Has your poor concentration / brain fog let you down in the pursuit of your academic, work and relationship goals? all the way back to school days? once told you have ADHD as a child?
Do you feel you face internal barriers in realising your academic, professional or human potential?
Are you unclear about your sense of identity, direction in life, and life goals? career choice? Relationship satisfaction?
Do you have difficulty organising your life into a coherent and meaningful whole? Is your life meaningful to YOU?
Are you socially misinterpreted at work as aloof, cold, distant or uncaring? Have you wondered whether you have ASD ? AKA ASPERGERS?
Do you struggle finding motivation to achieve your goals, despite expending effort? Do you seem to have missed out on the social and relationship playbook? Ever accused of narcissism? Unfairly?
Do procrastination / fatigue / low self-esteem / guilt dominate your life? are you avoidant?
Do you wonder how chronic pain, obesity, poor sleep quality and hormones (eg low T or menopause) interact to impact concentration, mood and anxiety? How your physical vigour can determine your mental state?
Do you want an Integrative approach that address the “bodymind“? help with therapy, medication, diet and exercise plan? a therapist willing and able to discuss meaning & philosophy?
Have you self-diagnosed the triad of Adult ADD, depression and repressed trauma in your life? Did you know you can have undiagnosed ADD even though your IQ is high? ( in fact it’s common )
# Do you wish to engage in a process of psychodynamic self-actualisation to realise your potential generally ? Beyond ADD. Toward your personal, academic and career goals. Achieving means realising goals meaningful to you! This means your own unique goals
# how to define “productivity”? What do you want to achieve? is this someone else’s wish for you? What do YOU want?
# are you an apparent overachiever but internally chaotic, scattered and plagued by low self-esteem? ‘Highly sensitive’?
# are you a professional with that nagging feeling of inadequacy and Imposter Syndrome, despite achieving in the past? what is your critique of the professional life?
# have you ever questioned the philosophical perspectives that drive the modern overwhelming imperative to achieve? why is modern life accelerated, chaotic and often full of angst?
Dr Kieran Forster (Better Minds Clinic)
Dr Kieran Forster referral: All prospective patients should arrange a thorough referral letter from their general practitioner (use email bmcreferrals@outlook.com.au), and if able, attempt their own summary of their issues and why they are seeking Dr Forster’s help. Why Dr Forster?
#currently VERY LIMITED capacity to take on new patients
#please read this website before applying to see me.
This is a “depth process” or psychotherapy-focused psychiatry practice.
Limited spaces are available so not all referrals can be accepted. This practice does NOT prescribe medication in the absence of an established, ongoing, collaborative therapeutic relationship. Generally referrals will be declined when the overall patient load prevents Dr Forster seeing his ongoing patients regularly for psychotherapy, the core of his treatment approach.
This practice is integrative, with ongoing psychotherapy foundational to achieve best outcomes. ADHD medications (including stimulants) are one important aspect of an overall holistic treatment plan. They are not silver bullets though. They can improve concentration and mood but leave meaning untouched.
Combativeness , hypercriticality, passive aggression, unrealistic demands and blaming the therapist undermine and sabotage ongoing care (although some clinics DO focus on personality disorders).
Depth Process Psychiatry refers to a clinical process that is NOT superficial. This explains why psychiatrists don’t immediately come to some of their conclusions and also why there is a “getting to know you” beginning stage of treatment. There is not a “one size fits all” approach to treatment at this practice. Patients aren’t “fixed in a few weeks”. Dr Forster doesn’t “just prescribe meds”, or see you for a month and wish you well. Psychiatrists are both therapists and psychopharmacologists, as well as medical doctors. This is where the concept of truly being holistic comes into its own. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is the core methodology here, but the focus remains on your unique character and potential.
Dr Forster’s pre-medicine background is fine art, law and philosophy. In particular, the philosophical underpinnings of the Western way of thinking (the European, British and American philosophers whose theories we base our lives on mostly unconsciously, and the ancient philosophers such as the PreSocratics, the Stoics and others you probably know). This means the goal is to re-discover your sense of meaning, direction and growth potential, using the power of insight we all have.
