Cheryl Steele , AHPRA

Cheryl Steele is a registered psychologist based in North Queensland, Australia, with five years of professional experience supporting individuals, children, adolescents, and families through a wide range of life challenges. She is registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) - the national body that oversees health practitioner registration - and brings a warm, compassionate, and evidence-informed style to her clinical work.

As the founder of Cognitive Wellness Psychology, Cheryl has created a practice focused on respectful, inclusive care for people from diverse backgrounds. Her approach blends empathy with practical strategies, aiming to empower people to draw on their strengths, build resilience, and work toward meaningful change. She works with concerns such as stress, anxiety, depression, parenting and family difficulties, self-esteem and motivation, ADHD, addictions, relationship and attachment issues, trauma and grief, sleep problems, and compassion fatigue.

Cheryl offers comprehensive therapeutic support and psychological assessment across the lifespan, tailoring interventions to each person’s needs and goals. She draws on a selection of evidence-based approaches, including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Attachment-Based Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, and Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT). Her practice emphasizes collaboration, respect, and steady support as people navigate change and recovery.

Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice unhelpful thoughts and focus on actions that align with their values - it is often used for anxiety, depression, and stress when someone wants practical ways to live more in line with what matters to them. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on the links between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours and offers structured strategies to reduce symptoms of anxiety, low mood, and sleep problems by changing unhelpful thinking patterns and building coping skills. Attachment-Based Therapy explores patterns in relationships and early attachment experiences to improve communication, intimacy, and emotional regulation, which can be especially useful for relationship and family difficulties.

Choosing the right approach is part of the therapeutic process. Cheryl works collaboratively with people to identify the most suitable methods based on their needs, goals, and preferences, and adapts tools over time as progress is made. This collaborative stance helps ensure therapy fits each person rather than expecting them to fit a single model.

Online therapy with a licensed professional offers practical flexibility - sessions can be scheduled as video calls or phone sessions, and shorter exchanges can take place via live chat or text-based messaging. These options make it easier to access support around work, family, and other commitments while maintaining continuity of care and tailoring the format to what works best for the individual.