Our team
Dr Stephen Lee
Director and Clinical Neuropsychologist, working with adults and older adults.
About Stephen
About
Stephen founded the clinic, and he still sees clients every week.
Stephen is a clinical neuropsychologist who works with adults and older adults across two areas side by side: neuropsychological assessment, which is a careful look at thinking and memory, and psychological therapy. He believes the two belong together, because understanding how someone's mind works and helping them feel better are rarely separate questions.
People usually come to Stephen when something about thinking, memory or mood has changed and they want to understand it properly. He takes time to listen first, explains what he finds in plain language, and is honest about what an assessment can and cannot tell you. He has spent many years in public hospital neuropsychology on the Gold Coast, in older persons' mental health and rehabilitation and, more recently, an acute cognitive and behavioural service, and he has led psychology services at Gold Coast Health.
AdultsOlder adults
Areas of focus
What Stephen works with
A few areas where Stephen has a particular depth of interest and experience.
- Dementia and neurological conditions. Assessment of memory and thinking where dementia or another neurological condition may be involved, with a strong interest in emerging treatments and in monitoring change carefully over time.
- Parkinson's disease and movement disorders. This includes assessment before and after deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery; Stephen regularly provides this assessment for patients of the deep brain stimulation service at Gold Coast Private Hospital, working alongside the treating team. Deep brain stimulation is a surgical treatment for some movement disorders, and neuropsychological assessment helps the team understand thinking and mood before surgery and track how things change afterwards.
- Decision-making capacity. Careful, respectful assessment of a person's ability to make particular decisions, for example about finances, medical care or where they live.
- Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP). A form of psychological therapy that works closely with emotions to help people understand and shift long-standing patterns. Stephen draws on this approach in his therapy work with adults.
If you are not sure whether an assessment or therapy is the right starting point, that is a normal place to begin. We can talk it through before anything is booked.
Approach
How Stephen works
Stephen's starting point is that the person in front of him knows their own life best. An assessment is not a test you pass or fail; it is a way of understanding how your mind works, what is getting harder, and what is still a strength. He works to make a sometimes daunting process feel calm and clear.
He is careful not to overstate what the findings mean. Where a question cannot be answered yet, he will say so, and explain what would help to answer it. Reports are written to be read, by you and by the people involved in your care, not to sit in a drawer.
Alongside seeing clients, Stephen supervises other psychologists and has held senior clinical governance and workforce roles in public health, including as Allied Health Professional Lead for Psychology at Gold Coast Health. He stays close to how this work is taught and improved, from how assessments are conducted to how findings are explained.
“Understanding how a mind works, and helping someone feel better, are rarely separate questions.”
Where Stephen works
Services Stephen is part of
You can read more about each of these areas.
Dementia & memory assessment
Understanding changes in memory and thinking, with care taken over diagnosis and monitoring.
Learn more →Capacity assessment
Respectful assessment of the ability to make particular decisions.
Learn more →Psychological therapy
Therapy for adults, including emotion-focused approaches such as ISTDP.
Learn more →Dedicated pages on Parkinson's disease and deep brain stimulation, on ISTDP, and on living well with dementia are planned. See also: living with dementia, Parkinson's and DBS, and ISTDP.
Qualifications & registration
Training and registration
- Doctor of Clinical Neuropsychology, La Trobe University
- Bachelor of Psychological Science with First Class Honours, La Trobe University
- Registered psychologist with AHPRA (registration number PSY0001624860), with an area of practice endorsement in clinical neuropsychology
- Member of the Australian Psychological Society and its College of Clinical Neuropsychologists
- Trained in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP)
Work with Stephen
Tell us a little about what is happening, or ask a question. There is no pressure to decide anything yet.
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