I’m Merrill Lombard, a registered psychologist. I see adults, young people and couples at my rooms in Fremantle and Stirling, and by telehealth.
How I work
I work with anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and relationships, using approaches such as cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and schema therapy.
I also conduct ADHD and autism assessments, as well as cognitive, academic and learning assessments.
Experience
Before starting Meaningful Minds, I worked with Royal Australian Navy members with psychological injuries such as trauma, anxiety and depression. I’ve also worked with NDIS participants, including people with intellectual disability and developmental delay, and with employees through Employee Assistance Programs.
I came to psychology after a Bachelor of Marketing and the Media and more than a decade in business management. That work gave me practical experience in conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation.
Research and Publications
From 2022 to 2024 I conducted research exploring motivation and how this can change over time, given the use of metacognitive strategies, and how an individual is motivated.
Pre-publication link
Based at Curtin University’s Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch (HIVE), I used a metacognitive technique to reduce the perceived difficulty of obstacles in a virtual reality environment. This allowed me to determine the effects on motivation and objective performance.
This article covers the visualisation hardware, using the world-first satellite MLS installation.
Riddell, H., Lamont, W., Lombard, M., Paduano, S., Maltagliati, S., Gucciardi, D. F., & Ntoumanis, N. (2023). Autonomous motivation promotes goal attainment through the conscious investment of effort, but Mental Contrasting with Implementation Intentions makes goal striving easier. The Journal of Social Psychology, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2022.2163610
Presenting research CAN be fun.
Presenting to new mature-age students at Curtin University on how to stay engaged, and get the most out of their experience.
Providing research assistance on Western Australia’s first Co-Designed Roadmap for Mental Health Research Strategy (Co-ROAMERS). The project aims to identify under-researched topics in mental health, and provide recommendations on the directions of future research.
Publication link
John Curtin Leadership Academy is underpinned by the Social Change Model of Leadership Development, and provides students with the opportunity to develop employability and leadership skills such as self-awareness, communication, working in teams, problem solving, critical thinking, conflict and project management, public speaking, stakeholder and community engagement, cultural awareness, evaluation methodology, and more. In 2021 we had just completed our first project, exploring the underreporting of student disability status, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage at Curtin University.