About Midland Psychology Clinic

Clinical Experience

In a career since 1991, working both in Perth and Singapore (20+years as a clinician; 6 years as an academic teaching psychology related units), John has had the opportunity to work in a range of organisations which has provided him with valuable experiences to draw from and apply in his role as a clinical psychologist. In addition to his clinical experience, he has also been involved in supervision and management of personnel and strategic planning with multi-disciplinary teams. In this respect, he has had experience in the roles of Clinical Supervisor and Senior Consultant Psychologist in two of the organisations he has worked in. Prior to opening his private practice, John was in the role of Senior Clinical Psychologist/Senior Consultant Psychologist in the Department for Child Protection and Family Services.

In terms of his clinical experience, John has worked in both crisis as well as non-crisis settings. His experience in crisis work has been in working in core units in prisons (both medium and maximum security prisons), namely Crisis Care, Detention, Disturbed and Vulnerable Units. This involved providing assessments and interventions for self-harm and suicidal inmates, as well as for various psychological disorders and issues. For his work in one of the prisons, John received a commendation from management for his extremely professional and courageous work in upholding the duty of care to his clients and staff.

As an extension of his involvement in crisis work, at a State level, John has been involved with the Department for Child Protection State Emergency Response Team which is involved in State emergencies and crisis and was involved during the Toodyay Fires in 2010 and Kelmscott Fires in 2011.

John Perera – Clinical Psychologist

BSc (Psych), PGrad Dip (Psych), MPsych (Clinical), MA (Curtin), MAPS, ACPA, MIAAN (Cert.)

Clinical Interests

John’s clinical interests are in the following areas:

sexuality / sexual issues / LGBTI
anxiety (including post-traumatic stress disorder) and phobias
depression
suicide and self-harm
anger and aggression management
stress management
workers compensation
criminal injuries claim
forensic related matters
life transitions
self-esteem
impulse control disorders
trauma
physical, sexual and emotional abuse; neglect issues
bonding and attachment issues
substance abuse and addiction
psychosomatic illness
chronic pain
personal crisis
grief and loss
personality disorders
obsessive and compulsive disorder
risk assessments – violence, sexual, suicide
administration and guardianship matters
multicultural psychology

Clinical Approaches

John is passionate about helping people increase their well-being in life and he uses his unique blend of professional skills and humour to empower individuals.

John is eclectic in his work with some clients, and uses a combination of approaches; with other clients he is specific in terms of his interventions (e.g. behaviour therapy, cognitive-behaviour therapy, multi-modal therapy, brain-based therapy, gestalt therapy etc..).

John’s particular interest is in the area of brain-based therapeutic interventions, in essence, therapeutic processes that change the brain in order to impact on mood and behaviour.

Practice Facilities

The practice has been designed with the well-being of the client as its primary goal. With this in mind, careful thought was given to its design and furnishings in order to impact positively on a client’s overall well-being. The Clinic provides its services to adults above 18 years of age only. The Clinic reviews its procedures, practices and policies as and when required, as such, new clients are encouraged to contact the Clinic to discuss their requests.

The practice has HICAPS facilities which means that:

there would be no out of pocket expenses for clients under a Mental Health Care Plan and no queuing at Medicare branches and filling in claim forms to obtain a rebate.
for those clients who self-refer and not on a Mental Health Care Plan (and hence not bulk billed), the participating health fund contributions to the fees charged can be claimed electronically. Similarly the gap charge can be paid by EFTPOS.

In addition, the following facilities are also adjacent to the practice:

limited free on-street parking (2 hours).
free whole day parking (at selected sites) at the Midland Gate Shopping Centre.
bus services close to the practice
10 minute walk to the Midland train and bus stations.

NDIS participants are welcome if they are self-managed or plan managed.