Psychologist Docklands

Everyone experiences and interprets life in their own unique way, and the challenges that life presents may affect a person's mental health in a variety of ways.

You may benefit from seeing a psychologist if you are:

• Finding it difficult to cope or feeling overwhelmed
• Struggling with the impact of a traumatic experience
• Struggling with low mood
• Struggling with excessive worry or recurring panic attacks
• Having difficulty sleeping
• Finding yourself frequently irritable or angry
• Experiencing feelings of isolation and avoiding social situations
• Struggling with parenting and relationships

Many people are uncertain about what a clinical psychologist does and how their role differs from other mental health professionals.

Clinical psychologists are university-trained professionals registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, and their training spans a minimum of eight years.

Their training includes four years of undergraduate university study, a minimum of two years of postgraduate training, and a further two years of supervised practice through a registrar program.

Yes, clinical psychologists are required to adhere to strict confidentiality policies in accordance with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency's (AHPRA) Code of Conduct and the Australian Privacy Guidelines. All information disclosed in therapy sessions, as well as any correspondence relating to your sessions, remains confidential unless you provide consent for it to be shared.

On rare occasions, a psychologist may be required to disclose information to a third party, for example, when someone's safety is at risk, when seeking a supervisor's input to assist with treatment planning, or if a document is subpoenaed. These circumstances are outlined in the Centre for Clinical Psychology Consent Form.

We also follow strict protocols to maintain the security of all client data. Please request a copy of our Privacy Policy if you require further information.

Should it be required, we can write psychological reports if you are a client undergoing treatment for instances such as TAC, WorkCover, and court proceedings. These reports are charged separately, in addition to our psychological consultations.

In the first session, your psychologist will focus on trying to understand your difficulties and how they can work with you to address them. This will involve an assessment process, where the psychologist will ask a series of questions and you will have the opportunity to reflect upon your experience.

Your responses will help your clinical psychologist build a clearer picture of your current situation. In addition, you may be asked to complete psychometric questionnaires.

Your clinical psychologist will then discuss appropriate treatment options with you, including the types of evidence-based therapy that may be suited to the concerns you have described. Subsequent sessions are generally scheduled on a regular basis and typically become less frequent as your difficulties are resolved.

You retain the choice at all times regarding how many sessions you attend, and there is no obligation to attend a minimum number. You are also free to determine the frequency of your sessions; however, it is advisable to make these decisions together with your clinical psychologist, who can offer recommendations informed by their experience and the available evidence.

If your GP has provided you with a Mental Health Care Plan, this will entitle you to Medicare rebates for up to 10 sessions. Once all 10 sessions have been used, you may continue to attend at our private fee rates.

We understand that attending appointments during standard business hours is not always possible. For this reason, our psychologists offer a number of 6pm appointments, and our clinic is also open on Saturdays from 9am to 5pm.

We also offer telehealth services for those who are working from home and have some flexibility to attend a session within their working hours.

For a complete overview of our fees, please visit our fees page. Click here for details.

You are free to stop seeing your therapist at any time, just as you are free to start seeing your therapist again at any time.

Your clinical psychologist, as a trained professional, will be receptive to your feedback and will discuss with you any concerns you may have about ending therapy. They may offer their perspective and outline why they may suggest continuing.

In many cases, this kind of feedback can become a valuable part of the therapeutic process and may lead to meaningful progress. We encourage you to raise these concerns with your psychologist, rather than discontinuing therapy without discussion.

At the Centre for Clinical Psychology, we recognise the importance of a good therapeutic fit between you and your psychologist. We are happy to assist you in finding the right match, even if this means arranging a transfer to another psychologist or providing an external referral. Your care is always our priority.

How often someone sees their psychologist varies considerably from person to person and may change as treatment progresses. Some clients attend twice per week, while others attend once per week, fortnightly, or monthly.

This will depend on each person's individual needs and circumstances, but it is also important to consider what the evidence shows is the most likely to lead to the best outcomes.

