About Me

Hi, I'm Carla Anderson,

A Clinical Psychologist, Trainer and Florist. I have more than twenty-five years of experience supporting parents, infants and the clinicians who care for them. I also have a long held love of floristry, which has become an important part of how I support clinicians with grounding, creative self-care.:

My work sits at the intersection of three worlds:

I understand the clinical landscape of perinatal and infant mental health.

I understand how this field has changed and evolved over the past two decades.

I understand the changing landscape of business that clinicians now navigate.

All of this combined, gives me a strong understanding of why sustainable self-care practices matter, including the grounding and creative support that floristry offers healthcare clinicians.

Where My Passion Began

My journey began in 2001 whilst studying my Psychology degree and following my own struggles in the perinatal period. After engaging in a peer support group, I later stepped into a volunteer role as a peer support worker and group facilitator with the Queensland Postnatal Depression Association. This meant I got to support other mothers experiencing similar difficulties to what I had been through. It also gave me the opportunity to begin speaking about my lived experiences in hospitals to clinicians supporting parents. This helped me realise how powerful it can be to feel understood not just by other mothers, but also by clinicians during a tender and often overwhelming season of life.

This is where my passion for perinatal and infant mental health began.

Soon after, I joined the Bonnie Babes Foundation as a bereavement counsellor and became a national trainer of bereavement counsellors and training healthcare clinicians in hospitals in Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart, in support skills when working with bereaved parents.

These early experiences taught me that perinatal care is far more than just clinical work. It is deeply relational and shaped by how we meet people in their most vulnerable moments, and this matters just as much for the wellbeing of parents as it does for the clinicians who support them.

Two Decades of Clinical Experience

My early work with the Qld PND Assoc. and Bonnie Babes, was followed by work as a psychologist in Child and Youth Mental Health, and Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault services. This work experience taught me to see the layers beneath every story.

When I established my private practice in 2005 my work specifically focused on Perinatal, Children and Family support. All of these earlier insights shaped every part of the care I offered.

Across over twenty plus years, I have stood beside families through fertility challenges, grief and loss, birth trauma, pregnancy related fears, early bonding difficulties, parenting challenges and relationship changes.

I also have published research in the Australian Psychologist on "Pregnancy-related anxiety: Re-examining Its Distinctiveness", contributing to the evidence base in understanding anxiety in the perinatal period.

Clinician & Training Experience

Throughout this time, I have also had extensive experience supporting healthcare clinicians, as the emotional and relational demands of their work has grown significantly, through training and clinical reflective supervision.

I have experience in delivering many perinatal and infant mental health training workshops for various disciplines and organizations accross my career, as well as presenting at conferences, projects collaborating with other organizations, contributing to podcasts, and participating in media interviews across a wide range of topics, including;

Perinatal mental health

Perinatal grief and loss

Birth trauma

Fertility and reproductive challenges

Perfectionism in the perinatal period

Pelvic pain and its psychological impact

Perinatal psychological support skills for midwives and child health nurses

Self compassion for health professionals

floriful Workshops combining floristry, self care and mindfulness

Understanding the Business of Care, and Importance of Self-Care

Running a clinic for two decades taught me a great deal about the realities clinicians face today. Both the administrative load and the emotional labour. The responsibility of holding a team. The quiet, unseen work of keeping a service steady. I understand these pressures because I lived them for many years. In 2025, I made the significant decision to close my clinic and return to operating as a solo practitioner. I did not sell, I closed, and I learned that closing a business is not the same as letting go. It required clarity, courage and a slow return to what feels purposeful. It also helped me rediscover the part of myself that imagines, creates and looks ahead. Affirming my passion for supporting other clinicians navigating business challenges.

It also reminded me of the importance of clinician self-care. For me floristry entered my life at a time when I needed something grounding and restorative. Studying floristry introduced me to the field of therapeutic horticulture and deepened my understanding of how sensory, hands on creative practices can support emotional regulation, reflection and wellbeing for clinicians. I found that working with flowers invited presence and I noticed that it offered a gentle way for clinicians to reconnect with themselves, especially when the emotional weight of their work builds quietly over time. What began as a personal practice has grown into a meaningful, evidence informed framework for clinician self care.

Conferences & Presentations

Alongside my regular training programs and workshops, I have also presented at conferences and professional events focused on perinatal and infant mental health and clinician wellbeing. These settings have offered space to pause, share learning and add thoughtful contribution to ongoing conversations within the perinatal and infant mental health community.

