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Your psychologist
Nikki Addlem
AHPRA Registered Psychologist · Bentleigh, Bayside Melbourne
Working with children from age three, adolescents and adults — in person, via telehealth, and under NDIS outreach.
How I came to this work
I spent a long time drawn to the moments in other people's lives where something wasn't quite lining up — where a child was being called difficult when they were actually overwhelmed, where an adult had convinced themselves their anxiety was just their personality, where a diagnosis had never been named because nobody had thought to look.
Becoming a psychologist gave me a framework for that curiosity, and a set of evidence-based tools for actually helping. What I bring to sessions is a belief that how you experience the world matters, that your nervous system has reasons for the way it responds, and that the work is almost always slower and kinder than people expect.
Qualifications & registration
Credentials and training
AHPRA registration
Registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia under AHPRA (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency).
Registration: PSY0002343038
Formal training
Bachelor of Psychology, Swinburne University of Technology — followed by supervised practice and ongoing professional development across the modalities listed below.
Therapeutic approaches
Trained in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based approaches, and Solution-Focused Therapy. Currently completing advanced training in Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).
Assessment training
Trained in the use of the ADOS-2 for autism assessment, alongside structured clinical interviews and validated rating scales for ADHD, anxiety and related presentations.
Who I work with
My practice holds space for a deliberately wide range of people, because the conditions I specialise in often touch whole families and evolve across life stages.
Children from age three
Early support for behavioural, emotional and developmental concerns, including early indicators of autism, ADHD, or anxiety. Sessions involve both direct work with the child and close collaboration with parents and, where helpful, schools or early learning settings.
Adolescents
The teenage years often surface challenges that were always there but only now have language. I work with adolescents around school refusal, social anxiety, emerging identity, late-diagnosed neurodivergence, and the fallout of bullying or relational trauma.
Adults
Many of my adult clients come in having already done a lot of work on themselves, and yet something persists. Adult ADHD and autism assessments are a meaningful part of my practice — particularly for women and others whose presentations have gone unrecognised for years. I also work with generalised anxiety, panic, OCD, trauma, and the grief that often accompanies a late diagnosis.
Funding experience
Medicare, NDIS, TAC and WorkCover
Medicare
Registered Medicare provider. Sessions are rebatable at $98.95 under a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, for up to 10 sessions per calendar year.
NDIS
Experienced in supporting self-managed, plan-managed and agency-managed participants, including outreach in home and community settings where that better matches your needs.
TAC
Psychological support for clients with approved TAC claims following a transport accident, including trauma-related presentations.
WorkCover
Support for workers with accepted WorkCover claims, including workplace trauma, stress-related injuries and return-to-work planning.
How I work
Every session starts with the assumption that you have been doing your best with the nervous system, history and circumstances you have been given. From there, the work is collaborative.
For some people, that looks like structured CBT or ACT — working through patterns of thinking and behaviour in a direct, skills-based way. For others, it looks like slower, somatically-aware work, particularly where trauma is part of the picture. For many, it is both, depending on the week.
I hold neurodivergence-affirming values. That means I treat autism and ADHD as differences in how the brain is wired rather than deficits to correct, even while working with the very real challenges that come with living in a world not built around those wirings. My sensory and pacing choices inside the room reflect this — lower-stimulation environments, clear expectations, and permission to communicate in whatever way works for you.
Above all, I am not trying to rush you anywhere. The pace of the work is yours to set, with my job being to help you notice what is shifting and what still needs attention.
If this sounds like the kind of care you have been looking for.
Book an initial session, or start with a free 15-minute call to ask any questions you need to ask first.