Our Team

Dr John Callanan

Dr John Callanan is a psychologist who works with parents and children who are have complex neurodevelopmental and behavioual challenges.

He has also worked in child and adolescent mental health settings including headspace. John has just completed a PhD that looked at how to help parents work with children who maybe struggling developmentally or behaviourally.

He has also worked with Indigenous families during his time at Danila Dilba.

Before accepting the referral John likes to make clear his approach to working with young people. It is different to what many families expect or have experienced in the past with psychologists. He does not work individually with the child. Instead, he works with parents in the first instance to build their capacity to help their child when things are difficult. There will be sessions with the parents and the child together. These are designed to consolidate parents new responses. His approach has a strong evidence base and does bring change. If the referral is for the child alone, there are other psychologists in Darwin who provide that sort of therapy.