FAQs

  • At Simmons Psychotherapy, we begin with a connection call or meeting to discuss your support needs. We then progress to an initial session, ongoing appointments, a maintenance session, and check-ins.

    Connection call or meeting

    A short in-person, phone or on-line meeting to discuss your support needs and for you to ask questions and determine if I am the right person to support you at this time. In this time, I will listen to your needs and determine if my skills match your needs or if I can recommend another professional that will better match your requirements at this time.

    Initial Appointment

    The first initial session is for you to share your concerns, reasons, hopes, goals, worries etc. and any important information you feel I may need to know to best support you. This is a time for you to get to know me also and determine what our ongoing work together will look like. We can determine, based on your needs, how often you would like counselling or psychotherapy and how I can be of best service to you.

    In this session there is some administrative and legal documentation that will be explained and will need to be agreed to such as the bounds of confidentiality, terms of service and privacy policies.

    Ongoing Sessions

    Ongoing sessions are your time to explore the concerns, goals or life events that are impacting your life – we always work together at your pace. There is no too much or too little time to work through an issue, some things can be difficult just as other can be easy to worth through and at Simmons Psychotherapy we respect that.

    Many clients choose to book weekly or fortnightly sessions to work together initially to maintain consistency and deliberate practice of skills. However, the number of sessions and their frequency is dependent on your personal needs and the level of support you are searching for. Typically, clients can come in for either, targeted specific concerns that take only a few sessions to work through a particularly challenging season of their lives, whereas other may bring with them concerns that require years to give space to and process safely.

    Maintenance sessions and check-ins

    Once our goals have been met together clients often choose to stay in contact and have check-in session or maintenance sessions – this is like having a regular physical check in with your GP. We discuss how life has been and work on reenforcing skills and unpack recent challenging situations to support current road bumps.

    This time if for you to check back in as things bubble up and can just to for someone to talk to who does not judge and knows your background or can be to work on developing specific skills that match your new needs.

    These sessions can be a frequent as you need, bi-monthly, quarterly or yearly – a time for you to just debrief and assess how life is going for you.

  • Your appointments are a place for you to have time to explore your own inner and outer worlds. In this time, I may make suggestions and offer points of interest that might pique your curiosity and then guide your exploration of them and other times you might come uproariously into the counselling room with a topic or concern that we tackle head on.

    Ultimately we will agree on goals for your therapy that may stay consistent thought our time together or change depending on your life circumstance – from these goals we will structure our time together to give us the best chance to meet these goals.

    Some people use the sessions of have time set aside for themselves to do some inner work while others just take the first 10 minutes of a session to have a cup of tea and a debrief of the week’s events. Others use this time to practice stills and unpack challenging and complicated moments in their life.

    Some people know exactly what they want and come in to have that facilitated such as active skill building, a compassionate person to speak to or to unpack events. While others need guidance to see how they can experiment with he time and get the most benefit for themselves.

    There is no right or wrong way to spend our time together – you cannot get an A+ in therapy.

  • Missed sessions happen sometimes we just cannot make it, that is okay! Please let me know as soon as possible if you are unable to make it so we can reschedule or offer the appointment to someone else.

    No rescheduling fee will be charged if cancelled 48 hours or more prior to your appointment, a 50% fee will be charged between 48 and 24 hours and If cancellation occurs under 24-hours or no-show to the appointment, unfortunately we will need to charge a full fee (depending on circumstance).

    If you can’t make it physically to the appointment but still want to attend, we can arrange for the appointment to be via phone call or online instead.

  • We do not accept private health insurance, Medicare or Mental Health plans

    We have created our fees to be similar to the typical gap you would pay for a psychologist after a Medicare rebate to minimise upfront costs.

  • We work primarily with children aged 12+, adolescents and adults. However I encourage you to reach out and explore with us your options or potential referrals to appropriate care providers.

  • What you share in therapy is treated as private and confidential.

    There are limited circumstances in which I may need to share information. These may include situations where:

    • you give permission for information to be shared;

    • disclosure is required by law;

    • there is a serious and immediate concern about someone’s safety; or

    • records are lawfully required by a court.

    Wherever it is safe and possible, I will discuss this with you before sharing information.

    The complete details are explained in the privacy and informed-consent documents before therapy begins.

    Our collaboration is built on a foundation of trust, respect, and care, and we are dedicated to creating a safe space where you can explore your thoughts and feelings freely. If you have any questions or concerns about confidentiality, please feel free to discuss them with your therapist.

