town. Although I work with all age groups, I commenced specialising in the area of adult survivors of childhood abuse and neglect early in my career as the work of Janina Fisher, Pat Ogden, Bessel Van der Kolk, and Dan Seigel aligned well with my emerging observations and long term results.

I have also learned much from an ex Tibetan monk who lived next door to my private practice. He informed my mindfulness practice a great deal by teaching the direct and raw version of mindfulness that has been practiced for thousands of years. The Eastern practice is more of an exposure type therapy than our softer Western version. I believe this information has been valuable in moving my work with clients to a place of change.

I have realised that trauma-informed framework to mindfulness, or any direct brain intervention such as EMDR and neurofeedback, is vital when working with those who have had ongoing trauma in their past. The brain and body of these people respond very differently to these body-based or 'bottom's up' interventions than what we see with the normal population. To apply the interventions, such as mindfulness, without knowing your client's specific nuances to such things as tolerance level, bias in hypervigilance, and attentional behaviours could lead to re-traumatisation, feelings of inadequacy or shame, or to the techniques not even touching the sides of making any change. 

This is where, as therapists, we specialise in these techniques and branch away from even the Eastern versions of mindfulness, which, I believe, is closer to T-I practice than mainstream Western versions. Thanks to the work of Stephen Porges and our other wonderful neuroscientistis, we are coming closer to making real brain and body changes. 

My Goal: 

I aim to strengthen this line of therapy, restore flagging confidence, and work with clinicians to find their own way to incorporate such effective interventions into their practice. 

To do this I offer consultancy, supervision and professional development training for mental health professionals, focussing on mindfulness and attention training for working with survivors of adverse experiences