Accepting referrals for assessments in the Northern Rivers
About Dr Karen Oakley - Clinical Neuropsychologist
Dr Karen Oakley
Dr. Karen Oakley is the Principal of Brain and Mind Matters and a Clinical Neuropsychologist. Her main focus is on neurodevelopmental conditions throughout the lifespan, with a particular emphasis on children and adolescents. With over 15 years of experience, Dr. Karen Oakley has dedicated her career to working with young people who have variations in brain and cognitive development.
Through her assessment services, Karen aims to enhance the lives and experiences of individuals with neurodevelopmental conditions, helping them reach their full potential. She achieves this by providing thorough assessments, recommendations, and reports that foster a deeper understanding of each individual, their unique needs, and necessary adjustments in their environments.
Her research is aimed at improving access to best practice assessments and diagnostic processes for everyone, as well as enhancing the educational experiences and opportunities for students with neurodevelopmental conditions and neurodivergent students.
Karen earned her Bachelor in Psychology with first class honours from Charles Sturt University, a Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology from Macquarie University, and a PhD from the University of Sydney. Additionally, she is an AHPRA Board Approved Supervisor for provisional psychologists and registrar psychologists pursuing clinical neuropsychology endorsement.
Expertise
Karen has worked in private practice, served as a consultant to the Child Development Service conducting autism diagnostic assessments, and was a School Psychologist within the ACT Education Directorate in both mainstream and specialist school settings. Her extensive experience includes providing assessment services and differential diagnosis of neurodevelopmental conditions, developing strategies to assist with behaviors, everyday functioning, and academic engagement and development. She also offers training to organisations, teachers, and others, including special needs transport workers, who support students with neurodevelopmental conditions.
In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Karen Oakley is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology within the Faculty of Education at the University of Canberra. Here, she teaches educational psychology and child development within teacher education courses. She also conducts research focused on the best ways to support students with neurodevelopmental conditions and neurodivergent students from early childhood through to tertiary education.
Karen provides clinical supervision to students enrolled in the Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology course at The University of Queensland.
Before her clinical training, Dr. Karen Oakley was the CEO of a non-government organisation that engaged in mental health consumer consultation and advocacy, ensuring that service user input was included in government policies and services related to mental health.
Mission, values and approach
Karen is passionate about supporting individuals to know themselves and to be understood by those around them. She uses supportive interactions, observations, interviews, and direct assessment to build this understanding. Her goal is to ensure that people with neurodevelopmental conditions receive individualised support in every aspect of their lives, facilitating their growth and development as individuals and enabling them to reach their full potential.
Research
Karen has been engaged in research for more than 20 years, researching across a variety of topics including neurodevelopmental conditions and pediatric rehabilitation and intervention. She has published numerous works in these areas and has conducted co-designed research aimed at policy and systems improvement in collaboration with mental health consumers, mental health clinicians, and the statewide mental health program.
One of Karen's current research projects is investigating how psychologists approach assessment services for intellectual disability when clients cannot participate in standardised intelligence tests, with the goal of providing guidelines to psychologists. Other research projects include enhancing the voice of students with neurodevelopmental conditions and neurodivergent students from early childhood through to tertiary education settings.
Kareny has also provided research supervision to students pursuing honors, masters, and PhD degrees.
For details about Karen's publications, go to https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hhkGao0AAAAJ&hl=en
Media
Karen has been interviewed and provided expert comments on topics relating to typical development, explaining neurodevelopmental conditions, and how to support students with different needs. She has shared her insights with various media outlets, including ABC Radio Canberra and The Canberra Times.
Additionally, here's an article she contributed to with the RiotAct - Doctor advises families how best to prepare for autism, ADHD assessments | Region Canberra highlighting the importance of assessment services in understanding these neurodevelopmental conditions.