Kathryn Esparza | UniSC | University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Kathryn Esparza is a registered Clinical Psychologist who completed her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology at Australian Catholic University. Kathryn has experience working in acute adult mental health and extensively in private practice – working with clients across the life-span and a range of mental health presentations. In particular, Kathryn is passionate about promoting strong family relationships and supporting parents as they navigate the various stages of their child’s development. She has also provided clinical supervision to case managers and settlement workers supporting humanitarian migrant families. Prior to completing her qualifications, Kathryn also worked as a residential youth worker and an applied behaviour therapist for children with autism spectrum disorder.

In terms of research, Kathryn has a special interest in parenting and child adjustment, anxiety, cross-cultural psychology, and migrant mental health. Kathryn has gained sessional academia experience in the subject areas of cross-cultural psychology, counselling, grief and loss, child development, and health psychology. The focus of her PhD research is finding means to promote the psychological well-being of migrant and refugee families following arrival in Australia. For this body of work Kathryn was the recipient of the Australia Postgraduate Award and is completing her research at the University of Queensland.