Consider the recent work of Korean German philosopher Byung-Chul Han in his critique of “The BurnOut Society” in his series of insightful books about the narcissistic swamp, the transparent society and the digital society of empty self-exploitation. This is the sociological negative we all face. The Context of potential change.
This working model of the Self owes much to the humanities as a whole, but specifically CG Jung (archetypes, collective unconscious, synchronicity and the need to integrate one’s shadow through Individuation) and Heinz Kohut (healthy narcissistic transference vs pathological narcissism) & the idealist mind-based metaphysics of many philosophers from Kant, Schopenhauer and the contemporary neuroscientist Bernardo Kastrup. Psychiatrist Dr Iain McGilchrist‘s critique of Left and Right Brain styles of thinking is powerfully persuasive clinically. See the page on CONCEPTS to be aware of relevant thinkers on ontology & the understanding of meaning. The question of meaning is the ultimate human question and we are currently experiencing the societal malaise of the “impossibility of modern meaning”. Meaning, direction and values are central. “I would call this philosophically-informed psychotherapy that respects the individual’s autonomy and right to self-determination”. What is your real potential? Your lived philosophy?
Dr Forster has a lot of long term patients who are pursuing psychological well-being through a focused, committed, collaborative approach. To succeed in this way requires a curious, open mind and a desire to be helped by Dr Forster ( as opposed to wasting time with power struggles and empty narcissism). This practice is aimed at healthy self-actualisation and self-integration. What is healthy self-actualisation? Accessing your inherent ability to change and actualise a whole, self-aware You.
Dr Forster collaborates with his peers in shared care arrangements, as his primary focus is ADD, ASD and self-actualisation. Philosophical questions are part of the psychotherapy of meaning and self-actualisation. As a 2024 New Yorker article “When Philosophers Become Therapists” described, some philosophers are offering some version of psychotherapy with an explicit philosophical focus. If we are in a meta-crisis of meaning, this shouldn’t be surprising. Regaining a sense of the meaningful life is one of the core goals of this practice.
The Therapeutic Relationship is the essential foundation of the work we do here. In the first few sessions, you and Dr Forster will try to decide whether there is the potential for the development of a trusting, collaborative human to human relationship. ‘I and Thou’, it has been said. Sometimes the answer is no for a variety of reasons. Aggressive, disengaged or blaming behaviour doesn’t build a good therapeutic alliance …..insightless narcissism and a lack of basic human respect can equally abort collaboration early on. Again, other psychiatrists are available. Taking ownership of one’s issues allows you to truly accept help and do the Work of Change. It helps to want to develop psychological-mindedness. It helps to want to understand yourself and to change for the better. Engaging in the attempt to live the Examined Life is central. A sense of commitment to a process is important.
Re Adult ADHD : Please understand that most referrals start with a question as to whether someone HAS ADHD, or ASD, and that Dr Forster has both an ethical and legal duty to come to HIS OWN conclusions on this point. The diagnosis of Adult ADHD or ASD in psychiatry is NOT an easy tick and flick algorithm and reasonable minds can differ. Dr Forster encourages new patients to seek a second opinion if they disagree with his initial working hypothesis. Equally, Dr Forster asks that patients respect his right to hold a contrary opinion to theirs. ALL psychiatrists are qualified to diagnose Adult ADHD so Dr Forster’s initial diagnosis is not the final word on whether you have ADHD. Initial diagnosis can take a variable time, from 2 sessions to a few more. Not everyone is best understood as “just having Adult ADHD”.
ADHD is often comorbid with other conditions : ASD, anxiety and depressive symptoms, trauma and some degree of defensive narcissism. Psychotherapy engages with these aspects of the whole person.
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Supporting Doctors as Patients.