  • No referral necessary!

    You can be assisted to get in contact with a psychotherapist via a GP or any other allied health professional, family or carer however there is no requirement to see a GP prior to getting in contact with us!

    Feel free to refer yourself by clicking on the ‘Contact’ link.

FAQs

Parents and Youth Clients

  • Depending on the ages, concerns, needs and preferences of your child they can expect anything from talking, playing art, drama, singing and a host of other therapeutic activities to take place during their time with a therapist. These experiences are selected to help your child develop skills, unpack concerns, make sense of experiences and decompress where required.

    Therapy offers a space for them to be themselves without the competing concerns of family, friends, siblings and other expectations weighing on them and through this space we encourage the growth of positive skills and responses to their individual needs.

  • Therapy is a space for your child to safely explore the world around them without judgement or concerns. To this end, we try where possible to avoid talking about your child in front of them. We acknowledge that time-sensitive topics and concerns arise – in these instances, we encourage you to Email us directly. Alternatively, you may book an update session where you can discuss information, questions or concerns and check in with us about your child’s progress and goals.

  • Therapy is an important time for young people to ‘just be’ without expectations or pressure to talk about their sessions. Try to resist asking your child questions such as “What did you do?” Or “Did you have fun?”. Instead, a statement such as “all done, it’s time to go home now ” reduces any pressure to share. If your child does initiate sharing about what they did in their sessions, that’s absolutely fine!

  • It is important that therapy remains a safe and confidential space for a child or young person. To this end, unless your child has requested information to be shared or there is a concern about safety parents will not have access to the specific content or concerns that a young person explores in session.

    Your child will have been told right at the start that their sessions are confidential, and this has hopefully gone a long way in building trust with their counsellor. Knowing that they can say what they’re really thinking and feeling can be incredibly liberating, and is a huge part of the therapeutic process, but we know it can be difficult for parents.

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    Relinquishing control can be really hard. Whether it’s at the doctor’s, school or even the hairdresser’s, the adults will often bypass the child and talk straight to the parent about any important decisions. However, this isn’t always helpful. A huge reason children and young people can struggle with their mental health is when things feel out of their control. This can be big things like a bereavement, parents divorcing or relocating, or it can be more day-to-day things, like bedtimes, bath times, or being told to go to school even though they don’t want to.

    If you wish to know what is happening in your child's sessions, discuss with them about booking a progress session where your child can discuss beforehand with us what they would like you to know about, and we can give you general information about how your child is progressing towards their goals and engaging in sessions.

    I aim to be transparent with young people about communication involving their therapy. Information provided by parents or caregivers will usually be discussed with the young person in an age-appropriate way, unless there is a compelling safety, legal or clinical reason not to do so. ‍

  • Therapy can sometimes bring difficult thoughts, feelings or experiences into greater awareness. A young person may need additional rest, regulation or support after a demanding session.

    However, a significant or continuing increase in distress, behaviour changes or safety concerns should not simply be assumed to be part of the process.

    Please contact me so that we can understand what is happening, review the current approach and decide what support is needed.

  • We will agree on what meaningful progress would look like and review it together.

    Progress may include:

    • understanding emotions or needs more clearly;

    • recovering more easily after difficult experiences;

    • asking for help sooner;

    • developing stronger self-advocacy;

    • reduced conflict or distress;

    • increased participation in daily life; or

    • feeling safer and more understood.

    Progress is not always linear. If therapy does not appear helpful, we will discuss what may need to change rather than continuing without review.

  • Consent arrangements depend on the young person’s age, maturity and ability to understand the proposed therapy, as well as parental responsibility and any relevant court orders.

    Where appropriate, I seek both the young person’s informed agreement and the involvement of their parent or legal guardian.

    Please let me know about any parenting orders or legal arrangements before the first appointment so that the appropriate consent process can be confirmed.

  • Therapy can help children with a range of issues, concerns, and developmental skills. If you have concerns or questions about whether Simmons Psychotherapy can accommodate your young person’s specific needs, we encourage you to reach out and talk to us directly. If we cannot accommodate your needs, we may know of a service that matches!

  • Yes, we can accept Plan and Self managed NDIS participants.

  • Certainly, while you are welcome to leave during sessions, we suggest having a few initial sessions to ensure your child's comfort and to avoid the need for sessions to end prematurely. To ensure your child's safety, please make sure all parent contact information is up to date, and kindly disclose any medical conditions, along with providing medical plans before the child's therapy begins.