Frequently Asked Questions

How long is an appointment?

A psychologist hour is 50 minutes long.

How much does it cost?

My fee is $240/hour. The Australian Psychological Society recommended fee for a clinical psychology appointment is $300.

Do I need a referral?

No referral is needed. However, if you are referred by your GP with a Mental Health Care plan, you will be eligible for Medicare rebates of $137.05 per appointment for 10 appointments. Clients who have reached the Medicare safety net threshold received a bigger rebate which ranges from about $150 – $220 for each appointment. Clients with an eligible Mental Health Care plan from a GP, are eligible for 10 Medicare rebated appointments with a psychologist in any 12 month period. Telehealth appointments have been made permanently available to clients for psychology appointments. DVA clients using a white or gold card need a written referral from your GP or a Defence GP to be eligible for fully rebated (free to the client) appointments. If you are a private patient you may be eligible for a rebate with private health cover. Some private health insurance companies require you to utilise Medicare rebated appointments before claiming private health rebates.

How far ahead do I need to book?

Typically I am booked out about six weeks in advance.

How much notice do I need to give to cancel an appointment?

Each time you book an appointment with me you will receive an email from my clinical system (HALAXY). Then, 48 hours before each appointment, you will receive a text reminder for your appointment. It is extremely difficult to fill appointments with limited notice so I charge a cancellation fee – for less than 48 hours notice of cancellation the fee is half the appointment cost and the full fee for less than 24 hours notice of cancellation. If you need to cancel an appointment please give me as much notice as possible and be aware that you will be charged a fee for cancellation after receipt of the text message.

Where can a I find another psychologist if you are not available or not suitable?

I would recommend that you use the Australian Psychological Society site to Find A Psychologist searching by location and/or issue. You may also find a psychologist, counsellor or social worker to suit your needs with a google search. Consider asking these types of questions to help determine whether the therapist is the right one for you. You may also wish to check out some short (1-2 hour) videos I am making demonstrating some of the tools and techniques that you can use immediately including the first one on Emotion Regulation.

How many appointments will I need?

For simple issues, one appointment might be all you need. However, this is uncommon. To work through a problem in a bit more detail you could expect to attend an average of 6-12 appointments. Therapy depends on the issues themselves (including how many), how long they have been problematic, how deep seated they are, how skilled you are already in managing your life and also each individual’s temperament and style of processing. Often, as clients experience how therapy can help resolve presenting problems as well as long standing core underlying contributing factors, more appointments are useful.  It is appropriate to use therapy as needed rather than come along and create issues to address.

How often will I need to attend?

Again there is no set answer and I work around several factors including your availability and affordability of appointments as well as my availability and what the issue actually is.  In an ideal world I would say that initially weekly attendance is helpful to take advantage of the momentum of getting started then moving out to fortnightly as you have more tools and strategies to trial and utilise.  At other times, however, we revert to weekly appointments – for example in the event of a crisis or new information/awareness.  Eventually some people prefer to continue to maintain contact on a monthly basis as a safety net until they stop therapy. There are also times when it is helpful to take a break from therapy knowing you can return to it at a later time to process new material or revisit unfinished material from previously.