Medicine is challenging, exhausting work that is especially hard in the early years if support is lacking. Yet it can also be profoundly rewarding. With the ongoing publicity given to the unmet need in doctors’ mental health, Dr Forster commits a growing portion of his practice time to seeing fellow doctors, medical students, registrars etc. It is always worth enquiring whether he has time to take another student, junior doctor or registrar on. This is an ethical commitment and an attempt to respond to one of the many health care inequities : people who are both working in medicine and neurodivergent (Adult ADD and / or ASD). There is often a lot of shame that doctors feel in seeking psychotherapeutic help. They come from a problematic work culture. They tend to blame themselves for not meeting impossible demands. Or they are actually blamed for “failing” somehow.
Despite the very real presence of bullying and traumatising behaviour by a few toxic individuals in the profession, there are few things more rewarding than supporting other drs (and med students) through the familiar emotional and intellectual landscape. Soon the presence of bullying in the workplace will be as offensive as domestic violence or schoolyard bullying. Medical practice has changed too : despite a huge amount of sincere appreciation by one’s patients, it is depressingly shocking how a tiny amount of online negativity, often a complete deceit, can be disheartening to the hard-working clinician. As care-givers, we need to support each other and this is an ongoing and central part of this practice.
Recognising AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDER.
This is a large part of the practice and focuses on high-functioning Autism (aka Asperger’s Syndrome). ASD is one of the most retrospectively explanatory clinical entities to help someone understand their life narrative. Finding one’s life narrative again is obviously integral to well-being.
Defeating the Toxic Social Milieu
…..a major focus in many cases. Toxicity in the workplace, the family or the core relationship can all become the focus of the Work. See (for example) the work of philosopher Byung Chul Han to understand how depressogenic our society can be, and why. Self-exploitation, the loss of ritual and meaningful lingering, the emptying-out of one’s sense of self, and communication without community are some of the themes.
ART/LIFE : Kieran Forster is an active visual artist. This reflects his advocacy for an alternative paradigm to “work as self exploitation” vs the philosophies of vita contemplativa & vita activa (Aristotle’s contemplative life, Byung-chul Han’s “lingering” and Hannah Arendt’s insistence on activity). Art requires a numinous space in which the artist listens to the archetypal voice of creativity and indulges their sense of play, their lived myth and the whole unique narrative of their Life (as per CGJung, BCH & Bernardo Kastrup). He understands the demands and immanent meaning associated with creative careers in the arts, and has treated many artists, musicians and writers. Creativity is actually a fundamental “basic good” that everyone should access. Creative, right-hemispheric thinking needs to be supported and can be taught (see McGilchrist). Non-narcissistic creativity reflects and expresses the Self. “I have painted and exhibited and sold paintings / prints since 1995. Art is about the journey of individuation toward the Whole Self. You can find your creative self with a little help and the right motivation. Psychological wholeness involves a sense of your own creativity”. See kieran_forster_artist on Instagram to see the most up to date collection of his paintings of the interior life (approx 10k images, videos and readings ).”I hope you are inspired as to what is possible when we explore our deep well of creativity over time through psychotherapy, journaling, reading, dream awareness, exhibiting art and mark-making in all its variety. Psychotherapy is a natural part of the creative cycle of life. Each image is a realised myth, an actualised archetype that would otherwise remain inchoate in the personal or collective unconscious.” Creativity is an important part of wholeness and the process of balancing Left and Right brain functioning.
art life
Capacity to take on new patients changes with demand, and can temporarily be very limited (currently not accepting new patients).
Cost is based on time and the AMA rates provide guidance. Please ask reception about current prices and significant Medicare rebates. The Medicare Safety Net applies and provides generous rebates to all, especially low income earners such as students. Dr Forster intentionally chooses to limit his fees to make ongoing psychotherapy affordable.
Telehealth via online connections (such as Zoom) is often used by Dr Forster. Telehealth makes sessions easier to fit in for those with busy jobs and time stresses.
Better Minds Clinic
(Located within Westside Eye Doctors)
p: 07 3188 5185
f: 07 3189 2533
e: bmcreferrals@outlook.com
5/180 Moggill Road
Taringa Qld 4068
Patient parking available onsite and on street