Heather Liebregts
Perinatal and parent-infant psychotherapy
Clinical Psychology Registrar
Becoming a parent is one of the most disorienting transitions a person can pass through. My work is to offer a thinking space alongside this - for the parent, the baby, and the relationship taking shape between them.
WORK
A space to think, together.
Therapy in the perinatal period
For mothers, fathers, and partners in the perinatal period - from preconception planning, through pregnancy, into the months and years after birth. We work with what you are bringing now, and with what is being awakened from earlier in your own life.
People come for many reasons, including
Difficulty adjusting to pregnancy or new parenthood
Anxiety or low mood before or after birth
A frightening or traumatic birth
Loss during pregnancy or after
Difficulty around feeding, sleep, settling or crying
Feeling disconnected from, or worried about, your baby
Thoughts and feelings about your baby you didn’t expect
Your own early life surfacing in becoming a parent
Fertility treatment, pregnancy after loss, or a baby born early or unwell
Adoptive, foster and kinship parents
Parent-infant psychotherapy
Suited to families where something is hard to make sense of in the early relationship. Parent–infant psychotherapy is a dyadic approach: the parent attends with their baby, and the baby is held in mind as a participant rather than an audience. In dyadic sessions we usually sit on the floor together with a few simple toys, and follow what your baby does. Babies feeding, crying and falling asleep during a session are all welcome.
My work draws on infant-led parent–infant approaches, attending to the relationship that is forming between you - the conscious hopes you bring, and also the patterns and feelings that an infant has a particular way of evoking in their parents. The aim is to help ease what feels stuck or painful, and to support the shared joy and meaningful communication that this earliest relationship is built on.
ABOUT
Training and experience
My approach is warm, reflective and collaborative. I take time to understand what each family is bringing - the hopes, the difficulties, the particular constellation of relationships and history you are working with - and tailor the work accordingly. Babies are very welcome in the room; for much of the work I will suggest dyadic sessions, where you attend with your baby. Both shorter and longer-term therapy are possible.
I am a Registered Psychologist with General Registration through AHPRA, currently completing my registrar program in Clinical Psychology. I have worked in perinatal and infant mental health since 2020, in public-sector, community and private settings, and have a young family of my own.
I have undertaken further training that has shaped the relational and observational quality of my practice, including several years of psychoanalytic child and adolescent psychotherapy training with a year of infant observation under supervision. Attachment, systemic and psychodynamic theories, and the principles of infant mental health inform my approach. My work is supported by regular reflective and clinical supervision.
Before private practice I worked in community perinatal mental health settings offering individual, dyadic, and group work; co-facilitated parent-infant group therapy at Mother–Baby Nurture; and worked clinically at the Community Infant, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (ICAMHS).
QUALIFICATIONS
Psychologist with General Registration, Clinical Psychology Registrar, Psychology Board of Australia, AHPRA
PhD (in progress), Murdoch University
Master of Applied Psychology in Clinical Psychology, Murdoch University
Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (Psychology), UWA
SELECTED TRAINING
Clinical training in psychoanalytic child and adolescent psychotherapy, including a year-long psychoanalytic infant observation (Institute of Child & Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, ICAPP)
Psychotherapy and the emotional care of infants and their families in the early years (ICAPP)
Principles and practice of psychoanalytic parent–infant psychotherapy (Anna Freud Centre, UK)
Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Intensive Training Package (Perinatal Training Centre)
Perinatal Loss and Grief Training (Perinatal Training Centre)
MEMBERSHIPS
Member, APS Perinatal & Infant Psychology Interest Group
Member, Australian Association for Infant Mental Health (AAIMH)
Founding Member, Infant Mental Health Research Alliance (IMHRA)
RESEARCH
Research and wider work
I am completing a PhD at Murdoch University’s Ngangk Yira Institute for Change on infant sleep as a relational caregiving experience. My research explores how parents’ views about infant sleep, the approaches they use, and the support they receive interact to shape their experience of early parenting and infant care.
My research publications can be found on ORCID. I have presented my research at perinatal and infant mental health conferences nationally and internationally, and to health professional audiences.
Through the Infant Mental Health Research Alliance, I am helping to build a national Infant Mental Health Knowledge Hub for families, practitioners and policymakers.
I am also a Board Director at Little Sparklers, an Australian not-for-profit supporting families in the early years.
PRACTICALITIES
How the practice works
WHERE
Coolbinia
North Perth, and online. Pram accessible, free parking.
WHEN
Tuesdays
In person and online.
SESSION
50 min
Dyadic sessions welcome - attend with your baby.
FEE
$230
Per session.
WITH A GP REFERRAL
$131.03
Out of pocket. Medicare rebates $98.97 for up to 10 sessions a year.
How to begin
A brief email exchange, then a first consultation: a chance to bring what's on your mind, ask questions, and consider together whether this feels like the right fit. There's no obligation to continue.
Referrals
Referrals from other professionals are welcome, and self-referral is equally welcome. A GP referral isn't required to begin, but may be useful for Medicare or private health rebates.
What I don't offer
Sleep training or settling programs
Custody or parenting assessments
Medico-legal reports
Acute crisis care
CONTACT
Arrange an initial conversation
Email me with a little about what's bringing you, and whether you're hoping to come on your own or with your baby. I'll reply with times and anything you need to know beforehand.
I aim to respond to enquiries within three business days. All initial contact is confidential.
heather@heatherliebregts.com.au
PHONE
LOCATION
The Walcott Street Clinic 333 Walcott St
Coolbinia WA 6050
(By appointment only)
Tuesdays - in person &online