C-Best has among its staff a group of experts in the field of training and supervision. They have experience and expertise as practitioners, educators and clinical supervisors. In addition to disseminating best practice in supervision they have made substantive contributions to research and scholarship of clinical supervision through scientific publications (more than 50 publications on the topic) and presentations including keynote presentations nationally and internationally.
Dr Alice Shires (Board-Approved Trainer)

Dr Alice Shires is a Clinical Psychologist, Senior lecturer and UTS Psychology training Clinic Director. Alice also heads the UTS Mindfulness Integrated Therapies Research Clinic (MTRC). Alice has been teaching and supervising Cognitive Behavioural Therapies over the last 25 years. Alice has been involved in the teaching, training and supervision of Clinical Psychologists and their field supervisors for over 25 years. She has been the Director of the Psychology Training Clinic at UNSW and worked as Clinic Manager at The University of Sydney and previously as Consultant Clinical Psychologist in acute and specialist mental health services in the UK. Over the last decade Alice has been involved in research and teaching and have developed a recognised expertise in Clinical Psychology supervision. She has provided Clinical Psychology Supervisor Training nationally and internationally.

Alice has served in senior leadership roles in psychology including as Chair of the Australasian Psychology Clinic Directors group for over a decade, is a panel member on The NSW Mental Health Tribunal, a member of the NSW Psychology Council and has sat for the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunals. She has co-written papers and reports that have contributed to government and Health Department policy and conducted research leading to governmental reports. She is a member of the New South Wales Psychology Advisory Council and is an inaugural Australian Clinical psychology Association (ACPA) Board Director

Professor Craig Gonsalvez (C-Best Director & Board-Approved Trainer)

Professor Craig Gonsalvez is currently a Professor in Clinical Psychology at Western Sydney University. Craig has been actively involved in education and training of psychologists for over 20 years. He has served as Director of Clinical Training at the University of Wollongong, and as National Chair of Course Approvals for the Clinical College of the Australian Psychological Society (2005-2010). He has published widely on practitioner training and clinical supervision, was leader of a team that designed, delivered and evaluated the APS-Institute supervisor training programme (2012-2013). Craig has received several awards and for his contributions to practitioner training and clinical supervision including a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2016), an Australian University Teaching Excellence award (2017), and the Australian Psychological Society Distinguished contribution to psychological education award (2019). One of Craig’s research interests is competency-based pedagogies and competency assessments. He has delivered several keynote addresses on the topic in national and international conferences and has been leader of a multisite collaborative initiative that has designed several competency instruments including the Clinical Psychology Practicum Competency Rating Scale (CYPRS) and the Vignette-Matching Assessment Tool (V-MAT) currently used by more than 20 institutions in Australia.

Dr Fiona Calvert (Board-Approved Trainer)

Dr Fiona Calvert is a Clinical Psychologist and Board-Approved Supervisor and Training Provider. Fiona’s PhD thesis was focused on improving the training and supervision of early-career psychologists and she was awarded the Examiners & Commendation for Outstanding Thesis. She was also awarded the Freestone Clinical Psychology Award during her doctoral training.

Clinically, Fiona has worked in both inpatient and outpatient settings. She currently runs a private practice and her special interests include the provision of therapy for people with longstanding psychological difficulties as well as psychological assessment for neurodevelopmental disorders. Fiona routinely provides principal supervision for 5+1 interns, clinical psychology registrars, and registered psychologists working across a range of clinical settings.

Fiona has lectured and supervised in postgraduate clinical training programs for the past five years and currently teaches in the Clinical Masters program at the Australian Catholic University. She is actively engaged in research, with a particular interest in supervisory techniques and mentoring in psychology training.

Professor Frank Deane: Supervisory Consultant and Expert Evaluator

Professor Frank Deane is Director of the Illawarra Institute for Mental Health and Head of Postgraduate Studies in the School of Psychology at the University of Wollongong. He trained as a clinical psychologist at Massey University in New Zealand and practiced in the USA for 6 years before returning to New Zealand, where he completed his PhD and became a Senior Lecturer at Massey University.

Frank moved to the University of Wollongong in 1998 to be the Director of Clinical Psychology programs and continues to teach in the clinical programs. He provides clinical supervision in both individual and group formats. Frank has broad research interests related to understanding what determines help-seeking for mental health problems and factors that lead to better treatment outcomes for both mental health and alcohol or other drug problems. He is also interested in research on clinical training, supervision and coaching. He has conducted research evaluating the effectiveness of different coaching models at increasing transfer of training and improving fidelity among staff delivering recovery-oriented services for people with severe and persistent mental illnesses. He is particularly interested in the provision of feedback during supervision and the potential role of e-technology to enhance those processes.

Outstanding record of scholarship (over 350 research publications)
Awards:
APS Mentorship
AACBT award
Frank provides independent consultant on evaluation

Our Team