Infidelity navigation: Summary * fidelity 101 * fidelity 108 * fidelity 2 * fidelity 3 * fidelity 4 * emotional cost * triangles * how to mend * models of mending * how to forgive * the unforgivable * relationship education * exits from intimacy * ending a relationship in peace * defences * emotional intelligence * re-romancing * on vulnerability
Relationship navigation: * page list * page 1 * page 2 * page 3 * page 4 * page 5 * how to build intimacy * how to mend * models of mending * commitment quiz * toxic patterns * mental maps * tough love * boundaries * turning points * how to end * forgiving * survey of marriage * what is success * marriage research * love styles * marriage quotes * family love like the wind
Meditation navigation: Mind * how to meditate * lovingkindness * embodied mind * the Sacred * Yoga Nidra * the resolve * Tonglen meditation * forgiving * Antar Mouna * Tantra * Vedanta psychology * inner smile * reciprocity * spiritual materialism * mental maps * trusting in mind * prayer * zen mind * manifestos
Last edit of this page 01/02/10
Mere thinking will never avail. Thought is a beautiful and proud occupation (where) study is concerned. But you can never think your way (out) of difficult emotional problems. Something else needs to be done. You have to make yourself passive and listen. Get into touch with that little piece of eternity inside of you. Etty Hillesum
1.0 Link to office location, hours of operation and fees.
This content rich website is my thinking out loud about the work.
Face to face I am as thoughtful but less talkative.
Here's some feedback about my work:
Client one-liners: 1. 'that guy will never make a buck because one session with him is worth six with any other'. 2. 'no one needs to see you since they can learn it all from your website'. 3. 'Psychology fees; wise help with some of life's deepest difficulties, from a loved and trusted therapist - priceless.'
Couple after 2 sessions: 'Jan and I feel as though we are as close as we ever have been. It is really quite remarkable, as though you lifted a dark cloud that had settled over the relationship (perhaps it would be a good business move if you were a little less effective!). Kerry.'
Reader: 'Thank you for putting up such a comprehensive and helpful site on the internet. I have spent the last four hours reading it, and have hopefully gained some insight into helping myself, my family and maybe my partner. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge so freely.'
After 35 years in this business, I have learnt something about success.
Here's my couple introduction form. Fill it out, post or email to me before a first session.
1.1 What I do in a session
Only when our hearts are fixed (i.e. securely attached) do we find that our hands are truly free. G. K. Chesterton
A session is time to speak and think freely, to feel clearly, to sense truly and reach for all that is best in you and in your life. A session is both playful and earnest; light hearted and at times poignant; confronting and revealing. I aim for you to be clear, tender and strong in your relationships. My wish is for you to shine, your capacity for love to grow and for fear to decline and life's grace to touch you.
I make a space for sensing what you already know; for robust problem solving, working with head, heart and guts, and without too many theory based pre-conceptions. A space where obstacles are understood and choices for moving forward made clear.
I am often an educator disguised as a therapist and always a process consultant.
My skill derives from on-going training; life experience; the enjoyment of working with people; a natural ability to listen carefully, understand and to communicate clearly, and the evidence of successful work with previous clients. Clinical psychology has taught me how to think about people in context, how to think ahead and to value a thorough enquiry.
The model of emotionally focused therapy (EFT) is the backbone of my work. I flesh out each session from many other influences. Here is an outline of the EFT, a review and an excerpt from the book by Sue Johnson (highly recommend): 'Hold Me Tight!' and her article in Psychology Today.
Sometimes even one session can kick start a simple life change or a small shift in perception, meaning and values, which though private and subjective, can nevertheless impact on those significant others, colleagues, friends, children and even pets who are not directly engaged in the process. This needs to be considered, as others can help and hinder your intentional change process.
My job is to get clear on your expectations, how you think about change, the history of relationship changes in your life, and the impact of personal changes on intimacy. I take responsibility for the session's process, you take responsibility for content; I witness your and/or your relationships journey; validate your experience and provide new information and strategies for integration and growth.