Available evidence indicates that clients who attend more regularly, particularly in the early stages of treatment, tend to experience the greatest improvements (Bruijniks et al., 2020; Tiemens et al., 2019). We therefore initially recommend booking two sessions per week to support the best possible outcomes.

For those attending for depression, research indicates that twice-weekly sessions may produce better outcomes than weekly sessions for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT; Bruijniks et al., 2015).

Research by Erekson et al. (2015) found that university students attending therapy for adjustment, anxiety, or depression-related concerns achieved clinically significant gains more rapidly when attending weekly sessions compared with fortnightly sessions.

If you are receiving Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for trauma or PTSD, attending twice per week is highly recommended. A study has found that attending CPT sessions more frequently with fewer gaps between each appointment leads to significantly greater PTSD symptom reduction (Gutner et al., 2016).

Twice-weekly attendance also allows you to complete the full 12 sessions of treatment in less than two months. If attending twice per week is not feasible, CPT requires at least weekly attendance to support the best outcomes.

Research suggests that for personality disorders, attending twice per week has been associated with improvement (Giesen-Bloo, 2006).

Evidence-based therapy differs from counselling in that it uses specific techniques, strategies, and processes designed to help people address issues and concerns that may be affecting them emotionally or mentally. These techniques and strategies have been evaluated scientifically.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health concern that may arise following traumatic experiences, including threatened or actual death, a serious accident, or serious sexual violation.

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Perinatal mental health covers the health and emotional well-being of parents with infants up to one or three years of age, as well as the emotional well-being of infants. There is also a growing recognition of the importance of fathers' emotional health and well-being, which is increasingly receiving the attention it deserves.

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Infant mental health is concerned with the well-being of infants from birth through to three years of age. Those working in infant mental health are interested in understanding the social and emotional worlds of infants, including their ability to form close and secure relationships and their capacity to experience, express, and regulate their emotions.

Infant mental health practitioners are also interested in the infant's ability to relate to the world with curiosity and thus explore and learn.

Relationships are central to infant mental health, as infants and young children are heavily reliant upon support from their caregivers. The quality of these relationships and the experience of receiving care may shape the infant's capacity for relating, learning, behaviour, and emotional health throughout their lifetime.

From birth, infants have the capacity to communicate their internal states and seek responses from their environment. They are not passive recipients of care but active agents capable of adapting to their environment and influencing those who care for them.

From birth, infants are active participants in their relationships. The caregiving environment extends beyond the immediate family to encompass community and culture.

Infant mental health matters because the window of opportunity is both significant and finite. The first 1,000 days of a child's life represent the most rapid period of brain growth across a person's lifetime.

Nurturing infant mental health may support children in developing resilience, empathy, and the capacity to form healthy relationships. When infant mental health is disrupted by trauma, neglect, parental stress, or inconsistent caregiving, the effects may be long-lasting, potentially increasing the risk of anxiety, developmental delays, and difficulties in school and relationships.

The development of secure attachment may help set infants on a path towards good mental health as they progress through adolescence and into adulthood.

Insights from infant mental health may help parents understand the unique capacities of their babies' and infants' communication. Such understanding may enable parents to respond to their baby with greater confidence, which may in turn strengthen the relationship between parents and their baby.

At the Centre for Clinical Psychology, we are dedicated to supporting families with young children, offering assistance with mental health concerns, early parenting challenges, and parental relationships. We recognise that this support may be of benefit to everyone in the family, and most importantly, to the baby.

We serve residents across Melbourne suburbs including:

• Abbotsford Psychologist
• Brunswick Psychologist
• Clifton Hill Psychologist
• Collingwood Psychologist
• Fitzroy Psychologist
• Flemington Psychologist
• Kensington Psychologist
• Kew Psychologist
• North Melbourne Psychologist
• Northcote Psychologist
• Parkville Psychologist
• Princes Hill Psychologist
• Richmond Psychologist
• Southbank Psychologist

And more!