Dr Sharat Shetty

Dr Sharat Shetty has spent more than three decades working in psychiatry across New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Australia. His career has encompassed general adult psychiatry, addiction medicine, forensic psychiatry, psychotherapy, clinical leadership and the development of mental health services.

A consistent theme throughout his career has been an interest in people with complex mental health difficulties, particularly when conventional approaches have not provided sufficient improvement. His philosophy is that good psychiatric care requires more than making a diagnosis and prescribing medication. Understanding a person's psychological history, relationships, trauma, substance use, physical health and wider circumstances is often essential to developing an effective treatment plan.

This has led Dr Shetty to undertake extensive training in psychological therapies alongside his psychiatric training. His psychotherapy experience includes EMDR, CBT, Cognitive Analytic Therapy, Mentalisation-Based Therapy, family therapy and psychodynamic psychotherapy. He has worked with people experiencing some of the most complex combinations of mental illness, trauma, addiction, personality difficulties and behavioural disturbance.

Dr Shetty has also held senior clinical leadership positions and has been involved in clinical governance, service development, teaching and supervision throughout his career. He holds an Executive MBA from Massey University and completed Harvard Business School's Managing Health Care Delivery programme.

More recently, his interests have expanded to emerging treatments for difficult-to-treat psychiatric disorders. He has clinical experience with esketamine for treatment-resistant depression and has completed formal training in psychedelic-assisted therapies. He is particularly interested in how emerging biological treatments can be responsibly integrated with high-quality psychotherapy and conventional psychiatric care.

At Townsville Private Clinic, Dr Shetty will provide comprehensive assessment and ongoing treatment for adults with a broad range of psychiatric conditions, with a particular focus on complex, treatment-resistant presentations, trauma and PTSD, addiction, and patients requiring diagnostic or treatment review.

Referral interests include:

• Depression and treatment-resistant depression
• Anxiety disorders
• Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Addiction and co-occurring mental health and substance-use disorders
• Complex psychiatric presentations and diagnostic clarification
• Personality difficulties and emotional dysregulation
• Psychosis and severe mental illness
• Second opinions and review of patients who have not responded adequately to previous treatment