Anxiety isn’t a character flaw, and it isn’t something you can reason your way out of at 3am (most people have already tried). It’s a threat system that has learned to fire too often, too early and too hard — and then, quietly, organised your life around avoiding whatever sets it off.

Most people who come to us about anxiety have been managing it for years. They’re capable, often high-achieving, and very tired. And the worry has usually spread — it started with one thing, and now it attaches to whatever happens to be nearest.

How we’d work on it

We start by working out what the anxiety is protecting you from, and what it costs you to keep doing that. Where it goes from there depends on the shape of it. If avoidance is the engine, we’d work on facing things gradually. If it’s sitting in what you believe about yourself, we’d start there. And if the fight with the feeling has itself become the problem, we take an acceptance-based approach. If the anxiety is rooted in something that happened, that’s trauma-focused work.

You’ll probably feel some relief fairly early. The real change tends to come somewhere around the eight-to-ten session mark — though that’s an average rather than a promise.

Depression gets described as sadness. More often it turns up as flatness — a loss of interest, energy and motivation that makes everything cost more than it should. People tell us they’re still doing everything. It just feels so heavy.

We look at what has dropped out of your life, what you’re telling yourself about that, and what’s realistically the smallest next thing. Behavioural activation does a lot of the early lifting. Where the low mood is long-standing rather than episodic, we work on the patterns underneath it.

Couples usually arrive after the same argument has been running for years, or after something specific has broken the trust. And sometimes there’s no conflict at all — just a distance that has quietly become normal, and two people being very polite about it.

We work with both partners in the room, using emotionally focused and interpersonal approaches: finding the cycle you’re both stuck in, slowing it down, and getting underneath the positions to what each of you is actually asking for. Sessions run 50 or 90 minutes, because sometimes you need more.

We also see individuals about a relationship — when a partner won’t attend, can’t attend, or when you need to work out what you want before you raise it.

Trauma isn’t only combat or catastrophe. A single incident, a medical event, a childhood of not being safe, or years in a workplace that ground you down all leave marks on your nervous system.

We treat trauma with EMDR and trauma-focused therapy, and we don’t rush the front end. Before any processing work we spend time on stabilisation — sleep, grounding, and enough safety in the room that the work is survivable. You will never be pushed to recount detail you’re not ready to say out loud.

Burnout is what happens when demand outruns recovery for long enough that recovery stops working. It shows up as cynicism, exhaustion and a creeping sense that you’re not much good at any of it — usually in people who are still, from the outside, coping perfectly well.

The work is partly psychological and partly structural: what you can change about the load, what you can change about how you carry it, and what boundary you’ve been avoiding because holding it has a cost.

We see teenagers and young adults working out study, career and independence. Parents are involved at a level that suits the young person’s age and comfort — and we’ll be explicit with everyone about what is and isn’t shared before we start.

Common reasons include school refusal and exam pressure, social anxiety, self-esteem, emotional regulation, and families trying to work out whether what they’re seeing is ADHD, Autism, anxiety or something else.

Grief isn’t a disorder, and most people don’t need therapy for it. People come to us when it’s become stuck — when the loss can’t be approached at all, when it’s been years and nothing has shifted, or when it was complicated by the relationship it happened in.

We don’t work to a timetable and we won’t tell you about stages. The aim is to make the loss possible to carry, not smaller.

Supervision for provisional psychologists, registrars on a registrar program, and experienced clinicians wanting consultation on complex cases — particularly trauma, psychotherapy and complex presentations.

Available individually or in small groups, in person or by telehealth. We have a number of Board-approved supervisors on the team.

Most adults who come to us for an ADHD assessment have suspected it for years. Often a child of theirs has been diagnosed and the description sounded uncomfortably familiar. What they’re after isn’t really a label — it’s an explanation for a lifetime of effort that never quite converted into results.

Our assessment is diagnostic, not a screening questionnaire. It follows DSM-5-TR criteria and requires evidence of symptoms in childhood, which is why we ask for school reports and, where possible, a report from someone who knew you as a child.

Adults who come to us for an Autism assessment have often spent decades compensating — learning the rules by watching, rehearsing conversations in advance, and paying for it afterwards in exhaustion. And because that compensation works, it also hides the very thing being assessed.

We assess against DSM-5-TR criteria using structured clinical interview alongside standardised measures, with particular attention to masking and to the ways Autism presents differently in women and in people diagnosed later in life. As a neurodiversity-affirming practice, the report describes a profile with real strengths and real costs, not a list of deficits.

ADHD and Autism co-occur frequently and share a lot of surface features — difficulty with transitions, overwhelm in busy environments, trouble with unstructured time. Assessing one without considering the other is how people end up with half an explanation.

A combined assessment runs both diagnostic pathways in one process, which is faster and cheaper than doing them separately, and produces a single report covering both.

Cognitive and academic assessment for suspected specific learning disorders — dyslexia, dyscalculia, disorders of written expression — and for students and adults who need documented evidence to apply for exam accommodations or workplace adjustments.

These use standardised cognitive and achievement batteries administered in person, and produce a report written for the body that will read it.

A diagnosis explains the problem; it doesn’t solve it. Coaching is practical, forward-looking work on the things that actually cost you money and relationships — time blindness, task initiation, the admin backlog, sleep, and the emotional regulation side that rarely gets mentioned in the diagnostic literature.

It suits people who already have a diagnosis, people waiting on one, and people who have medication sorted and still can’t get the week to hold together. Sessions are shorter and more frequent than therapy, and the work is done between them rather than in the room.

Small facilitated groups that do something individual work can’t: put you in a room with people who don’t need the explanation. Part skills, part shared problem-solving, part relief.

Groups run in blocks and fill quickly. Ask reception when the next one starts.

You enquire, then start with a Pre-Assessment Intake appointment ($280), which confirms an assessment is the right step and helps you plan before committing to the full cost. The assessment itself runs across two to three appointments of 60–90 minutes, usually a week or two apart.

Afterwards we score, integrate any collateral information and write the report — then go through the findings with you in a feedback session, where you leave with the report in hand and a referral letter if you want one.

Reception will tell you the current wait honestly when you enquire, rather than putting you on a list in the dark.

Diagnostic assessments are largely not rebatable under Medicare, and we’d rather tell you that upfront than at the desk. Some private health funds contribute under extras cover, and we’ll give you the item numbers and a written quote before you commit to anything.

Therapy and coaching sessions are a different matter — with a Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP you can claim a rebate on up to ten individual sessions per calendar year. Full detail on the fees & rebates page.

If cost is the barrier, say so when you enquire. We’d rather find a way than lose you.

Do I need a GP referral?

No. You can book an assessment directly. A referral may open up a partial rebate on some appointments, so it’s worth asking your GP.

What if the answer is no?

A thorough assessment sometimes concludes criteria aren’t met. That’s still a useful result — the report will say what does fit the picture and what to do about it.

Can you assess children?

ADHD, cognitive and specific learning disorder assessments are available from age 7. Autism assessments are for adults (18+). For younger children we’ll refer you to a paediatric service we trust.

Can I do it by telehealth?

ADHD and Autism assessments can be conducted by telehealth. Learning and cognitive assessments need to be in person, because the tests are administered directly.

If you haven’t seen anyone at the practice before, please leave your details below and we’ll get back to you. Reception will call you within two business days to talk about fit, fees and availability before anything is locked in.