Counselling
You’re not exactly sure why you’re feeling the way you do, but you know you don’t feel right, and you want to feel different.
Maybe you’re still carrying what happened during your birth, even though everyone else seems to have moved on. You might be grateful that your baby is healthy, while still struggling with what happened to you.
Or perhaps it doesn’t feel connected to the birth at all. You’re more anxious than you used to be. You’re constantly checking that your baby is okay, finding it hard to switch off, or struggling to relax when someone else is caring for them. You might feel angry, overwhelmed, numb, sad, out of control, or simply not like yourself anymore.
Sometimes you know exactly where it started. Sometimes you don’t.
But dealing with it alone is exhausting, and you want to understand what’s happening and find a way forward.
We get it. We truly do. We’ve been there.
What is counselling?
Counselling can be a place to talk and feel heard, but the work we do goes beyond talking about what has happened or giving you tools and strategies to cope with how you’re feeling.
Together, we work to understand what is underneath the way you’re feeling now, what may be driving or keeping those responses going, and what needs to shift for things to feel different. Depending on what you’re experiencing, that might mean processing a traumatic experience that still feels present, working with the parts of you that have learned to stay on alert or in control, understanding patterns that developed much earlier in your life, or helping your mind and body begin to respond differently to things that no longer need to feel threatening.
Our counsellors use an integrative psychotherapeutic approach, drawing on therapies including EMDR, parts work, attachment theory, somatic approaches, CBT, SFT and mindfulness. We don’t believe there is one approach that works for everyone. The work is shaped around you, what you’re experiencing, what you want to change, and what feels appropriate for where you are right now.
Pregnancy, birth and becoming a parent can be enormously significant experiences, and sometimes their impact reaches into parts of life you didn’t expect.
And often there’s shame and guilt mixed in with whatever you’re already carrying. You might think you should be grateful because your baby is healthy, because you’re finally pregnant, or because this is something you wanted for so long. You might love your baby and your family deeply, while also feeling anxious, angry, numb, overwhelmed, sad, disconnected or nothing like you expected to feel.
Those things can exist together.
You can be grateful for your baby and still be struggling with what happened to you. You can love being a parent and find parts of parenthood incredibly difficult. You can have wanted this pregnancy desperately and still feel anxious or overwhelmed by it.
Sometimes you know exactly what has contributed to how you’re feeling. Other times, you simply know something has changed and you want to feel different.
Counselling gives you a place to say the things that can feel difficult to say out loud, without judgement and without needing to minimise what you’re experiencing because of everything you think you should be feeling instead. But the goal isn’t simply to help you cope better with feeling this way. It’s to understand what is happening, work with what is keeping it there, and help create meaningful change in how you feel and experience your life.
Who is counselling for?
Our practice specialises in perinatal mental health, birth and reproductive trauma, and trauma counselling. We work with people during pregnancy, after birth and throughout the transition to parenthood, as well as adults experiencing the ongoing impact of trauma and difficult life experiences.
Our areas of expertise reflect our counsellors’ tertiary qualifications, specialist trauma and perinatal training, extensive clinical experience, and years of work within the perinatal and parenting space.
We support clients experiencing:
• PTSD and Complex PTSD
• Birth trauma
• Breastfeeding and postnatal trauma
• Attachment and relational trauma
• Difficult or traumatic birth experiences and birth debriefing
• Anxiety in pregnancy and postnatally
• Fertility difficulties and infertility
• Loss of identity, self-esteem or self-confidence
• Difficulties adjusting to pregnancy, parenthood or motherhood
• Postpartum rage, anger, guilt and overwhelm
• Previous trauma resurfacing during pregnancy or parenthood
• Grief and loss
• Fear or anxiety about another pregnancy or birth
Our approach
Our approach
Starting counselling can feel daunting, particularly if you’re worried about having to explain everything, tell your whole story, or talk about experiences you’ve spent a long time trying not to think about.
You don’t need to arrive knowing exactly what’s wrong or where to start. And if you’ve experienced trauma, we won’t expect you to sit down and tell us everything that has happened from beginning to end. We work at a pace that feels manageable, taking the time to understand what is happening for you now, what may be contributing to it, and what you would like to be different.
Our work is collaborative and tailored to you. We might explore the experiences that have shaped how you feel or respond now, notice patterns that keep showing up, work with the thoughts, emotions and body responses that become activated, or process particular experiences that still carry distress.
Depending on what you need, your counsellor may draw on approaches including EMDR, parts work, attachment-based and somatic approaches. We don’t use a particular therapy simply because you have a particular problem. The approach is shaped around you, your history, what is happening in your life now, and what you want from counselling.
For some people, the work might involve processing a traumatic birth or another experience that still feels very present. For others, it might be understanding why anxiety, anger, guilt, a need for control or particular relationship patterns keep returning. Sometimes we’re working with something that happened recently. Sometimes becoming pregnant or becoming a parent has brought experiences from much earlier in life closer to the surface.
You remain part of the decision-making throughout. We’ll talk with you about what we’re noticing, why we might suggest a particular approach and what we’re working towards. If something doesn’t feel right or useful, we want to know.
Our aim isn’t for you to become better at pushing through or coping with something that continues to feel overwhelming. We want to understand what is keeping it there and work towards change that you can feel in your everyday life.
Pricing
Pricing for counselling sessions is as follows:
60 minutes $170
Private Health Insurance rebates may apply. Fees are payable in full prior to the appointment.
Make an appointment
Counselling sessions are available SOR Perth in Success, NOR Perth in Highgate, and Australia-wide online,
Monday to Friday.
To book your initial appointment, either book directly through the following calendar link, or complete the form below it to submit an enquiry and I will contact you directly:
Or submit an enquiry below and I will contact you directly: