Merryn is a registered teacher and psychologist, and the combination of these professions is where she is truly comfortable. Understanding how people learn – and what gets in the way of learning has motivated her to develop strategies that everyone can use to improve their wellbeing. This defines Merryn’s approach to psychology which focuses on prevention as much as the cure.
As an educator, Merryn has taught hundreds of children in primary schools as well as giving specialized guidance to parents, teachers and children with learning difficulties. She has also taught for many years in specialist schools where in addition to classroom teaching, she was instrumental in introducing the Makaton Vocabulary, a focused language program coupled with sign language, into Victorian specialist and primary schools.
She is the author of several books and audio resources, including ‘Annihilate Stress and Anxiety’, ‘The Daily Dose’ and the hypnosis-based audio program ‘The PEARLS of Resilience’.
Maintaining her practical, psycho-educational approach to wellbeing and psychology, Merryn has also developed online programs to assist professionals and the general public at large.
She describes her goal as ‘The Safety Net’: the aim being to ‘catch people when they are stressed, teach them practical stress-management strategies, and prevent them from spiraling down into serious mental health concerns'.