At the S R and Fa P we provide one on one counselling and psychotherapy to individuals, teenagers and at times children. Counselling is a joint process between a psychologist or counsellor and you. Your personal challenges and goals are explored and then worked on in a collaborative process.

Usually the first few sessions are assessment sessions where the counsellor is gathering information and understanding of your challenges. Once the assessment has been completed, your therapist and you develop a plan on how to address your concerns to gain change in the areas you are requesting assistance in.

How long are the sessions?
Sessions are usually 55 minutes long however in some instances they may be 90 minutes.

How many sessions will I need?
Once you and your therapist have talked through your concerns they will be able to discuss the estimation of number of sessions you may need. It usually ranges from around 4 to 20 sessions.

What are the costs?
All fees are discussed once you make an appointment. Medicare provides a rebate on sessions that have a referral from a medical professional as well private health insurance provides a rebate if psychology is in your extras.

Can I bring my partner / family member along at some point?
If you are wanting to bring your partner or family member along, let your therapist know and they can discuss with you how to go about doing that.

Relationships can be the hardest yet also the most supportive and transforming aspects of our lives. The desire to be in a relationship is a part of our innate species yet we also strive to be independent and individual. This dual desire can lead to difficulties in being in intimate relationships.

Our couple therapists have post graduate training in couple and relational studies. They will provide a place to explore each person’s challenges and how to address these in an emotionally compassionate and effective way.

Issues that they address with couples are:

- Preparing for Marriage (the Prepare program)
- Communication issues
- Relationship gridlocks and dissatisfaction
- Intimacy and affection
- Betrayal and infidelity
- Grief and loss
- Sexual issues
- Intimate partner violence
- Domestic violence
- Attachment based issues
- Parenting differences
- Prenatal support
- Trauma
- Infertility
- Abortion
- Post separation
- Blended families

The S R and F P provides counselling for children and adolescents individually and with their families. All children are striving to make sense of their world, at times they struggle. This can be a process of challenge that takes some time and parental assistance to move through whilst others can get stuck in a developmental stage that needs help. At the practice, our counsellors assist parents to assess whether their child or adolescent needs counselling and then determine how much and in what format. Parents are always informed of the treatment and are invited to take part so that they can aid the therapy.

The issues that we often see children and adolescents for are:

- Anxiety and anxiety related disorders

- Depression and mood disorders

- Sleep difficulties

- Emotional regulation difficulties

- Social struggles and bullying

- Grief and loss

- Separation adjustments

- Family relationship conflicts

- Self-harm

- Eating disorders

- School refusal

- Gaming and other addictions

Families are key to our wellbeing and our sense of security and safety. Families strive to work together to achieve the best for every member however at times this can be difficult due to differences in personality, differences of opinion or long histories of previous negative attachments.

We provide family therapy to families of all ages. For adult children families we have spent a number of years researching how best to work with the concerns that present in this life stage. Many more families are seeking support and want to sort out relational problems to improve their enjoyment of each other and stay in connection with each other.

Some issues that adult children families come to address are:

- Family relational issues
- Family life stage transitions
- Cut offs and relational conflict
- Changing of family roles
- Grandparenting
- Upcoming death of a family member in later years
- Sibling relationships
- Addressing wills
- Addictions
- Differences in cultural backgrounds

We provide family therapy with families of teenagers and young children. Often families need support to deal with challenges with a member of the family or need assistance to work through relationship difficulties.

This can include:

- Relationship conflict
- Family fighting
- Sibling rivalry
- Mental health
- Disabilities
- ASD/ ADHD/ ADD
- School refusal
- Gaming and drug and alcohol addictions
- Grief and loss
- Separation
- Blended and step parenting

Parents need to be the rock for their children in their sea of emotions and development. Parents need to stay strong, calm and dependent for their children as they wash in and out with their tides. At the S F and R Practice we have skilled clinicians whom have trained in the Circle of Security, Attachment based family therapy and Tough Love therapy to assist parents with children of all ages. All our clinicians have trained in child development and parenting.

Our clinicians support parents in how to be an attuned, responsive and engaged parents whilst still being able to set boundaries and hold up family expectations. We also have a comprehensive understanding of the impact of social media on the younger generation and have researched in how to support parents in how to build strong resilient and motivated young people.

Some areas parents come to gain support from are:

- Child behavioural challenges
- ADHD and Autsim spectrum parenting support
- Anxiety support for example fears of the dark, kids sleeping in their own beds; separation anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders
- Parent and child relationship conflict
- Teenager rebellion
- School refusal
- Gender based changes
- Bullying
- Screen use and gaming addiction
- Co-parenting
- Developing self-esteem and reducing perfectionism
- Sibling rivalry

When families separate or are about to separate, it is useful to have some support for the whole family. At The Sydney Relationship and Family Practice we provide post separation services and guidance with the aim to encourage all family members to stay in relationship with each other whilst managing in their new systems. We also hold a strong commitment to support parents in putting their children’s needs at the forefront of their care.

We provide a number of different services for families in the separation experience

These are:

- Pre separation counselling
- Support with advising children on the separation
- Assessment of the family members, in particular the children
- Relational and family therapy for conflicts and cut-offs
- Child and adolescent therapy

We are not a mediation service however we do provide post separation assessments to assess how children are coping. We also provide post separation counselling to address relational issues that have arisen as a result of the separation.