Meet our crew
Sarah Mae Simcoe
Creative Director & Facilitator | Clinical Psychologist
BPsych(Hons), MClinPsych, PsyBA Supervisor
Sarah lives in South-East Queensland with her partner and their much-loved border collie, Willow & retriever, Murphy! She is a registered Clinical Psychologist with over a decade of experience providing therapeautic support for children and their grown-ups.
“My hope is to continue to co-create inclusive, engaging, neuro-affirming, and empowering environments for young people and their families.”
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Through quality and trusted connection with educators, therapists, and other professionals Sarah aims to ensure that each child and their dedicated network is supported across various settings.
Sarah has a deep appreciation and advocacy for play and game-based design in therapy, offering practical resources and a range of evidence-based therapeutic approaches.
In addition to private practice, her joy in designing Thinker's Theatre as an experiential learning method, aims to enliven confidence and safe social connections for young people to enhance learning, and engagement. Exploring activities and scenes that showcase the theatre of the mind that influences the way we think, feel, and act.
“I believe that learning can be offered in experiential, dynamic, and effective ways to help young people explore and connect with their unique experiences, others, and the community.”
With a vision to create collaborative industry & community partnerships, Sarah is the Founder of Neurokin & Co, a resource development & training studio – a professional hub of connection and design-thinking to support the creation of solutions, strategies, & innovative workshops to enhance wellbeing, engagement & understanding of neurodiversity, at every stage of life.
Professional Associations: Psychology Board of Australia; Member of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY); Neurodiversity Affirming Psychologists Australia (NAPA); Australian Neurodiversity Affirming Health Professionals (NAHP); International Society for Autism Research (INSAR); Australian Psychological Society (APS).
Dr. Matthew McKenzie
Creative & Research Consultant | Clinical Psychologist
BPsych (Hons), MSc (Dist.), PhD (Clinical Psychology), MAPS, FCCLP
Matthew’s unique combination of skills and experience guides Thinker’s Theatre innovation. His understanding of the psychological underpinnings of learning, emotion, and behaviour, merged with his theatrical creativity, offers a fresh perspective on developing engaging, therapeutic, and educational experiences for children, families, clinicians, and educators.
Our vision for Thinker's Theatre is to create a space where the transformative power of the arts meets the science of psychology, fostering an environment of growth, learning, and healing. Mathew inspires this vision and new ways to empower and support our adventures through the magic of theatrical creativity and psychology tools.
Matthew’s academic journey is distinguished by his achievements in the field of Clinical Psychology.
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Matthew is a Clinical Psychologist, a board-approved supervisor with the Psychology Board of Australia, and a registered clinical psychologist with Jamaica's Council of Professions Allied to Medicine. He is a Lecturer in Psychology/Clinical Psychology in the School of Applied Psychology at Griffith University, teaching and providing clinical and research supervision in the undergraduate and postgraduate psychology programs. Matthew is currently the chair for the Gold Coast Branch of the Australian Psychological Society (now known as Psychology Australia) and additionally coordinates continuing professional development experiences for psychologists across the Gold Coast. He has also served previously for 6 years as the director of membership on the executive board of the Jamaican Psychological Society.
Parallel to his academic pursuits, Matthew has over 15 years of international experience in the performing arts. After training with the Jamaica Musical Theatre Company, he performed in 5 major musicals in the Caribbean (including Beauty and the Beast, Cats, and Dreamgirls) and several concert series. Having played several prominent roles in Gold Coast theatre in the last three years, he most recently played the beloved role of Sebastian in Disney's The Little Mermaid (Brisbane) which won him the Gold Palm Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales. Merged with his extensive studies completed in the behavioural sciences, Matthew believes in the science of performance psychology and its contribution to creating art.
Matthew holds a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Griffith University, and a Masters in Clinical Psychology and Bachelors in Psychology and Criminology from The University of the West Indies. Matthew has 14 years of clinical experience as a psychologist working across diverse settings, including: community group home facilities for individuals with severe mental health disorders, university health centres, private practice, a NGO dedicated to HIV prevention and management, clinical research trials exploring innovations in the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Phobias and dual diagnosis support programs for individuals challenged by addiction.
