Cultivate your wellbeing today.
Book a session
(You can book a Free Brief Chat Below)
You can book a session here.
You’ll receive a confirmation email with a Zoom session link you can save to your calendar.
For Walk’N Talk or Phone Sessions - still use this scheduler to book out your time, AND shoot us a quick message via the contact form below to tell us your preferred contact model.
For a 6 Session Bundle, choose ‘recurring’, then the site will offer you 6 sessions at the same time & day into the future.
If you want a bundle at different times & days, just notify me in-session & you can book as you go.
Please contact me if you have any trouble with the web scheduler.
Thank you for your patience.
Please don’t use a fake zoom background for zoom sessions.
To ensure Confidentiality is upheld, it’s important for your counsellor to see the actual room/car/location you are in.
Counselling is a Professional Confidential undertaking.
To Book a Free Brief Chat
A brief chat is not a counselling session. It is for you to explore/ask/get answers before you book a session.
Contact me here ➡︎
…or leave a voicemail at: 03 5300 4930
Remember to check your junk mail for our reply!
-
Dream it.
Ironically, the moment we accept ourselves exactly as we are is the moment change becomes possible.
We can dream of changing our lives and the way we show up in the world, but our brains are hardwired to resist change.
What to do?
-
Commit To It.
We are wired to resist change.
Change requires courage and commitment - plenty of it.
The trick is in learning to make change in a kind, curious, gentle way.
Compassionate counselling support can help with that!
-
Do It.
Single Sessions: AU$150
8 Session Bundle: AU$1100 IN ADVANCE
NDIS Item 15_043_0128_1_3: $150
NDIS Item: 10_011_0128_5_3 : $190
Dana Payment by Invitation: 20% of clients at Compassionate Counselling Melbourne
(Dana is the Ancient Buddhist Tradition of Pay-What-You-Can-Afford in the Spirit of Generosity)
Police Health Fund, Emergency Services Health, Phoenix Health, St Lukes Health, GMHBA and CUA Health (telehealth only), Aust Rural Health Group, Teachers Union Health and Westfund: AC12251T
Grand United Health Funds (inc NIB) Provider Number: 2121 3042
FAQs
How many sessions does counselling usually take?
Counselling takes as long as it takes (sorry). You might just need a single session for help with a decision or setting goals. But if you are keen to conquer a mental health issue over time (for example, panic attacks or depressive episodes) I would be privileged to support you longer term or refer to another health professional.
What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy anyway?
CBT is a therapeutic approach that helps clients change unhealthy habits of thinking, feeling or behaving. CBT helps people identify and change unhelpful thoughts that affect mood and behaviour, by using a number of self-help techniques designed to bring about lasting change.
CBT is based on the philosophy that thoughts, feeling and behaviours are all inter-connected and can influence each other. The therapy can teach us that we can get control over automatic thoughts that make us feel bad and have a negative effect on our lives. CBT (especially Mindfulness-Based and Compassion-based CBT)offers practical strategies to change or modify behaviour. It is a combination of two therapies: ‘cognitive therapy’ and ‘behaviour therapy’.
How do I know that you are qualified to handle my issues with me?
Here is my Diploma of Counselling….
and ACA Professional Code of Conduct…
What’s Your Privacy Policy?
What is solution-focused therapy?
This is a therapeutic approach based in the philosophy that it doesn’t matter so much how we got here or what caused it, but it is where we want to get to from here that matters. It focuses, not on the problem, but on possible solutions, and helps clients plan, strategise and change. Add to this the Japanese practice of kaizen (small steps), and clients can feel empowered and rewarded in only one session.
What can you show me before I book a session so I know we have some values in common?
Please take a look at some of my blogs, or my stated values.
Read more about my approach from my trainer.
What is ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)?
ACT, unlike other therapies, does not see uncomfortable thoughts and emotions as ‘symptoms’ that need to be overcome in order to move forward in life. Rather, it encourages training the observer self to witness thoughts and emotions, thereby ‘defusing’ their power. Rather than avoid or suppress uncomfortable emotions such as fear or anger, ACT teaches techniques for accepting them as a natural part of the human experience. It also encourages a values-driven approach to life, implying that human suffering is relieved by deep self-knowledge and a commitment to values-driven action.
More detail? Read this…
I feel really vulnerable right now. Can’t we just have text conversations, like I do with everybody else?
I use text professionally only to schedule appointments, not to discuss personal matters or engage in social chit-chat. We can text each other about times, dates, and cancellations if you are my client or potential client. Otherwise please call or email.
Will our sessions be private and is my information safe?
Confidentiality during sessions online or on the telephone require us both to be careful about who can overhear our conversation. As a professional, I am bound by a Duty of Care, which means that everything we discuss and any notes or contact details have to be kept by me under password protection or lock and key (if they’re on paper). However, if a court of law compels me, or if you reveal information that convinces me you or another is at risk of harm, I am duty-bound to report it.
How about stigma and confidentiality?
If we happen to meet each other in the street, I will not acknowledge that I know you, and you should probably do the same if you don’t want anyone to know that you are seeing a counsellor. Stigma is real in some communities, so the safest way to deal with it is to keep everything confidential – even the fact of your reaching out for professional mental health support.
“When things fall apart and we’re on the verge of we know not what, the test for each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize. The spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that’s really swell. In fact, that way of looking at things is what keeps us miserable. Thinking that we can find some lasting pleasure and avoid pain is what in Buddhism is called samsara, a hopeless cycle that goes round and round endlessly and causes us to suffer greatly.”
Pema Chödrön, (2016).When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times - Heart Advice for Difficult Times (20th Anniversary Edition). Shambala.
