Ingeborg Stiefel

Ingeborg Stiefel

Ingeborg Stiefel (R.N., Soz. Paed. Grad., Diplom Psychologe, M. Psych. [Clin.]) is a Senior Clinical Psychologist, semi-retired, with over 40 years of clinical experience. She trained in nursing and social work before venturing into psychology. She completed her first psychology degree during the cold war years at the Freie Universitaet Berlin and completed her M Clin Psych at Macquarie University, Sydney in 1990. The political conflict in the 1970s was also reflected in the field of psychology. Behaviourism and traditional empirical research clashed with a strong psychodynamic tradition in Germany and critical psychology, anti-psychiatry and East European psychology started to develop a new voice questioned theories and clinical approaches of both sides. These formative years are still present in her questioning approach to clinical practice. Ingeborg trained in humanistic, psychodynamic, narrative and systemic therapies and she has worked with children and families with a wide variety of clinical presentations in many settings, including at the Childrens’ Hospital Westmead. She appreciates client-centred values as a base for all therapeutic endeavours, appreciates the depth of psychodynamic thinking, and enjoys the freedom and creativity both narrative and systemic approaches can offer to therapy, especially when working with young children. She has published widely in the field of family therapy.