Counselling

Benefits of Counselling

Our adult counselling services and therapies offer a range of positive benefits that can improve and enhance your life. You can express yourself freely in a confidential setting with an unbiased, trained psychologist who is bound by a code of professional ethics. This allows you to understand your thoughts and feelings and how they affect your behaviour, allowing you to learn productive ways to deal with them in a safe place.

Seeing a counsellor or a psychologist for the first time can be a huge step. It can provoke feelings of excitement, nervousness and even anxiety, but the experienced team at Psychology Melbourne work hard to make this process as easy and comfortable as possible for you.

What we can help with

How to get started -
find the right Psychologist

We recommend that your first step is a Personal Matching appointment. Research shows that the key to successful outcomes is the relationship between client and psychologist. At Psychology Melbourne, we don't leave that to chance with our counselling services. We offer a personal matching session with one of our trained Matching Psychologists who will expertly choose the best psychologist for you and your issues.

The majority of our psychologists work in the Melbourne CBD Clinic and the remainder offer counselling services in different locations across Melbourne. You can find out when, where and what issues they work with on our online booking portal. Or you can call our reception on 1300 161 639.

Fast and effective outcomes

We don't take our clients' investment of time, effort and money lightly. We work hard to make sure that their progress is consistent and measurable and that they get what they are looking for.

At Psychology Melbourne we have made it our business to look for the factors that produce faster, outstanding results and to embrace them in our counselling services.

The team of psychologists offer counselling services for adult individuals, couples and families. They have completed years of studies and training and use evidence-based therapies and practice to achieve results.

In addition to their years of university and clinical training, we’ve given our psychologists the systems and professional development support to enhance their performance and the experience of their clients. We have even hired academics to develop our own in-house training courses for the team.

Our therapies

The psychologists use a number of different therapeutic approaches, depending on their particular practice background, the presenting issues and the client’s concerns. At times they might use a combination of techniques.

All of the therapies used in Psychology Melbourne’s practice have a sound theoretical basis and are supported by the evidence of research comparing different treatments and systematic reviews. They include:

Signs that you may need counselling

Physical and mental health are closely related, and many medical problems may be emotionally based and can be helped with our counselling services. Our psychologists will help you clarify the issues that are causing you difficulty, develop strategies to deal with them and increase your self-awareness to prevent recurrence of old problems.

If you’ve been noticing that your mental health has started to deteriorate, or your partner, family or friends are concerned about you, it may be time to make an appointment with a psychologist.

It’s never too early to start therapy. In fact, seeing a psychologist before things get more difficult can prevent more serious issues in the long run.

There are a range of issues that people seek counselling services for. Some of the common ones include:

Depression

Feeling sad every once in a while is normal, but if those feelings persist over more than a couple of weeks and you can’t seem to snap out of it, it could be a sign of depression.

If you have lost interest in your normal social activities, feel miserable and tired all the time and have had thoughts of being a failure, you may be experiencing depression.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing depression, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help you. They are a confidential, cost-effective way to give you more insight into your current state of mental health. The check includes a mental health test plus a 15-minute telephone consultation with one of our registered psychologists.

Anxiety & Stress

Anxiety is the most common mental health problem in Australia. Beyond Blue reports that on average, one in four people – one in three women and one in five men – will experience anxiety at some stage in their lives.

Feeling stressed or anxious once in a while is normal, but if those feelings persist daily over more than two weeks, and you feel restless and can’t sleep, it could be a sign of anxiety.

There are different types of anxiety including, generalised anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety and specific phobias.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing anxiety, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help.

Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

If you are feeling worried and anxious most of the time, not just in particularly difficult situations, and these feelings are intense and persistent, you may be suffering from GAD.

If your work, health, family and/or financial issues are being negatively affected and you at times feel out of control, it may be time to get help.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing GAD, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help you.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are often mistaken for a heart attack. They are usually intense and uncontrollable feelings with physical symptoms of shortness of breath, chest pain, dizziness and sweating. Panic disorder is when panic attacks occur regularly for a month.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing Panic Disorder, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help.

Social Anxiety

Feeling nervous sometimes in social situations when you don’t know many people is normal, but if those feelings are intense and you are afraid of being judged, criticised, laughed at or humiliated in front of others, you may be experiencing social anxiety. This can lead to an intense fear of everyday situations such as having meals with friends, making a  presentation to work colleagues or engaging in small talk.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing Social Anxiety Disorder, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help.

Phobias

Feeling concern at times about certain situations, activities, animals or objects is normal, but if those feelings are intense and irrational, and you have to go to great lengths to avoid the experience, you may be suffering from symptoms of a phobia.

Common phobias include snakes or spiders, as well as heights or travelling by plane, among many others. Sometimes the fear is so irrational it can trigger a panic attack.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing a phobia, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

When a person starts experiencing anxious and disturbing thoughts they may start using certain behaviours or rituals (or compulsions) repeatedly to calm themselves. For example, a fear of germs can lead to constant hand washing. They may also have repetitive thoughts (or obsessions) which they unable to control for more than a short period of time.

If you think that you or someone you know may be showing symptoms of OCD, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

It's normal to feel anxious and concerned following a traumatic experience, such as an accident, an assault or another dramatic event, but if those feelings persist and you start having flashbacks of the event, then you may be experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

If you have been having upsetting dreams and feeling incapable of relaxing over a period of weeks, you may need to get professional help.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing PTSD, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help.

Suicide Prevention

When a person experiences enduring, unbearable emotional pain, they may have suicidal thoughts. They may start to self-harm, or isolate themselves, feel ‘worthless’ and even start giving things away. If someone talks to you about harming themselves or suicide, it's important to take them seriously.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing suicidal thoughts, don’t hesitate to seek professional help. The majority of our psychologists work in the Melbourne CBD Clinic and the rest in different locations across Melbourne. You can call our reception on 1300 161 639.

If you are in an emergency or at immediate risk of harm to yourself or someone else, please call emergency services on 000.

Grief Counselling

Feeling sad and grieving for a significant loss is a natural response to situations such as the loss of a loved one, a relationship, a pregnancy, a job, a pet or significant life transitions such as children leaving home, separation from friends and family and infertility. But if it endures, leading to prolonged feelings of intense sadness, insomnia, poor appetite and weight loss and affect your work, relationships or day-to-day living you may need to seek professional help.

If you think that you or someone you know may be experiencing intense prolonged grief, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help. They are a confidential, cost-effective way to give you more insight into your current state of mental health. It includes a mental health test plus a 15-minute telephone consultation with one of our registered psychologists.

Self-Harm and Self Injury

Feeling distressed or overwhelmed by fearful thoughts or memories can become so intense that to relieve the tension, a person may start deliberately cutting themselves or in other ways inflicting pain on themselves, such as burning themselves, punching themselves, scratching sores or re-opening wounds. They may feel alone or want to punish themselves due to feelings of guilt or shame.

Self-harming is usually done in secret, so it is not visible. Usually these acts give only short-term relief and are soon followed by other self wounding.

If you think that you or someone you know may be self-harming, Psychology Melbourne’s Mental Health Checks can help.

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