Gladstone Mater Hospital- Maternity Services: Understanding perinatal grief & loss.
Qld Health Perinatal Mental Health Symposium Bundaberg: Psychological support and assessment strategies in the perinatal period.
Mental Health Professionals Network (MHPN) Sunshine Coast Perinatal & Infant Mental Health: Is Pregnancy-specific anxiety distinct?, Perinatal grief & loss, and Perinatal relationship challenges.
Qld Health Child Health Service Sunshine Coast: Identification of perinatal mental health concerns.
Sunshine Coast Fertility Expo: Emotional wellbeing through the fertility journey.
Let Me See My Baby Event: Panel member on perinatal grief and loss.
Australian Psychological Society (APS) Sunshine Coast Presentation: Overview of Perinatal Training Centre's Bearing the Unbearable: A relational approach to perinatal loss.
University of Sunshine Coast- Student Midwives: Psychological concerns in the perinatal period, assessment and support skills.
APS (Perinatal & Infant Mental Health Interest Group) Presentation: Perfectionism in the perinatal period
Perinatal Training Centre Webinars: Pregnancy-related anxiety, Perfectionism in the perinatal period, Frame for approaching perinatal loss information.
Gidget Foundation Presentations: The fertility journey; Psychological considerations, and Perfectionism in the perinatal period.
Qld Health Early Intervention and Parenting Clinicians (EIPC) Statewide Workshop: Psychological concerns, assessment and support skills in the perinatal period.
Radiance South West Perinatal & Infant Mental Health Symposium: Overview of Perinatal Training Centre's Bearing the unbearable: A relational approach to perinatal loss.
Australian Endorsed Midwives Conference: Birth trauma.
Coastlife Midwifery Knowledge to Practice Workshop: Birth-related trauma, Perinatal loss and referrals.
Qld Health EIPC Statewide Workshop: Birth-related trauma.
Maternal, Child & Family Health Nurses Australia (MCaFHNA) National Conference: Infant and perinatal mental health and birth-related trauma.
Childbirth & Parenting Educators Australia (CAPEA) Conference: Perinatal mental health in antenatal education.
Australian Association of Infant Mental Health (AAIMH) Conference: Let's talk about why we give flowers when a baby is born: How we can use flowers therapeutically.
CAPEA Conference: Integrating psychological skills into perinatal healthcare for Midwives and Child Health Nurses.
AAIMH & MARCE Conference: Overview of Perinatal Training Centre's Grief, trauma and attachment: An integrated approach to perinatal loss therapy
(co-presented with Bronwyn Leigh and Charise Deveney).
AAIMH & MARCE Conference: Poster presentation on Integrating flowers, mindfulness & perinatal and infant mental health.
Queensland Perinatal & Infant Mental Health Symposium: Integrating psychological skills into perinatal healthcare for Midwives and Child Health Nurses, and Poster presentation on integrating flowers, mindfulness & perinatal and infant mental health.

Projects & Collaboration

Across the years, I have been fortunate to work alongside many organisations, teams and clinicians who share a commitment to supporting families in the perinatal and infant mental health space. These collaborations have shaped my work, grounded my perspective and widened the ways I contribute to the field. Some of the roles and collaborations that have been meaningful to me include:

Board of Advisors for the Perinatal Training Centre.
Co-creator and Trainer of the Perinatal Training Centre’s Grief, Trauma and Attachment: An Integrated Approach to Perinatal Loss training (delivered annually since 2019, including training for the NHS in the UK).
Co-facilitator of Perinatal Training Centre’s Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Masterclasses,
Co-facilitator of Elly Taylor’s Becoming Us Perinatal Relationships, Wellbeing & Mental Health training.
Training for The Pink Elephants Support Network workforce support program.
Training Gidget’s Start Talking Program clinicians.
Facilitator of Precious Wings Support Group.
Co-developer with Kristy Howard: Nurtured by Nature: Working Therapeutically with Plants and Flowers.
Earlier in my career, in addition to my work with Bonnie Babe's Foundation and Qld Postnatal Depression Support Assoc., I was also involved in nationally funded projects including: Gladstone Communities for Children Initiative establishing peer led perinatal mental health support groups.
The Department of Communities Lighthouse Project: Seen but not heard, developing resources for supporting children in domestic violence, and Relationships Australia Point of Contact project, training child health workers in responding to children in domestic violence.
As well as assisting in the development of Queensland Health's Perinatal Mental Health Strategies Symposium for GP's, maternal and child health clinicians, mental health workers and other professionals.