Our Presenters

 Kirrilie Smout (Director)

Kirrilie has worked as a clinical child and adolescent psychologist for the last 30 years in private, government and community settings.  Kirrilie is now the director of Developing Minds, a group of 23 child and adolescent psychologists, has provided therapy to approximately 5000 children, teens and families and supervised over 60 child and adolescent psychologists.  She (and Developing Minds) have won a number of state and national awards for their programs, presentations and clinical services. Kirrilie is also a lecturer and course co-ordinator at the University of SA, has authored 3 books about young people and provides consultation to national media, education and health organisations.

Penny Sih - (Clinical Psychologist)

Penny is a clinical Psychologist and a full member of the Australian Psychological Society. She has a Psychology Honours degree from Flinders University and a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Adelaide. During her studies, Penny was conferred the KPMG Prize for Psychology and published research on psychological outcomes for children in various care arrangements.

Penny has always been passionate about working with young people and their families and has a talent for connecting with young people. She has worked as a psychologist since 2004 in both the private sector and a variety of government settings including Child Protection, Community Health and Education. Penny’s roles have included providing therapy and conducting assessments with kids and teens and providing professional development and support for families, teachers and health care workers.

Penny draws on a range of evidence-based frameworks and adapts her approaches to meet the needs of clients and their families. However, her work most often draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Attachment Theory (for example Circle of Security©).

Penny aims to help children and young people understand that their wide ranging emotions are all part of what makes them human but to also equip them with skills to better manage their tricky emotions (e.g. anxiety, depression, sadness, anger) and adapt their behaviour (e.g. conflict management, social skills, avoidance, challenging behaviour) to lead a full and rewarding life despite any hardship they experience. In her work with families, she works to support parents and caregivers to better understand and be attuned to their child’s needs in order to more effectively support their emotional and behavioural development.

Although she loves working with all age groups, Penny has a particular interest in working with young children and their families and has many years of experience working in Early Childhood Settings.  Penny is also trained to run Circle of Security© – Parenting Groups. Penny has presented seminars to hundreds of young people in secondary schools over the last 10 years and receives glowing feedback about her seminars.

Penny is the Team Supervisor at Aberfoyle Park and provides clinical and professional supervision and crisis supervision to the other Developing Minds psychologists at Aberfoyle Park.

Jacinda Fisher (Clinical Psychologist)

Jacinda is a Clinical Psychologist and a Full Member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS) College of Clinical Psychologists.  She has a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and a PhD from Flinders University.

Jacinda has worked as a psychologist since 2003, working in both the public and private sectors.  She worked as a psychologist with the Department for Education and Child Development (DECD) for many years and has extensive knowledge in childhood development and the assessment and treatment of learning difficulties as well as assessment and support for individuals with social, emotional and behavioural challenges.  Within DECD, Jacinda provided support to teachers, SSO's and families around understanding and supporting students' emotional, social and learning needs and needs in relation to identified disabilities such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Dyslexia among other challenges in the classroom and at school more broadly.  Jacinda has also worked previously as a psychologist within a large Adelaide R-12 school and has provided many hours therapeutic intervention for students and consultation to school staff/mentors and parents about how to promote student well being within a classroom and home setting.

Jacinda has also worked as a research psychologist within the Growth and Development Program for children born prematurely and the Child Nutrition Research Centre at Women's and Children's Hospital, and for sleep clinics at Flinders University and the Repatriation General Hospital. Jacinda has experience working within the drug and alcohol area, adult mental health and child health care settings and has a special interest in supporting young people and families around gender/sexual diversity issues. Through her PhD research, she is also knowledgeable in the areas of caregiving, coping, illness and grief and loss.

Jacinda has also had many years of working with children and teens individually in a therapy setting. In her current role at Developing Minds, she is passionate about helping young people who are finding life difficult because of different personal, social, familial or other circumstances. She is particularly passionate about helping children, teens and families find ways to manage challenges so they don't get in the way of living the life they want.  

Jacinda is keen to help people learn ways of managing such issues so that they don’t get in the way of living the life they want. She has conducted many well-received workshops for students and professionals over the last 10 years.

Jacinda is the Clinical Supervisor at Wayville and provides clinical and professional supervision and crisis supervision to the other Developing Minds psychologists. She also provides supervision to some psychologists working outside of Developing Minds at their request. Jacinda’s therapeutic approach is eclectic and adapted to the individual client and their presenting concerns. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) feature predominantly in her work.