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Frequently Asked Questions
what is a psychotherapist?
Psychotherapy is a kind of talk therapy that helps people understand their inner world. It aims to help us understand and come to know ourselves through the prism of a therapeutic relationship. This understanding allows us to make good choices, have better relationships, adapt to life’s ups and downs and lead a more fulfilling life.
A psychotherapist is someone who practices psychotherapy. They might be trained in social work, psychology, psychiatry, mental health nursing or in counselling, but psychotherapy is what they do in their practice.
In choosing a psychotherapist it is wise to ask about their qualifications and membership of professional associations as this will help ensure you are protected and that they are well-trained and up-to-date when you consult with them.
Although I use the terms “counselling”, “psychotherapy” and “therapy” interchangeably in my blog, psychotherapy is generally associated with exploring deeper and longer-standing patterns. Depending on your needs, this may involve anything from a small number of sessions through to longer-term work.
what is psychodynamic psychotherapy?
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is a kind of talk therapy which explores the dynamics between therapist and client to learn about the client’s inner world. It is based on psychoanalysis but also incorporates contemporary research into attachment and infant development. Exploring the relationship between client and therapist helps us understand your assumptions, “working models” and thoughts and feelings about relationships, including your relationship with yourself. This kind of therapy is based on the idea that our early experiences (and particularly our attachment experiences) will influence our emotional lives into adulthood.
The nature of the therapy is fairly unstructured, so it relies on you feeling comfortable to speak about what is going on in your emotional world.
what is an accredited mental health social worker (AMHSW)?
An AMHSW is someone who has completed their social work training (either a four year BSW or a two year Master of Social Work) and has worked as a social worker in mental health for the equivalent of two years full time after graduating. They will have had experience working directly with families and individuals in an agency or in public mental health.
In order to achieve the accreditation they must also be receiving ongoing supervision and be able to demonstrate that they maintain their professional development through extra training in mental health every year.
But more than this, someone who is an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker will take an holistic approach to your mental health.
Social workers view people in context.
This means that in working with you, I will look at your relationships, your connections, your physical health, your spirituality, your values and your social experiences. As a social worker my aim is to empower my clients to understand their experiences rather than labelling or pathologising them.
Who do you work with?
I work with anyone who has experiences of broken attachment and emotional abuse, no matter what their age. I work with teens, young adults and older adults, generally people aged 12 and up.
Location & scope of services
My psychotherapy and counselling services are provided online via video link and offered to clients who are physically located in Australia at the time of sessions. I can work with anyone located in Australia.
At this stage, I do not provide individual therapy, supervision, or coaching services to clients based overseas. Educational resources, courses, and written materials are available internationally.
How much does it cost?
Initial sessions are $210. Follow up sessions cost $190 with a Medicare rebate of $77.20 available to eligible clients. All sessions are 50 minutes via Zoom.
Sessions are for 50 minutes and cost $190, with a Medicare rebate of $77.20 available to eligible clients.
A Mental Health Care Plan currently provides a rebate for up to 10 sessions per calendar year.
The number of sessions people choose to have varies considerably. Some people find that one or a small number of sessions provides the clarity or direction they were looking for. Others, particularly those working through developmental trauma, complex trauma or longstanding relationship patterns, choose to continue over a longer period.
There is no expectation that everyone follows the same path. Together we will regularly reflect on what feels most helpful and what you hope to gain from therapy.
If you decide that longer-term therapy would be beneficial, we can discuss practical arrangements, including session frequency and fees, so that therapy remains sustainable over time.
If you are registered with the NDIS, you may be able to include therapy in your plan.
How long do I need to keep coming?
There is no standard number of sessions. The length of therapy depends on your individual circumstances, the nature of the difficulties you bring, and what you hope to achieve.
Some people find that one or a small number of sessions helps them gain greater clarity, a different perspective or a way forward. Others choose to work together over a longer period, particularly when exploring the effects of developmental trauma, complex trauma or longstanding patterns in relationships.
Therapy is not measured by the number of sessions. My aim is for each session to be valuable in its own right, whether we meet once or work together over a longer period.
As therapy progresses, we will regularly reflect on how the work is unfolding and whether continuing feels helpful. The aim is not to keep people in therapy longer than they need, but to provide the time and space that best supports meaningful and lasting change.
I would like my parents or partner to come along to therapy, can you also see them?
As a general rule, I don’t do family or couples therapy, but if therapy with a young person requires consultations with parents, then I will usually see the parents either individually or with the young person (with the client’s consent).
Do you do dbt?
Whilst I believe that DBT is a very useful treatment for BPD, I presently do not have capacity to provide DBT treatment. However, I do use strategies and modalities from DBT and am happy to see people who are undertaking group treatment as part of a DBT program.
do you do EMDR (Eye Movement desensitisation and reprocessing)?
No. I believe that treatment for Complex Trauma requires deeper emotional, spiritual and somatically based work to truly resolve the trauma. Although EMDR can help with discrete episodes of trauma, the chronic interpersonal and relational trauma at the heart of CPTSD doesn’t always respond to EMDR.
Do you do CBT?
Not exclusively. Although I incorporate aspects of CBT in the work I do, my approach on the whole is more relationship and emotion-focussed. I work in a psychodynamic way which means that I look at how you and I relate to one another and the feelings that come up for you in each session. These things will tell us about your inner world and how that might be affecting your thoughts, behaviour, relationships and your feelings about yourself. The aim is to develop self-awareness and integrate the parts of you that might be unacknowledged and unconscious, but that are still influencing your feelings, thoughts and behaviours.
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more about psychotherapy and how it works:
Does Marisa Peer have the answers to all our problems? I ask the question and explore our relationship to the idea of the quick fix. If you are looking for deep, lasting change, contact me via email.