Counselling Services Perth

Depending on the issue we are working on, and depending on the stage of therapy, the session may involve just counselling which is talking only, or it may involve a cognitive, or emotionally expressive component if you wish to consider doing Psychotherapy.  Our Body Psychotherapy requires bodily, emotional, mental and energetic engagement and commitment.

Where the session involves Body Psychotherapy, or works with elevating unconscious material into conscious awareness for healing, at the end of a session you may feel like you have expressed and exerted yourself in a way that creates a relaxed tiredness just like after a workout at the gym.  During the session uncomfortable memories and emotions may come up.  In addition your therapist may ask you to do some exercise every day or keep a daily journal.  Real progress will come after several weeks or months of regular sessions. The therapist will discuss and review progress on a regular basis with you.

No two therapy sessions are the same but a session might go something like this:
1. Discussion of the issue you wish to work on
2. The therapist may use techniques such as Counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Voice Dialogue, Bodymind exercises or Breathwork if a session needs to bring certain emotions to the surface.
3. You express the emotion physically and vocally which can provide you with a sense or release and peace.
4. Integration and conclusion, where the therapist integrates the work with you.  As the client, you will never leave in a position of feeling unsafe or vulnerable.

Generally clients are seen for a 55 minute session either weekly or fortnightly.  Usually there would be an initial consultation followed by a trial period of about six sessions.  After this initial phase you can decide whether you wish to continue or not.

Each of us is different, and we each have our own unique issues, needs and wants.  Because of this it is difficult to answer such a question generically.  Normally once we have conducted the initial Confidential Client Interview and discussed the goals for therapy with you, we will be able to start to map out a therapy plan and timeline for therapy.  Counselling or Psychotherapy can last for just a few sessions or for longer. The length of therapy depends on the nature of your problem as well as your goals for therapy.  Short term therapy may last only a few months but for more in depth self discovery it is likely to last a couple of years.

As the client, you agree an approach with the therapist and retain the choice and decision on how long you wish to work with the therapist. Research shows that 50% of the healing in therapy comes about from the positive relationship created in the therapy alliance between the client and therapist, with the other 50% coming from specific techniques employed in therapy.

With some presenting issues, you may just need a couple of sessions to get the required advice and support from a counsellor to help you move forward.  However, in most cases, you need to consider that it may have taken years to create some of the emotional conditions that you are experiencing.  Therefore it is probably going to take at least a couple of sessions to start unravelling and understanding certain dynamics and may even take a few more sessions before you start feeling the tangible benefits of counselling or therapy.

We recommend to new clients to consider doing a minimum of 6 sessions before you can make an informed decision.  The first couple of sessions generally involve the therapist discussing the presenting issues and covering all aspects of your history including you family of origin, relationship history, work history and medical history.  We recommend that new clients attend weekly, and as you make progress, that can be reduced to fortnightly or monthly.

As psychotherapists we cannot prescribe any form of drug.  Mainstream medical research shows for numerous conditions that you will normally achieve better health outcomes when you adopt a psychotherapy program in conjunction with a medicated program, versus just solely relying on a medicated program alone.  We liaise with medical professionals with your consent to understand the treatment approach where required.

If you have a goal to reduce and then get off your medication, counselling is the best way to maximise the potential to achieve that long term outcome.  Medication may be required to stabilise and help you to functionally cope with life and so this is prudent that this continue.  However medication may be suppressing or masking the behavioural symptoms of an issue such as depression or anxiety, but does not fix the original cause of your problem.

Working in conjunction with a therapist while you lower your dosage is the best and most effective way to safely go off your medication and at the same time eliminate the underlying issue such as depression or anxiety that made you go on medication in the first place.

We do an inventory of your current medication mix when we conduct your initial Confidential Client Interview.  We encourage you to advise your GP or medical professional as to when you feel better and stronger within yourself as a consequence of therapy to allow you and them to work out a weaning off program where appropriate.

Counselling can cover a wide scope of practices and typically involves talk based sessions with clients.  A counsellor helps you to find ways to tackle issues, better use your existing resources, find your own solutions to problems and better deal with your situation.  A counsellor may generally not give advice, but help you to make your own choices.

Psychotherapy is both a discussion and then an experiential process shaped around opening up your deep seated and early life dynamics that are now entrenched patterns of unconscious defence or coping, and releasing or adjusting these towards more adjusted and healthy living.  A psychotherapist can separate out the manifesting symptoms from the underlying causes and work to heal you and your dynamics.  It may involve opening up the emotional and trauma reactions and experientially resolving them or bring them to completion.

Body Psychotherapy understands that the body is in fact the unconscious mind that is considered in classical psychology as only a mental factor. We work with releasing blocked and negative trauma and emotions stored at the level of the muscles, organs and cellular memory.  Body Psychotherapy is very effective and many of our clients report a degree of resolution and heightened awareness and hope from their first session.

Individual Therapy is recommended if you wish to work on personal issues or conditions.  The objective is the reduction or cessation of your individual symptoms such as anxiety, depression, trauma, anger management, phobias, and addictions.  You will be engaged in a one-on-one therapeutic relationship with the therapist to help resolve certain behaviours.

Couples Therapy can help if you want to resolve difficulties in your relationship or you wish to explore ways how you can improve certain aspects such as intimacy, trust and equality with your partner.  At times in a couples session, the therapist may observe elements from the family of origin of one or both partners impacting the relationship.  The therapist would then recommend that one or both partners consider exploring individual therapy to address those issues separately, to avoid them being projected into and negatively affecting the relationship.

Group Therapy involves interaction with people who are generally not known to each other.  Group members can benefit by emotionally supporting each other and gain clarity by receiving feedback from others.  If someone is brand new to therapy, we generally recommend that you consider doing some individual sessions in advance, so you have some level of awareness of the origins and dynamics of your issues.  Sometimes the interaction between group members can reveal the dynamics that were created in their respective family of origin.

The Mental Health Plan that GP’s offer through Medicare is for individuals with mental health issues as diagnosed by a GP, Psychiatrist or Clinical Psychologist. Our services are not covered under the Medicare Mental Health Plan model and so our session fees are neither covered by Medicare, or rebateable through Medicare.  The various Private Health Cover operators recognise clinical psychologists but not all recognise counsellors or psychotherapists under their plans. You need to make contact with your Private Health cover provider to ensure you are eligible to claim for our services before booking an appointment.

The use of Medicare or Private Health providers to pay for seeing someone about your mental health opens up ethical questions around privacy. These entities will keep records of the fact that you have requested support for a mental health issue previously.  There have been examples shown in the press where the records kept by these bodies have been disclosed without consent to third parties, and where that disclosure may have a negative impact on employment candidate applications and selections, bank and insurance applications, or claims being made to insurers for personal events.  Energetics Institute will not disclose or share information with any third party unless under a formal legal court subpoena, as we believe that your privacy and confidentiality is critical to feeling safe in the therapy process.