Individual Counselling

Counselling can help you address various challenges in your life, such as relationship issues, workplace concerns, transitions (endings and beginnings), grief, loss, depression, and anxiety.  Counselling supports you in identifying your strengths and skills so that you can reduce distress, resolve crises, build resilience, set future goals, and improve your wellbeing.  You may also achieve a deeper understanding of your behaviours, choices, and decisions.    Counselling can be short or long term depending on your needs.

Children and Teens

Teens and children face their own unique challenges in navigating the complexities of our ever-changing world.  Children and teens need both caring parent/s and adults outside of the family system who they can trust and speak with on their lifelong journey of growth and discovery.  Speaking with a counsellor can be exceptionally beneficial for children and teens’ mental health and wellbeing. 

Some reasons children and teens might speak with a counsellor:

•.    Expressing feelings – anxiety, anger, sadness, grief, shame, doubt

•.    Difficult circumstances – bullying, social concerns, failures, unexpected changes in family or personal life, trauma

•.    Challenging personal relationships – family, friends, work, setting healthy boundaries

•.    School-related issues – entering high school, HSC exam, academic stress, behavioural concerns, study skills, scheduling/prioritising/procrastinating

Counselling can help children and teens use their personal strengths to address their challenges.  We will guide your child or teenager towards discovering new skills and strategies that will improve their self-esteem and confidence, while supporting them in creating positive, safe, and enriching relationships.   

Counselling for children and teens begins with a brief telephone consultation to outline your concerns and decide upon next steps together.  Many times, we will begin with a session for the parent/s and then begin working with the child or teenager.  Further sessions may be conducted with the parent/s and child together, or the child separate from the parent/s.  Working collaboratively with you and your child, we will decide the best possible format for our sessions, as well as the amount of communication and feedback that you receive while we support your child. 

Counselling for children and teens will be provided according to your child’s particular interests.  Some children express themselves best through art, others by playing games, and others through physical movement.  We will use a wide variety of creative and developmentally appropriate options to connect with your child, helping therapy to be a safe, engaging, and fun experience.

Couples & Relationships

Attending counselling as a couple can strengthen your relationship.  Couples may seek the assistance of a counsellor because of difficulties with trust, intimacy, and communication; grief and loss; separation and divorce; or due to transitions (i.e. career changes/retirement, “empty nest,” and caring responsibilities toward children and parents). 

Counselling provides you and your partner with a neutral space where you can explore your relationship collaboratively, access and experience more joy, deepen trust, and rediscover happiness and passion.  Counselling also helps us to become more mindful of our needs as individuals, and our needs in relationship with others.

Starting the initial conversation with our partner can be difficult, but a more loving, healthy, respectful, and nurturing relationship is worth the effort. 

Family Counselling

Attending counselling as a family can be an enriching experience.  Counselling provides a thoughtful and reflective space where it becomes possible to express difficult thoughts and feelings, while developing an appreciation for the needs and perspectives of other family members.  By acknowledging the strengths of our family unit, and strengthening our communication with one another, we create the opportunity for positive, lasting change, and greater closeness. 

Some reasons for seeking family counselling include:

• Emotional difficulties - Feelings of sadness, fear, anger, helplessness, hopelessness

• Communication challenges – Arguments, silence, difficulty expressing oneself or feeling heard by others

• Changes in children’s behaviour at home or school - School attendance or disruptive behaviour

• Routine changes – Noticing a change in how your family is functioning together, family members withdrawing or avoiding each other

• Difficulty coping with trauma – Divorce, separation, an affair, an illness or a death may create challenges for a family

• Violence, threat of violence, or self-harm – Your safety and your family’s safety matters

• Substance abuse or misuse – Consulting with a counsellor can help ensure the wellbeing of you and your family members

Family counselling begins with a brief telephone consultation to identify how therapy might benefit you.  We will then determine our next steps, such as having a counselling session with an individual family member or the parents.  Subsequent consultations will be scheduled according to your family’s unique needs and goals.  We work collaboratively to ensure that each family member feels heard and validated, helping you to envision and instil your chosen changes.