Kathy Cleland
Principal Psychologist | Clinical Director
MAPS, MAAP, LOAPAC.
BSc (Psych) (Hons), GC Psych (Forensic), MEdNeuro.
Kathy is MindScope’s Principal Psychologist and Clinical Director. Her clinical leadership and practice are shaped by a philosophy centred on dignity, autonomy, inclusion, and respect for neurodivergent ways of being.
An early proponent of the neurodiversity-affirming paradigm, Kathy remains a passionate advocate for the human rights principles at its foundation.
Areas of focus
Autism and ADHD (AuDHD)
Complex trauma
Dissociation and plurality
Kathy is particularly skilled in working at the intersection of these experiences, where complexity requires nuanced, compassionate care.
Professional background
Kathy began her career as an early childhood educator. After starting her family, she worked extensively with adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities. Following her relocation to Brisbane in the late 1990s, she worked in business, homelessness support services, and as a first responder with Queensland Ambulance Service.
Her longstanding interest in the complexity of human experience and the ways people respond, adapt, and relate led her back to university to study psychology. Following her training, Kathy served as an Associate Supervisor for Honours students conducting suicide prevention research. She remains actively engaged in research and development, with a particular interest in translating research into practical tools and applications that strengthen clinical practice.
Clinical approach and services
Kathy’s approach is relational, trauma-responsive, and attentive to the broader contexts and systems that shape a person’s life.
Kathy provides extended sessions, allowing more time to explore concerns in depth, understand how different factors may be interacting, and work at a pace that supports more substantive therapeutic work.
She also provides neuroaffirming Autism and ADHD diagnostic assessments, including more complex diagnostic work where previous or co-occurring diagnoses or the intersection of multiple factors complicate the diagnostic picture, as well as assessments where diagnosis carries particular personal or professional sensitivity.
Outside of work
Outside of her professional role, Kathy enjoys forest walks, theatre, creating artwork, tinkering with software and automation, and unhurried time with close friends.