Chris Pucinischi
Psychologist | MAppPsych | MAPS

Warm, Practical Psychological Care for Anxiety, Trauma, and Chronic Pain in Melbourne

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Living with persistent anxiety, workplace burnout, or the lingering impact of a traumatic event or physical injury can leave you feeling exhausted and stuck. When the coping strategies that used to get you through the day stop working, it becomes much harder to stay connected to the people and activities you care about.

 

Chris Pucinischi is a Registered Psychologist with a Master of Applied Psychology. Drawing on a clinical background across private practice, multidisciplinary pain management, and acute crisis support, he brings a calm, grounded, and non-judgmental approach to therapy.

 

Chris works collaboratively with you at a pace where you feel safe and in control. Together, you will look at how your thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and past experiences interact to keep current difficulties going. From there, you will build a practical treatment plan focused on two areas: developing concrete skills to manage immediate distress, and addressing the deeper patterns needed for long-term change.

 

Chris provides individual therapy for adults of all ages and backgrounds. Alongside private and Medicare clients, he has extensive experience supporting people under WorkSafe, TAC, and VOCAT / FAS claims to navigate both the physical and emotional toll of workplace injuries, road accidents, and trauma.

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Areas of Focus:

• Anxiety & Fear-Related Concerns: Focused, evidence-based support for Social Anxiety Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Agoraphobia, and Panic Disorder to help you reduce avoidance, reduce persistent worry, and re-engage with daily life.

• Trauma & Stressor Recovery: Trauma-informed therapy for PTSD, Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), Acute Stress, Adjustment Disorders, and Childhood or Developmental Trauma. Chris prioritises building strong distress-tolerance skills alongside safe trauma processing.

• Chronic Pain, Injury & Health Psychology: Supporting adults living with chronic pain, chronic illness, somatic symptom distress, or health anxiety. Therapy focuses on managing secondary emotional distress, reducing pain-related catastrophising, processing the loss of health or work capacity, and rebuilding confidence in daily activities.

• Workplace, Academic & Career Stress: Supporting adults navigating burnout, workplace bullying, academic or performance anxiety, perfectionism, and procrastination.

• Emotional Regulation, Self-Esteem & Personal Growth: Developing practical skills in anger management, frustration and distress tolerance, assertive communication, boundary setting, and sleep hygiene, alongside support for low self-esteem, depression, and major life transitions.

• Individual Relationship & Attachment Support: Assisting individuals to work through relationship conflict, communication breakdowns, attachment patterns, infidelity recovery, or separation and divorce. (Please note: Chris provides individual therapy only and does not offer couples or family therapy).

• Practical Therapy for Neurodivergent Adults: Providing strengths-based individual therapy and practical skill-building for adults with ADHD or Autism, with a focus on concentration, organisation, overcoming procrastination, emotional regulation, and managing social anxiety or burnout. (Please note: Chris provides ongoing therapy and skill-building, and does not conduct formal diagnostic ADHD or Autism assessments).

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Therapeutic approaches:

Chris collaborates with each client to develop an individualised treatment plan informed by four evidence-based therapies:

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• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): A structured, practical approach that helps you identify and shift unhelpful thinking habits, behavioural avoidance, and self-critical patterns that fuel anxiety, depression, and procrastination.

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Builds psychological flexibility by helping you unhook from overwhelming thoughts or uncomfortable physical sensations (such as chronic pain), clarify your personal values, and take meaningful action.

• Schema Therapy: An integrative therapy designed to explore and heal deeper, long-standing emotional patterns that often begin in childhood or past relationships, helping you meet your core emotional needs in healthier ways.

• Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR): A structured trauma therapy that helps the brain safely reprocess distressing memories and reduce their ongoing emotional and physical impact.

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More about Chris:

Outside of the therapy room, Chris has a deep appreciation for storytelling, history, and the arts, particularly books, comics, films, and musicals. He also enjoys creative and non-fiction writing, playing video games with his wife, reading stories with his son, and walking his dog.