He works with children, adolescents, and adults with his areas of clinical focus being: Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, Depressive Disorders, Trauma, Stressor and Attachment-Related Disorders. He works predominantly from an attachment-based framework and has extensive experience with emotion-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and compassion-focused therapy. Matthew is also currently undergoing accredited core training in Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP), which is an accelerated form of psychodynamic psychotherapy designed to provide rapid access to the unconscious. The therapy's primary goal is to help clients overcome internal resistance to experiencing emotions related to present and past experiences. These emotions may have been warded off because they are either too frightening or too painful. The technique is intensive and short-term in that it aims to help clients experience these feelings to the maximum degree possible, as quickly as possible.
Matthew is a published author with several published book chapters and empirical papers in peer-reviewed academic journals. He sits on the editorial board for the journal Child Psychiatry and Human Development and is a regular reviewer for several high-ranking academic journals. His current core areas of research interest explore the relationship between emotion regulation and various forms of psychopathology in children and adolescents, it's role in parenting practices and more generally research relating to the course and treatment of anxiety disorders and OCD in youth.
Stef
Yoga & Mindfulness Yachtmaster | Yoga Teacher & Zenthai Therapist
We are delighted to welcome Stef to our Thinker's Theatre crew, where her unique blend of yoga, philosophy, and holistic well-being enriches our immersive learning experiences for children and their grown-ups of all abilities. Her knowledge brings together a love of movement, a curiosity of science, a fascination with philosophy, and a playful exploration in discovering body-awareness.
Stef's brings decades of experience and a trauma-informed, relational approach to movement and meditation. Stef’s approach inspires connection and interoceptive awareness - it’s not just about moving the body, it’s like a special journey of discovery, from the inside out!
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Stef's evidence-based, person-centred insights align seamlessly with our commitment to creating safe, supportive, and dynamic environments. Stef helps us guide safe movement and co-facilitates workshops that respect individual experiences to foster psychological growth. Stef invites every person into nourishing environments to explore yoga as a powerful tool for body-awareness and brain-body connection.
Stef's work is a celebration of movement, a deep engagement with philosophical inquiry, and a dedication to the practice of meditation. Stef honors the traditions of Sivananda, Ashtanga Vinyasa, and the elemental wisdom that shapes her teachings.
Stef teaches yoga for all abilities in Brisbane studios, offers private one-on-one yoga therapy, yoga teacher training, corporate workshops, and retreats all around the world.
Katryn
Co-Facilitator & Social Media Maestro
Meet Katryn, a creative Co-Facilitator and Social Media Maestro at Thinker’s Theatre. Katryn loves to turn the unseen world of psychology into exciting adventures with Thinker's Theatre. As a facilitator, Katryn guides play-based therapy with fun games to help children and their grown-ups understand the link between their feelings, thoughts, and actions!
Katryn is currently studying for her Masters of Psychological Practice, diving deep into techniques and researching Internal Family Systems, which is like exploring a mysterious jungle of our mind's many different parts. "It’s like being a explorer in our own mind, discovering all the secret tiny treasures and secret spaces that make us who we are."
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Katryn is inspired to help learning feel more like an adventure by finding playful ways to help kids and families dance through the rain and find rainbows afterward.
"Understanding our worries helps us find tips and tools to tame them, making us feel safer and braver!"
Thinker’s Theatre workshops make learning an exciting quest, full of imagination and discovery, helping us all grow stronger and happier, together!
Perri Wolf
Visual and Graphic Designer
B.Design
Perri specialises in visual and graphic design for learning and development (L&D) and advocacy. She works closely with her clients and subject matter experts to co-create meaningful outcomes that engage and inform.
"I greatly value being involved in work that positively contributes to people and society. I’m particularly passionate about creating tools and resources that support learning and development in neurodiversity, social communication, and body-mind awareness for children.