Shelly has worked in the the public sector since 2004 and also works in private practice. She currently works in public youth mental health services, a specialist Eating Disorder Service and provides professional consultation and supervision to individuals and teams.
Shelly has lead a number of programme and treatment development projects across various services. She was the lead developer of two DBT programmes specifically for eating disorders (both youth and adult) and continues to be involved with projects relating both to youth/school settings as well as Eating Disorder specialist service development and provision.
Shelly delivers training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy for DBTNZ (tier one affiliate of Behavioral Tech, an international Linehan Institute Training Company who deliver world class training in DBT). She also provides trainings through her own business.
Shelly is currently the elected co-chair of an international DBT specialist interest group for the Academy for Eating Disorders. She also presents at international conferences on DBT and Eating Disorders and provides webinars and on-line trainings.
Shelly enjoys taking on challenging projects and roles involving innovation and development relating to her areas of specialty. Her ideal roles involve analyzing problems and creating solutions drawing on her her knowledge of evidence based treatments and experience with programme implementation and training. She specializes in programmes catering toward populations presenting with complex and high risk problems.
Shelly takes a non-judgmental and compassionate stance in her work and is described as being genuine, caring, and approachable. She can also be challenging when needed to help motivate and support change towards agreed upon goals. She believes that building a connection with her clients and clinicians is imperative, as is being on the same level as them. She works collaboratively to move towards desired goals.
Shelly has strong values around providing scientifically tested treatments that work.