Making Connections

About our team

Briar Willard and Luigi Pameijer are both psychotherapists, life and business coaches, family constellations practitioners and clinical hypnotherapists. Briar is also a relationship and family counsellors. We are both qualified and registered allied health professionals in the respective peak bodies of the therapies that we practice in.

Our goal is to help you to break free from those things that are keeping you trapped or in distress, quickly and effectively by healing the root causes of the issues and not merely working on the symptoms. In our practice we use brief therapies and education to teach you the skills you need to keep improving on your own.

If you are looking for solutions to problems in your life that you have not been able to solve on your own or with the help of friends and family, there is a good chance that you could benefit from seeing a professional to find the core of the issues and help you to resolve them in a way that feels right for both your mind and your heart.

The problem is to choose from the myriad of practitioners and a dizzying amount of different healing modalities out there. Looking for the right help can be a maze to navigate. Yet, one of the most important ingredients to successful therapy is to find a person who has the right combination of skills and experience and is also a good ‘fit’ in terms of their personality, so that you can feel understood and safe. I suggest that you listen to your intuition while you are investigating potential practitioners, (in person, through their web page, over the phone or by referral) so that you find one that you can trust, who is respectful of who you are and the wisdom that you already have. Certainly after the first session, you will probably have a clear idea as to whether this is the right person for you to work with.

Our philosophy at Making Connections, is that we want to see you for a few sessions to help you to develop the tools you need to break out of unhelpful habits of thinking and feeling and help you develop new skills and abilities to handle the inevitable challenges that life delivers.

We will work with you to find your blind spots (and we all have them) that are reinforcing the troubles you are facing and keeping you stuck. Once found, we are trained in a variety of healing modalities to help you to change in ways that will make sense and feel right for you.

We work with methods that we have found have worked for us and for our clients over fifteen years. We will respectfully listen to your issues, free of judgment and with the encouragement you may need to make the necessary changes.

We will work together with you to define what you want (that is often one of the biggest challenges as most people are very clear as to what they don't want and have a hard time describing life they want). Then we will develop a strategy to get there.

We specialise in resolving the following issues:

• Relationship check up, tune up for harmony and balance


• Stress and anxiety reduction


• Breaking bad habits for good, including quitting smoking, gambling and binge drinking (click for more)


• Feeling more confident and self-assured


• Creating the right work / life blend


• Managing all important resources, time, money, attention


• More contentment


• Getting on with life with direction and energy


• Systemic resolution of issues that were handed down to you from your family of origin and major life events.

Do you have any of the following troubling habits and patterns?

Are you frustrated by any the following:

• You smoke cigarettes and you have tried and failed to quit smoking on your own.
  
  
  
  
  • You would like to know how to quit smoking (click for more)
  
  
  • The best way to quit smoking (click for more)
  
  
  
  


• You think you may have a gambling addiction and can't seem to resist gambling.
  
  
  
  
  • You want to know how to stop gambling
  
  
  
  


• Your relationships are suffering due to your binge drinking and you can't seem to stop on your own.
  
  
  
  
  • You want to know what binge drinking is and how to deal with alcohol addiction
  
  
  
  


• You are not sure where to turn for stress-management.
  
  
  
  • The good news is that stress management techniques are relatively easy to learn and then just requires practice and dedication for it to work.
  
  
  
  


• You are anxious and lack self esteem in public settings.


• You lack the confidence that you need for work or home.
  
  
  
  • Hypnotherapy can help boost self-esteem and confidence in all settings
  
  
  
  

If you have said yes to any of the descriptions above then it may be time to give your mind an upgraded program and new instructions that don't involve addiction, or compulsive behaviours. The good news is that our clients have achieved this renewal in their mind via a combination of therapies including advanced hypnotherapy techniques and it only took a few sessions. In fact, hypnotherapy combined with some stress management techniques, can help to reprogram the subconscious mind, which controls our memories, feelings and most importantly our desires to be healthy again.

Are you in a difficult relationship with stress and conflicts?

• Do you feel trapped in conflict in your relationship and would like to communicate better?
  
  
  
  
  • You would like your discussions to be caring, constructive even loving again.
  
  
  
  


• If you were to do a health check on your relationship, how is it doing?
  
  
  
  
  • We all do regular checks on our health and our vehicles, why not our relationships?
  
  
  
  


• Do you find that you argue about the smallest of things?
  
  
  
  
  • You would like to have meaningful and mature discussions instead?
  
  
  
  


• Do you wonder where the goodwill and connection has gone and you want them back again?
  
  
  
  
  • Do you want to find a way to feel safe and supported, free of all of that conflict and alienation?
  
  
  
  

You want to get past the gender or other stereotypes and personality differences to be able to celebrate again the reasons that you got together.

If you can see yourself in any of those descriptions, then your relationship may need a tune up and a few new skills to practice to improve your communication, regain trust and connection and enjoy longer and longer periods without un-necessary conflicts and arguments over even the smallest of differences.