I have noticed we are given more blessings than we receive so I make room for your blessings to find their place as well. More on my view of the sacred on site.
1.2 Does it work?
Even friends of long standing who know me well ask, 'but does it work?' I used to rely on the glib 'would I spend 35 years of my life doing something that doesn't work' as an answer but they just glaze over. So each time I come up with a better answer, especially when the person asking is a new client in the building trade - a guy who wants a plan that works. Often the best answer is to tell a story about how it worked for someone else a bit like them.
One of the best things that works is to describe the conflict cycle or the stuck interaction patterns of a relationship with the emotions they house. Then allow the internal knowledge about that process to emerge. One of my clients described this moment as having been in a dark room looking for a black cat. I noticed and named the cat and he found the door. It helps that I have experience finding invisible cats.
And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. 'The Little Prince'
How to get the most from couple's therapy: I recommend this article from a veteran therapist if you are planning on working with me. Sometimes I too forget the obvious, for example: 'The hardest part of couples therapy is accepting you will need to improve your response to a problem'.
1.3 Body symptoms and self-limiting beliefs
How long will you live? Try this Life Expectancy Calculator, one of the better questionnaires of its type. It prints out results with a what to do to add years to your life.
Likewise Martin Seligman's site authentic happiness has positive mental health self-assessments. I recommend the brief character strengths questionnaire for a start.
Every element of a life is like the instruments of an orchestra. Before a concert begins the oboe sounds an 'A'. There follows a cacophony of instrument sounds until all come into alignment with that first note. Then the conductor walks on and the concert begins. We struggle to hear our own unique 'A' note and to bring all of our life into attunement with it. In not hearing our signal sound, some of our life has not even begun - as if some instruments are absent, hushed or busy playing someone else's tune. That is as true of the individual and of the couple.
Everyone comes to their experience honestly. Symptoms and self-limiting beliefs were once a solution to life challenges but later became a problem. 'If the only tool you were given was a hammer then every problem looks like a nail.'
Two common self-limiting tools: (a) glass half empty rather than glass half full and (b) rather be right than happy, rather pride than connection. Both are sometimes fear and shame based, injury-imprinted patterns not ones that are hard wired in the brain, not 'born with it can't help it' patterns. They are learned and habitual therefore, can be unlearned and defeated with awareness and positive habits.
You don't have to have a near death experience to change your mind.
I work with the body in mind but do not provide body therapy.
I do not work with either long duration, high intensity mental disorders or substance abuse that have resulted in or are likely to result in hospitalisation. (More about risks at 4.0 below.) I do work with chronic, debilitating or terminal illness within relationship and process frameworks.
During a therapy session there is a subtle and ongoing process beneath the conversation as we both struggle to hear the true note underneath the noise that brought you here. I watch our breathing patterns, listen to voice qualities, notice shifts in facial coloration, muscle tone and body language as each unfolds your story. I meet those movements with some of my own for example, synchronise my breathing with yours, mirror your postures, animate my voice to reflect similarities in culture and language. I pace and I lead and I interrupt, and the change process continues with a small, taoist footprint.
My clearest thinking about symptoms are in my articles on embodiment and mental maps.
1.4 Selection criteria
I have increased my success rate and lifted my job satisfaction by evolving a straightforward selection process - if you are coupled, come as a couple or not at all. This is the case even if you have been referred by your GP for a specific mental disorder. Most treatments (e.g. CBT, Interpersonal Therapy) of most mental disorders (e.g. depression, anxiety and trauma) are enhanced by the presence of the primary support person in the treatment program.
I can refer you to therapists whose preference is working with individuals, coupled or not. Here is my how to choose a therapist on site.
Having said that, it is also important to note that involving the partner in an individual treatment or providing couple's therapy, is not viable 'where there is ongoing violence, uncontrolled drug use or where the partners have incompatible goals for therapy. Clients who present themselves as rigid and consistently externalise their difficulties, insist on keeping secrets that are relationally significant and do not express commitment to a relationship' are unlikely to find couple therapy useful. (Johnson 2002).
