How long is each counselling session?

Counselling sessions run for 50 minutes.

How does phone or online counselling work? 

Most people find that phone/video counselling is just as helpful for them as face-to-face counselling. Make an appointment, just as you would for any counselling session, and I will connect with you via phone or Zoom at your appointment time. 

How many sessions will I need?

Individual Therapy
This is a hard question to answer, and there is no minimum or maximum number of sessions you can attend. It really depends on what your concerns are, and what goals you have for therapy. Each person's therapy journey is different, so really, therapy is tailored to each client's individual needs and preferences. At the outset of therapy, I will always check with you what goals you have.  Some people come in for just a session or two to assist them with a specific issue that is concerning them at that time. Others come with the hope to develop strategies to reduce or manage symptoms, and this can take about 6 - 10 sessions. Some people have long-standing patterns or issues that have bothered them for a while, and want to receive ongoing support over some months. For example, childhood or relationship trauma sometimes take a while to work through.

Relationship Therapy
I use a highly effective type of relationship therapy called emotionally focused therapy, as the basis for my marriage and relationship counselling. Most people find that they begin to see real changes in their relationship in 10 - 16 sessions. I will always review how you are going throughout counselling. Generally speaking, couples come in about 7 years after they have started to have problems in their relationship, so it sometimes takes a while for both partners to feel emotionally safe and able to engage in the counselling process. 

What if I need to see a counsellor outside of opening hours? 

The Counselling Room is not a crisis service.
For 24 hour support, please contact:

• Police, ambulance 000

• Lifeline telephone counselling 13 11 14

• Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636

• Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800

• Parentline (Qld) 1300 30 1300

• MensLine 1300 78 99 78

• Domestic Violence Hotline (Qld) 1800 811 811

• Suicide Callback Service 1300 659 467

• 13 Health (24 hour health advice, Qld) 13 43 25 84

• 1300 MH Call (24 hour mental health advice, Qld) 1300 642 255

What is the difference between a Psychologist and a Psychotherapist?

There is sometimes a little bit of a difference between how a psychologist and a psychotherapist work with you to resolve the issues that you bring to therapy. Generally, when you see a psychologist, you will focus on a particular issue, and work together to find some great strategies that will help relieve you of current symptoms and allow you to move on with your life. 

Psychotherapists will do that too, but often, the focus will be not only on your current issues, but also on how your present has been shaped by your past. There is the idea that your ways of 'being', which have developed over the years, will be impacting on you now. A goal of psychotherapy is that you reach a consciousness and understanding of those patterns in your life, and to perhaps find a way of accepting, or changing any unhelpful patterns.

Sometimes you have obvious reasons to be feeling down, but other times you may have periods of depression, or anxiety, or are puzzled at why you seem to have unhappy experiences that are repeated. Psychotherapy is often helpful in unravelling these types of things.

A focus of the current model of psychology is to assist you to find some really good ways of dealing with current issues within an allocated number of sessions. On the other hand, because psychotherapy works on understanding long-term patterns in your life, the length of treatment will vary, depending on individual needs.

Why don't you offer Medicare rebates under the Better Access to Mental Health Care program?

Counsellors and psychotherapists are not currently included in the Better Access to Mental Health Care model, so, as a counselling psychotherapist, I do not offer Medicare rebates.

A lot of people have the idea that Medicare will cover any treatment they receive, but there are many situations where this is not the case. In order to understand this a bit better, the following explains how the Better Access to Mental Health Care model works. 

What Better Access to Mental Health Care actually covers: 
The current mental health care model (Better Access to Mental Health Care) allows people who have a diagnosed mental health disorder to be referred by a GP to a psychologist or mental health social worker, to receive short-term treatment under a Mental Health Treatment Plan. The treatment plans specify what type of therapy you are able to receive, and how many sessions you can have (6-10 sessions per calendar year). Some psychologists bulk bill for these services, and others will charge a gap fee of between $80 and $130. This is an excellent program that has enabled many Australians to access mental health care.

What Better Access to Mental Health Care does not cover: 
Medicare rebates do not apply to treatment of the following: Relationship counselling, family counselling, social difficulties, relationship breakdowns, bullying, dementia, long-term therapy, tobacco-use disorder, or chronic illness. It will also not cover treatment where you do not have a diagnosed mental disorder, or where you are simply at a difficult place in your life journey and wish to talk with a qualified health professional.

So how do people access care in these situations? 
If your situation does not qualify for a Mental Health Care Plan, you can still receive treatment, but fees will not be rebated under Medicare. In these cases you can see a qualified counsellor, psychologist or psychotherapist without a GP referral. Evidence-based treatment modalities are still used, but there is some more freedom to tailor the treatment plan to the client's individual needs. There are a few advantages to receiving treatment this way: you are not limited to a certain number of sessions, you and your practitioner can set individualised goals for your therapy together, you will not need a GP referral, and you will not have a recorded mental health diagnosis on your health record.

So what are the advantages of seeing a counselling psychotherapist?
Receiving treatment under Medicare has many advantages, but there are also some great advantages in choosing to receive treatment outside of that model. You would choose to see someone like me, a counselling psychotherapist, for any of the aforementioned reasons: that you just need to talk with a qualified health professional at a difficult point in your life, that you would like to access relationship counselling, that you prefer to be able to set your own individualised therapy goals and treatment plan with your therapist, that you would like to have a flexible number of counselling sessions, that your issue does not qualify for a Mental Health Care Plan, or that you prefer not to have a diagnosed mental health disorder recorded on your health record.

What if my GP needs a confidential report?

If you would like me to provide confidential written reports to your GP, I am happy to do so, at your request.