Why people get trapped in painful situations in life

Do you feel trapped in some recurring problems and behaviours in your life?
Are you keen for a change so that you can move forward and feel more relaxed and in charge in your life again?

Most of us have spent a great deal of energy and frustration, at different times in our lives, trying to fix our problems ourselves without adequate help. During those times it could often feel as if we are the only one with these issues to resolve.

There are some sound reasons that we try to do it all our self, yet, we could speed up the process of resolution with tailored and effective coaching and counselling or psychotherapy work, changing our thoughts and beliefs, in both the conscious and the unconscious mind.

About the clinic

Making Connections clinic is on a quiet street, with parking and backing onto a large park. Our boutique clinic has no waiting room or other clients to contend with. When you arrive, you will be greeted at the door and taken straight into the therapy room for a private and confidential session. The environment is peaceful, safe and respectful. We will listen carefully to what you want and who you are. Our goal is to use a therapy that is a good fit for you and your values and help you to quickly resolve your issues. We want you gain clarity into your situation and to return harmony and balance into your life.

How we work

In person

In person we can see all of you and how you relate to the issues you are discussing. We can do some clinical hypnotherapy that is only available in person. Seeing people in person, is the preferred way for us to work. Over the years I have not always been able have sessions in person, as many of my clients, have lived inter-state or overseas.

Working over Skype

Skype has the advantage over a phone calls, in that we can both see one another, as if we are in the same room. Skype has been a great/ affordable way to have the counselling and life coaching sessions. I have been amazed at just how effective they can be. It can allow much more flexibility in time and free from the need to travel.

Working over the phone

I will work with people over the phone when Skype is not available, for whatever reason. I have learned, over the years to use micro listening and still pick up many of your body language cues that are easy to see, but often subtle to hear. Phone sessions can often be powerful and the most convenient way for me to advise someone in the need of immediate help. We work to avoid crisis, but with relationship work, sometimes escalating conflicts can be avoided with the right advice, at decision points.

How many sessions will you need?

To be honest, we can't really answer that question with any certainty. After we have a look under the hood of your problems and how quickly you are able to take up the suggestions and follow through on the homework, then we will have a better idea. We can give you an average response.

The first individual sessions are one and a half hours long. After that session we will both know a great deal more about the problems and suggested path forward and how we work together. Depending on the therapy that you choose, your next session can be anywhere between an hour to two hours.

Most of Briar's clients purchase a 4 session package for individual work. That gives us time to have the initial sessions and then some follow up sessions to tailor the work to your needs. I like to have those sessions around two weeks apart, unless there is a crisis and we can bring the sessions closer together.

For couple work, Briar asks to see each of the couple on their own for at least one 90 minute session, before couple work can be considered. Both members of the couple need to be strong enough emotionally before we go into couple work and I need to evaluate that ability through our initial individual meetings. Once both members of the couple are ready for couple sessions, we book in a two hour couple session.

I encourage couples to get the 4 times two hour package, for couples, as this gives us enough time to try new strategies and really see the benefits of the changes.

Luigi's work falls generally into two categories: Quit Smoking Cigarettes, most Quit in only one 2.5 hour session. This has proven to be a highly effective program with a 96% success rate. Other successful therapy programs (for alcohol, gambling and other addictive behaviours) are usually three sessions of 60 minutes.

Costs

First session of 90 minutes = $275
60 minute sessions = $187
A package of 4 individual session hours = $704

Couple sessions of two hours = $418
A package of 4 two hour sessions = $1,540

Quit smoking cigarettes package = $495
Alcohol reduction, gambling management and other 3 session packages = $528

Payment can be by credit or debit card, cash and electronic transfer.

A little about our training and qualifications

Briar: I began my career working as a senior research assistant at the International Labour Office after my bachelor in economics. I then completed a Master in Social Work (where I learned my counselling skills for individuals and relationships). I am registered with the AASW and then I became a certified mediator for neighbourhood disputes. Over time I was interested in learning ever faster and more effective methods of work, so I chose to train and gain experience in a number of healing modalities, including life coaching, family constellations, clinical hypnotherapy and faster EFT. I find that each have their strengths and together they make what we like to call our house blend. My expertise tends to be on both individual growth and transformation and working to renew and enhance struggling relationships.

Luigi began his career as an electrical tradesman, then trained others in that trade, as an adult educator. He always had a love of helping people, so he then became a life coach. Wanting to help even more he trained in family constellations, clinical hypnotherapy and faster EFT. He then completed a hypnotherapy specialty in quit smoking which he has greatly developed and expanded to help people to quit or reduce drinking, quit gambling, to name only a few.

Please feel free to contact us

If you would like to book in a session please call us on 1300 160 854 or if you have any questions, please fill in your details below with a brief description of the area you wish to discuss and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

We look forward to hearing from you and getting started!