About Vladana

Vladana is a Brisbane-based psychologist and psychotherapist. She brings to her work a patient commitment to understanding how a life has come to feel the way it does. She works with individuals and couples from a relational, process-oriented perspective, with a particular interest in the slower, more searching traditions of psychoanalytic thought—those that recognise that meaningful change rarely comes quickly or without careful excavation.

At the heart of her practice is a respect for the uniqueness of each person’s inner world. She believes that beneath our confusion and distress exists a form of emotional intelligence—something instinctive and easily overlooked—that, given the right conditions, can begin to guide us with surprising clarity. What we long for most intensely, and what troubles us most persistently, can be understood as clues: fragments of a deeper story that asks to be witnessed rather than dismissed.

Therapy, in her view, is not a matter of quick fixes or surface adjustments, but of developing a more compassionate and coherent understanding of oneself. This understanding unfolds within the relationship between therapist and patient, where old patterns can be observed, felt, and gradually transformed. Over time, this shared space can become a place where more enduring change takes root.

Vladana's approach is particularly suited to those who sense that their difficulties cannot be fully explained by what is immediately visible. She works with people navigating long-standing difficulties with mood, relationships, addictions, complex trauma, questions of identity, grief, and the quieter but no less painful burdens of guilt, shame, dissatisfaction, and loneliness. She is equally at home with those drawn to holistic or transpersonal ways of making sense of their lives, and who are open to exploring the psychological alongside the existential.

Qualifications

She holds a Bachelor of Psychological Science and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology, followed by two further years of advanced, supervised training. Since 2013, she has worked extensively with complex trauma across a wide range of settings—from child and family services to crisis counselling and private practice. Across these roles, she has developed not only technical expertise, but also the kind of grounded, humane perspective that comes from accompanying many different lives through moments of difficulty and change.