


​
Meet The Team
Meet the team at HUMANE Clinic

Founder & Director / Senior Psychotherapist
Mental health nurse & Psychotherapist
Matt Ball
Matt Ball is a Nurse Practitioner, Psychotherapist and founder of Humane Clinic. He has trained both in Australia and the UK.
​
Matt speaks internationally on humane approaches to working with a person in distress as an alternative to pathologizing, diagnosis led, mental health systems.
​
Matt was awarded Australian Mental Health Nurse of the year in 2017 for his work providing alternatives. His vision for the Just Listening Community draws on lived and professional experiences.
​
Matt is an experienced trainer and keynote speaker. He has also developed the theory of Dissocaichotic, Suicide Narrative and the Just Listening approach, and teaches, supervises and consults nationally and internationally. Matt has also acted as an expert witness in child protection and family legal cases.
​
​

Social Worker & Psychotherapist - Senior Psychotherapist
Rory Ritchie
Rory is a Social Worker and Psychotherapist. He is a co-author of the Suicide Narratives approach and facilitates training in Humane Approaches across Australia. Rory holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia and a Master of Social Work from Flinders University. Rory's practice is informed by experiences of seeking assistance while in emotional distress and finding medical model approaches unhelpful.
Rory’s therapy approach prioritises compassionate human connection. ​He has a particular interest in working with people who hear voices, experience extreme states, suicide, or other emotional distress.
​
​
Rory has previous professional experience in homelessness and social justice advocacy. He has a deep understanding of our social, political, and economic systems, and the compounding alienation people can experience when interacting with these systems.

Psychotherapist - Senior Psychotherapist
Berny Maywald
Berny is a psychotherapist. She has 18 years experience working in mental health including facilitating hearing voices groups, therapeutic groups, individual therapy, and leadership roles supporting and supervising staff, volunteers and students.​
​
Berny has extensive experience supporting people who experience extreme states, voices, visions and alternative realities.
​
She has a certificate in Family Therapy at ACU in Melbourne and in 2020 she graduated from the Psychotherapy certificate at Humane clinic. Berny is part of the teaching team delivering workshops on Just Listening, Hearing Voices and Suicide Narratives. She co-facilitates open dialogue network meetings.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
.png)
Psychotherapist
Saakhi Khurana
Saakhi is a psychotherapist. Saakhi holds a Bachelor of Psychology from Punjab University and a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy from the University of Adelaide.
Saakhi has experience in supporting people who hear voices and experience alternate states. Saakhi is a co-facilitator of the Just Listening approach and has trained extensively in Hearing Voices approaches with her colleagues at Humane Clinic.
​
In the recent times, Saakhi has developed her skills in counselling and psychotherapy through engagement with Humane Clinic in the form of a long-term internship, supervision, counselling, volunteering at Just Listening Community, and joining the Humane Clinic team as Psychotherapist.
​
Saakhi is deeply interested in exploring how power operates in society and actively wants to connect with every individual she meets on a humane and compassionate level.