Individual Counselling

Thinking Together offers individual counselling and psychotherapy for children, adolescents and adults.

The focus of a counselling session with me is dependent entirely on the needs of you as an individual.

The approach to your treatment will be dependent on a range of factors including your personal circumstances and life stage.

Children can often struggle to communicate their thoughts and emotions with words. As a psychotherapist, it is my role to use close observation of non-verbal queues such as a child’s social interactions, play and drawing, to identify any internal conflicts or strong feelings.

Helping the child find the words to describe such complex thoughts and feelings allows me as the therapist, along with the parents, to better understand the state of the child’s mental health.

Children can attend therapy to receive support for a range of issues including various indicators of emotional distress, behavioural differences or mental health-related concerns. A child may have experienced a negative or traumatic event either recently or in the past that has continued to impact adversely on them. Sometimes, parents also choose to implement additional support systems for their children in preparation for anticipated significant transitions within the family, such as the arrival of a sibling, a change in educational setting or parental separation.

Adolescence is a complex period of life, and a stage of significant social and emotional development. 

During the teenage years, relationships and communication with family can change dramatically and often become strained, at a time when support is needed most. 

Balancing the developmental need for exploration of more emotionally complex relationships and experiences with the preservation of safety and emotional wellbeing can be a challenging aspect of this stage of development. Pressures associated with academic achievement and decision-making around the future can also act as additional stressors at this critical life stage. These externally based social conditions and internally based developmental dynamics can contribute to feelings of emotional distress, which may at times be indicative of mental health related difficulties. Learning to express feelings in therapy can help adolescents find relief for some painful feelings in the short term. Additionally, engagement in the therapeutic process can also provide lasting emotional changes and insights that could potentially continue to be of benefit well into adulthood.

Attending psychotherapy can help adults develop awareness and insight into how childhood experiences and past patterns and events are impacting on their life now, including emotions, behaviours, thoughts, and relationships with others. A particular professional interest of mine is in the treatment of relational and trauma related emotional difficulties (including PTSD), as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms. 

Pregnancy, birth, preparing for parenthood and the early years of parenting can all potentially trigger intensely difficult emotions and insecurities. Parents often carry guilt for having these feelings, but it’s important to note they can occur simultaneously alongside feelings of joy, excitement and love. Emotional distress resulting from mental health related concerns, experiences of pregnancy loss, difficult circumstances around pregnancy and birth, significant changes in sleep patterns and balancing family and work commitments can also present immense challenges for parents. Anxieties around the couple relationship as well as meeting the physical, emotional and relational needs of infants, children and adolescents can result in overwhelm and a disconnection from the identity or sense of self that existed prior to parenthood. Seeking support for these concerns can assist parents to negotiate these normal difficulties in a manner that builds feelings of connection, contentment, wellbeing and confidence.