SPECIALTIES

MY SPECIALTIES

DEPRESSION

Depression is a mood disorder that can cause constant feelings of sadness and despair. It can make you feel you incredibly isolated and alone. Some common symptoms of depression are mood dysregulation - crying to anger to sadness to fear and back again, loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities, loss of motivation, constant tiredness, feelings of hopelessness, intrusive thoughts, confusion, feeling overwhelmed and sometimes thoughts of self harm and suicide. You are not alone! 4.8 million Australians are diagnosed with depression - that is 1 in 5 Australians. Depression is a treatable condition and therapy can help you navigate these feelings, understand your condition and help you find your way back to a healthier, happier you.

ANXIETY

Anxiety is a mental health condition that can cause overwhelming feelings of dread, worry and fear. You can feel physical symptoms like a racing heart, sweating, hypervigilence, difficulty sleeping, inability to sit still and panic attacks. Emotional symptoms like inability to contain your emotions and feeling overwhelmed and psychological symptoms like intrusive thoughts, hypervigilence, obsessive thinking, irrational fear and feeling like you are never going to get better. All of these symptoms can be horryifying and you can feel trapped in an endless cycle of terror. Therapy can help you understand what is causing your anxiety, learn techniques to help you manage your symptoms and most importantly have a safe space to share how you are feeling and have your feelings acknowledged and validated.

RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLING

SUBSTANCE & PROCESS DISORDER

For most of us, we crave connection with other human beings, whether that be on a platonic level or in intimate relationships. While relationships can be a great sense of joy in our lives, they can also bring with them many challenges and sometimes painful experiences. Navigating different personalities, blended families, varying faiths, cultures and beliefs systems can be challenging. Sometimes we face breaches of trust or disloyalty in our relationships and that can be hard to overcome. Therapy can provide a secure environment to have difficult conversations and navigate your authentic feelings about your relationships. It can help you come to a decision in a safe environment about what is the right path forward for you in your relationships.

Addiction is a disease of the brain. I have been working with people with both substance and process disorders for many years now and in my experience, I have never met someone with an addiction who isn't trying to fill a void - a place inside themselves where they feel pain, emptiness or complete hopelessness. Addiction can take many forms. Substance addiction is an addiction to anything you can ingest into your body like alcohol, illegal drugs and prescription medication. Process addiction is doing addicitons such as gambling, shopping, sex and gaming. Regardless of the addiction, the common denominators are usually a lack of control over the substance or process and immense feelings of shame about not being able to stop. Therapy can help you understand what is driving your addiction, address any unresolved trauma and support you in learning healthy coping mechanisms to resolve your internal pain instead of trying to mask it with addictive behaviours.

GRIEF

As humans, we experience grief when we loose someone or something that we love or value. Most people associate grief with death and there is definately a process for grieving the loss of a loved one that therapy can support you with. It is important to remember that grief can also be experienced with the loss of a relationship, job security, getting older, loosing physical independence or your role in life changing, for example your children leaving home. There is no right or wrong way to process grief. What is important is that therapy provides you with a space to share how you are feeling and provides you with coping mechanisms to help support you in your grief.

TRAUMA

Trauma is a deeply disturbing or distressing event. It is defined as an emotional, psychological or physical response to a confronting event. People experience trauma when they are subjected to things that are outside of their control like assault, domestic violence, accidents, home invasions, family breakdowns, bullying, war, natural disasters and death of loved ones or a near death experince themselves. Trauma needs to be treated very carefully and respectfully and at the pace the client is comfortable with. Therapy can help the client come to terms with what has happened to them, give them the space to process their feelings in a safe environment and learn coping mechanisms to help them navigate the challenges of living with trauma. Trauma therapy can often be a long process with the aim always being giving the client a better quality of life.