Dr Shane Costello
Psychologist, researcher, educator.
Before training as a psychologist, I spent close to a decade in the disability sector — starting on the ground, moving into management, then into community care supporting people with progressive neurological conditions, and later case management across aged care, disability, and hospital settings. It was good work, but I wanted more intellectual challenge.
Psychology gave me that, plus a way to build on everything I'd already learned rather than start over. I've worked in schools, private practice, a hospital, and a university clinic since.
Shane’s areas of focus.
Assessment – for adults
Memory difficulties, including age-related decline
Concussion, head injuries and post-concussion syndrome
Brain fog and attention regulation
Impact of trauma, anxiety or mood disorders on cognition
Mental health and personality assessment
Centrelink Disability Pension and NDIS access requests
Expert witness assessments
Financial decision making capacity
Assessment reviews for military and emergency services applicants
Therapy – for adults
Cognitive behavioural therapy
Neurocognitive rehabilitation
Injury related anxiety and mood disorders
Employment related anxiety and mood disorders
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma
WorkCover, Open Arms, and Department of Veterans' Affairs
A particular interest in supporting emergency services workers and current or former military. If you're interested in therapy, get in touch.
Supervision
4+2 and 5+1 secondary supervision, particularly for developing competence in assessment
Higher degree intern supervision
Transitional supervision for internationally trained psychologists seeking Australian registration, or Australian psychologists returning after time away from practice
Ad hoc supervision for registered psychologists building assessment competence
Primary supervision for registrars seeking endorsement in Clinical Psychology or Educational & Developmental Psychology
Secondary supervision for registrars seeking endorsement in other areas of practice
How I work
Three roughly equal parts of the job, and they inform each other more than you'd expect — the assessment work sharpens the therapy, the therapy keeps the assessment work grounded in what people actually need, and supervision means I spend a good chunk of my week helping other psychologists get better at exactly this kind of thinking.
Research and teaching
I supervise research at Monash – more than 80 minor projects to date, and seven PhDs through to completion – with a particular interest in psychometrics (whether a psychological measure actually measures what it claims to) and individual differences (how people vary in things like cognitive ability and personality). I also edited a peer-reviewed journal in the field for several years. For research consultancy, teaching, or business mentoring, visit my website → rather than duplicating it all here.
