SERVICES OFFERED

SCOPE OF PRACTICE

· Thorough assessment, diagnosis (if relevant) provided, and insightful explanation provided to clients of psychological underpinnings of their presenting issues.

·Justin offers both in depth therapy - where he can help clients understand the factors that may underlie patterns of thinking, feeling, and relating to others - as well as targeted interventions to help with specific problems.

·In addition to building a warm, safe, and trusting therapeutic alliance, Justin uses modalities such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Schema Therapy, Interpersonal Therapy, and Psychodynamic informed therapy to achieve the above aims.

·For adolescent clients, parent appointments are advised (Medicare allows for up to two full sessions with parents only). These sessions involve gathering parents’ concerns/perspectives on the problems, and offering support and feedback/recommendations regarding how to understand and engage in a more attuned way to their child.

CONDITIONS TREATED

Assessment, diagnosis, and treatment primarily for adults and adolescent, such as for the following difficulties:

·Depression and low mood/irritability

·Anxiety (e.g., generalised/excessive worry, social anxiety, panic attacks/disorder, phobias)

·Life stress and adjustment/situational difficulties, such as relationship, study, employment problems
Early life adversity and trauma (e.g., exposure to verbal & emotional abuse, such as invalidating/dismissive/unpredictable/critical caregiving, history of other challenging circumstances growing up such as parental separation, having a parent with a mental illness, exposure to bullying by siblings or peers etc.) & ongoing effects (e.g., poor self-image, self-criticism, emptiness, relationship problems, guilt/shame/anger/sadness, reliance on unhealthy coping tools etc.)

·Substance misuse

·Difficulties with body image and eating disorders.

·ADHD

·Some of these issues may manifest as:

Stress and anxiety related to work, study, or relationship/family issues

Often feeling flat, anxious, or angry (and possibly also being unsure why)

Generalised worry and social anxiety

Losing interest in or having no energy to see friends or engage in hobbies

Being easily triggered by people and/or reacting or overacting (either with self criticism, frustration, having rejection fears, or withdrawal from others)

Reduced functional capacity e.g., at work, socialising etc.

Feeling life has no purpose or direction

Reliance on unhealthy coping (e.g., substances, withdrawal, bottling up feelings, gaming etc.)

Feeling anxious in, and over thinking, relationships

Having low confidence and self doubt

Being passive and struggling with assertiveness

Feeling lonely, struggling with socialising or intimacy with others

Being perfectionistic and having unrealistic expectations of oneself

Frequent procrastination

Having complicated or mixed feelings about partners or parents

Having unhappy or unresolved childhood experiences

WHAT TO EXPECT

·Justin believes that commencing with a sound assessment starts the process of developing insight and leads to direction in therapy.

·Some general aims of talk therapy include building insight into the self, using these insights to modify unhelpful thoughts and beliefs, uncovering patterns of behaviour and relating to others that cause problems or distress, enhancing emotion regulation capacity & learning strategies to cope and manage symptoms, and enacting behaviour change to improve current circumstances.

·Short-term individual therapy which provides an opportunity for those with more straight forward problems to discuss current stressors and difficulties and learn ways to manage or resolve these.

·Longer-term (e.g., 10 or more sessions, sometimes over the course of more than one year / one mental health plan) individual therapy which involves providing a space to express oneself & being given support to put potentially complicated, confusing, and complex experiences, thoughts and feelings into words, make sense of these, and heal in a safe, validating, unbiased, and confidential space.

·An important aspect of therapy for some is being provided an experienced, thoughtful, and containing space to process and come to terms with painful experiences early in life, often relating to difficult relationships with parents (e.g., who have been critical, unavailable, rejecting, volatile, unpredictable, inconsistent etc.), other family problems (e.g., parental separation/conflict, conflict with siblings), being the subject or bullying, or other relationship problems.