Good Counselling

About Me

My first area of study was Nursing, followed by Natural Therapies and then Counselling.

Now I am an experienced counsellor (and counsellor supervisor) working with individuals and couples who want better communication and harmony in their life. I see myself as an agent of change empowering people to find better ways of dealing with issues and creating more satisfying outcomes.

I am a very positive and motivated person! I am an abundance thinker and gratitude giver who knows what goes around comes around.

Besides being a counsellor passionate about her work, I am a mother of four children, grandmother of four grandchildren and owner of two fur-children (my little dogs!). I have travelled the world but found myself through self-enquiry, self-reflection and psychological education along with all the ups and downs that life threw my way to challenge me. My husband of 42 years grew up with me and came along for the ride.

My Qualifications

Working with expressive therapies such as art is very important to me as is talk therapy.

Over the years I have gained:

• Bachelor of Applied Social Science (Counselling).


• Diploma of Professional Counselling.


• Diploma of Multi-Addiction Counselling.


• Diploma of Clinical Hypnosis.


• Diploma of Remedial Therapies.


• Diploma of Remedial Massage.


• Cert.of Nutritional Chemistry.


• Cert.IV in Assessment & Workplace Training.


• Reiki 1 & 2.


• Counsellor Supervisor Training.

I am proud to be a full member and counsellor supervisor of the Australian Counsellors Association (ACA). It is mandatory when maintaining this status within such professional organizations to participate in many hours of professional supervision and professional development each year keeping up-to-date with therapeutic processes and the emotional healing of clients. It is also mandatory to hold professional indemnity insurance.

I am an artist in my spare time and some of my artwork can be viewed on my website Soul Works Art Studio.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

CBT is a treatment approach widely used by counsellors and therapists. It is based on the concept that the way we think effects how we respond. People can interpret life very differently, leading to many and varied emotional & behavioural consequences. Some of these consequences can be helpful, & some not so helpful in our day to day lives. A person’s thoughts about an event or situation directly influences how they feel & how they react to or behave in that situation. Despite common knowledge, it is not actually the event or situation that directly impacts on how we feel & behave, but rather our thoughts about the event. How you think effects how you are.

The theories of cognitive therapy suggest that negative or unhelpful thoughts & beliefs are a significant factor in the development or exacerbation of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, self defeating behaviours & difficulty with coping. Therefore being able to identify and challenge these beliefs can assist a person to reduce distress and enhance their ability to cope in everyday life situations.

CBT is not just about “feeling positive” or “looking on the bright side” but learning specific strategies to think more realistically about life. This is called “cognitive restructuring”.

CBT works on the principle that negative, unhelpful beliefs need to be “tested” to determine whether they are accurate, realistic and truthful. In most cases, the thoughts are actually irrational misconceptions, commonly known as “cognitive distortions”. Cognitive distortions serve to maintain a negatively skewed & unhelpful belief system, leading to distress and increased difficulty coping in situations.

Some common cognitive distortions include:

• Black & White thinking.


• Catastrophising


• Mindreading


• Fortune telling


• Labelling


• Overgeneralising

CBT can help an individual to identify and restructure these negative irrational thoughts by replacing them with alternative interpretations that are more realistic and factually based so that people are able to think about life situations in a more helpful and constructive manner, thereby coping better with the day to day challenges they face, & learning how to better control how they react in and respond to given circumstances.

Solution Focused Therapy

Solution Focused Therapy is usually a brief and focused encounter with a therapist or group.

Most models of therapy can be considered problem-focused because they concentrate on dealing with the nature or the reasons of the client’s problem. Resource- and solution-focused therapy is based on the assumption that the causes of a problem need in no way be related to the solutions. A good outcome can be achieved even if the cause of the problem is not known.

Those who use resource- and solution-focused models have been influenced by many scholars. They hold the view that people constantly create stories about their own life and thereby create also their own selves. The therapist’s job is to help the client to produce and maintain stories of coping and success instead of stories about failure.

Resource- and solution-focused interviews aim at co-operation with the client in every way. Their goal is to help him/her produce and maintain optimism, dignity and control of his/her life. The starting point of the conversations is the client’s own view of what his problem is about and how he hopes things will change. Together the client and the therapist discuss how the desired events, successes and good moments could be brought about. Various “homework assignments” are often used to support the process of change.

Resource- and solution-focused methods have increased their popularity in the past few years and the only requirement is that the client wants to discuss his/her situation.

Usually a client needs 4-12 meetings but the success of the therapy will depend on the commitment and co-operation to the therapy presented.

Emotional Freedom Technique

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is an emotional healing technique based on a revolutionary discovery, which contends that the cause of emotional problems is a disturbance of the body’s energy system.

The approach relieves symptoms by tapping on various body locations (acupuncture meridian points) as you focus on your issue or problem. This tapping balances energy meridians, which become disrupted when we think about or experience an emotionally disturbing circumstance.

Once balanced, the upset is typically resolved. The memory stays but the emotional charge is gone. Positive shifts in thinking usually accompany the healing.

The EFT technique is gentle, amazingly effective, safe and easy to use. Once you learn it you’ll have a very effective tool to help yourself and others to relieve emotional stress.

Art & Expressive Therapies

Art Therapies and other Expressive Therapies such as Sandtray, Interactive Drawing and various creative interventions are used in a post structuralist framework underpinning strength-based solutions to support people through the healing process of psychological stress.

Reiki

Reiki is a form of therapy that uses simple hands-on, no-touch, and visualization techniques, with the goal of improving the flow of life energy in a person. Reiki (pronounced ray-key) means “universal life energy” in Japanese, and Reiki practitioners are trained to detect and alleviate problems of energy flow on the physical, emotional, and spiritual level. Reiki touch therapy is used in much the same way to achieve similar effects that traditional massage therapy is used—to relieve stress and pain, and to improve the symptoms of various health conditions

A Reiki session is a very relaxing and special experience that takes 1 to 1 1/2 hours and can be a treatment on its own or following a counselling session.

Services

I mostly service Redland Bay area and surrounding suburbs, the islands off the bay and South East Brisbane suburbs.

My clients don’t come to me for a bargain, they come to me to get results and that is what I deliver. Whether you need a “relationship rescue” or need guidance through a life altering situation, we work as a team to meet the identified needs. If the needs aren’t clearly identified then we go about doing just that.

If you have trust issues with your partner, then I will help you both deal with that so you can re-build a new reliable relationship built on truth and transparency.

If you struggle with forgiveness, then I will help you to move past the past, building new bridges with appropriate strategies for moving forward.

My passion is inspiring new energy and commitment to living life authentically through self-enquiry and mindfulness. I will welcome you to my safe space whether you are an individual who has lost their mojo for life or whether you are a couple battling the war of the roses!

Intimacy issues are handled with sensitivity and self-esteem problems with new thinking and ideas.

If you need or want change, I am here for you and will support you all the way. It will be my privilege.

I am only a phone call away. Please call. 0415 959 267 or you can go straight to my appointment scheduler online.