Kimberley O’Brien
Kimberley O’Brien is one of Australia’s most trusted and recognized Child Psychologists with a knack for solving issues from the child’s perspective.
With 15 years’ experience working around Australia and internationally, Kimberley is now Principal Psychologist at the Quirky Kid Clinic in Woollahra (Sydney) offering consultation, assessments and practical strategies for children, adolescents and families. She offers supervision and training for professionals as well as media comments and appearances.
Kimberley enjoys an active role in the Australian media and is currently the official child psychologist for the parenting website ‘Essential Kids’ by Fairfax Media.
Kimberley also contributes to various publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Daily Telegraph, Who and Girlfriend magazine. She appears regularly on national television for the ‘Today Show’ on Channel 9, ‘Sunrise’ on Channel 7 and on radio networks, such as Triple J, ABC Radio, 2GB and 3AW.
Kimberley is also a published author by Springer Press (UK) completing her work relating to ‘Positive Parent-Child Relationships’; and with Quirky Kid Publishing where she produced a range of 5 Therapeutic resources distributed by the Australian Council of Education and Research (ACER) and also sold worldwide.
She has lectured Doctorate and Masters level students at the University of Western Sydney and currently conducts interactive seminars and practical workshops around Australia and NZ to diverse audiences. During 2012, Kimberley will be the Keynote speaker for the largest Educational conference in Brazil, ‘Educador’ and will also present in many Australian Conferences like the Educational and Developmental Conference in Melbourne.
Kimberley began her career in child psychology with young offenders in the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice and later in Scotland (UK) providing therapy for juveniles aged 10 – 16 years. She gained skills in Developmental Psychology and Play Therapy before traveling extensively to acquire cross cultural experience with non-English speaking children. Returning to Australia, Kimberley established her own Private Practice in Glebe (Sydney) and later consulted alongside Dr John Irvine providing therapy for children, adolescents and families.
In 2006, Kimberley conducted international research as part of The School Days Project, interviewing school children in 52 countries to better understand school culture and multiculturalism. Kimberley completed the School Days Project with indigenous children in Darwin, Australia and gained a scholarship to present the project at the Social Entrepreneurs Global Forum (Malaysia) in December 2007.
Kimberley has completed a Bachelor of Social Science in Psychology from Charles Sturt University and a Master of Arts in Developmental Psychopathology from the University of Western Sydney. She is currently working on her PhD (Monash University) addressing Self Esteem and Social Relationships Among Students in Transition to Year 7 with Dr Helen Watt.
Kimberley is a member of The Australian Psychological Society (APS), full member of the APS College of Educational and Developmental Psychologists (CEDP) and the Association for Research in Infant and Child Development (ARICD). She is an Accredited Supervisor for Intern Psychologists through the NSW Psychologist’s Registration Board.
Certificate for Self Employed People in child-related employment: A5ACC4/28/09/2009
View all of Kimberley’s Media Appearance
