James Croft
Principal Clinical Psychologist
James works with people who have been carrying something for a long time — people who are capable and functional on the outside, and know that what's happening on the inside deserves more than a six-week program.
He works with presentations that have resisted other approaches: complex anxiety, longstanding depression, schema-level patterns, and the internal work that requires patience and genuine clinical depth to reach.
WHO HE IS
He works primarily with adults in individual therapy, drawing on schema therapy as his primary clinical lens — a framework designed for the deeply engrained patterns that standard approaches don't reach.
His sessions are warm and clinically serious in the same breath. The presence that makes the harder work feel possible, and the thinking that makes it actually happen.
"Good therapy is more than just a chat. Something real should happen.”
WHO JAMES WORKS WITH
The presentations that require more.
Not a list of conditions — descriptions of the kind of work James does best.
Complex and treatment-resistant anxiety
Including OCD and intrusive thoughts — presentations that have responded partially to other approaches but haven't fully resolved.
Longstanding depression
The kind that has responded only partially to other approaches — where the surface symptoms have shifted but the underlying patterns haven't.
Schema-level work
Understanding the deep beliefs that formed early and have been shaping everything since. Defectiveness, emotional deprivation, unrelenting standards, abandonment — the patterns that run quietly underneath everything else.
Men's mental health
Men who take their inner life seriously and want a psychologist who does too. The specific experience of carrying things privately, and the particular kind of work required to put them down.
Relationship patterns
Not couples therapy — individual work on the relational dynamics that keep producing the same outcomes. Understanding how early patterns play out in close relationships, and changing them.
HOW JAMES WORKS
Unhurried.
By design.
A deliberately limited caseload — not because of capacity, but because the work requires it.
Every client receives a thorough formulation before any treatment direction is proposed — a specific, personalised account of how they came to be the way they are, and what would need to shift for things to be different. Many clients find this phase meaningful in itself. Being understood carefully is not something most of them have experienced before.
James sees a deliberately limited number of clients — not because of capacity, but because the work requires it. When you are here, you are the only person being thought about.
James is currently accepting clients from a waitlist. If you'd like to be considered, send a brief note about what's brought you here.
BACKGROUND
Formation
and experience.
James is a Lecturer in Psychology at ACAP University College and a Clinical Supervisor at the University of Sydney Student Counselling service. He is a Board-Approved Supervisor with AHPRA, endorsed to act as Principal Supervisor for Clinical Psychology Registrars.
Before private practice, James worked as a Senior Clinical Psychologist and Supervisor at the University of Sydney's Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic, and before that in the psycho-oncology team at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. His published research is in the area of OCD.
He received his Master of Clinical Psychology from UNSW with Excellence, and his Bachelor of Science (Psychology) with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney.
QUALIFICATIONS & MEMBERSHIPS
QUALIFICATIONS
Master of Clinical Psychology with Excellence, UNSW
Bachelor of Science (Psychology) Honours I, USYD
REGISTRATIONS & MEMBERSHIPS
Clinical Psychologist (PSY0002165222)
Board-Approved Supervisor, AHPRA
ACPA (Full Member)
CURRENT ROLES
Lecturer & Clinical Supervisor, ACAP University College
Clinician & Primary Clinical Supervisor, University of Sydney Student Counselling
CLINICAL SUPERVISION
For psychologists at every stage.
Board-Approved Supervisor, endorsed as Principal Supervisor for the Clinical Psychology Registrar Program.
James provides clinical supervision for psychologists at all stages of their careers — from provisionally registered psychologists through to experienced clinicians wanting space to think about complex cases.
Supervision with James has the same quality as his clinical work: genuine engagement with what you bring, direct feedback, and enough time to actually think. Not a checkbox. Not a protocol.
Supervision enquiries
Contact admin@croftpsychology.com.au with a brief note about what you're looking for.
MAKE AN ENQUIRY
The work that actually
reaches the root of it.
James is currently seeing clients from a waitlist. Send a brief note about what's brought you here — a real person reads it and responds personally, usually within a day.
Not sure if James is the right fit? Meet Dr Natali Dilevski
"The right clients sense something they don't often find in a psychologist — a fellow soul.”
— James Croft