If you are partnered and either straight or LGBT, and want to come for individual or couple work without your partner, I will ask you to explain. Some people call me thinking their situation is an exception to my 'come as a couple or not at all' rule. For example, one guy, withdrawn in his relationship for some years said, 'I want individual sessions first to put the past behind me before I ask my partner if she'll attend.' Another engaged in criticizing ('he never talks to me') and pursuing a withdrawn guy said, 'he won't come unless it's an ultimatum so I want to come by myself to work out some strategies to deal with him.' Similarly, that 'he is depressed and abusive but denies he's part of the problem' or 'there are some things I need to get off my chest, which will only make matters worse if I say them with my partner present.'
Anything in the past or something controversial in the present is better discovered slowly and dealt with as a couple, especially if the alternative is me keeping it a secret.
Most partners do want to know about their loved one's unfinished business as it is usually material to the problems in the current relationship.
Whatever you might say that you think makes your situation an exception I am likely to insist you bring your partner along at least initially, and decline to offer a service if they will not attend, referring you to another practitioner.
When attachment security is uncertain, a partner will pursue, fight, and even bully a spouse into responding to attachment cues, even if this has a negative general impact on the relationship. (Sue Johnson in 'EFT for Trauma Survivors' 2002)
1.4.1 Inclusion
It is almost impossible to undertake an effective individual psychotherapy or behaviour change process without implicating an intimate partner in some way.
I think most partners would like to be included in and consent to the effects of your changes in their lives. It is my duty to provide that opportunity. To not do so would risk both my professional competence and your theft of their choice.
Couple's Therapy is not a Medicare item and 'relationship problem' is not a medical condition. However, there are few problems individuals bring to therapy/counseling whose resolution would not be enhanced by involving the client's significant other in the change process. There is a substantial body of research in support of this observation. Experts in the field predict couple's therapy will become the treatment of choice for depression and anxiety. So convincing is the research that I wonder why anyone would do individual therapy/counseling at all whenever a client is partnered.
Obviously one answer is because the partner is absent, is unready, unwilling or disengaged; thinks you're the problem anyway and that you should get fixed, or thinks poorly of both couples and individual therapies.
The latter view is not uncommon and not necessarily mistaken - see Doherty.
Over the years I have worked with numbers of couples where one of the partners is undergoing an individual psychotherapy. I have heard how the exclusively individual therapist has sometimes become a significant point of reference for their client in at-home marital discussions. For example, 'my therapist says I shouldn't have to put up with this crap from your mother'.
It is not okay for a couple to be in further anguish from interventions an individual therapist has recommended for a marriage in trouble, sight unseen.
The most common and well meaning interventions are learning to be assertive and practising active listening in individual sessions with the therapist role playing the absent partner. You could argue that assertiveness and active listening are good things in marriage.
In fact, there is precious little research showing unilateral assertiveness skills or active listening solves marriage problems. Visit Gottman's website and read this interview with Gottman.
1.4.2 Relationship history
If it is for couple work or marriage guidance that you wish to employ me and you want to come alone to work on your relationship, I am even more likely to insist they come and decline to provide a service in their absence.
Were I to see you alone in that circumstance, I would hear only one side of two family stories. Every intimate relationship is founded and founders in its history.
The ongoing work of loving someone is located inside one's own head and there are two of those locations in a marriage.
In addition, the influence of your family of origin on how you think and perceive the world is not without significance in the growth of personal and relationship problems. Both partners share equally in that process too.
If I were to see you in your partner's absence, anything I might say or not say about your relationship, could later be conveyed to them in the framework of your family history and your brain's inner love work, rather than in theirs. This could then feed into the negative interaction cycle that characterises marriages in trouble and cause further wounding and withdrawal.
This would be a potential source of harm to your relationship in my name. At the very least it would put me on the back foot were I later to see you and your partner together and found that they had been given an erroneous judgment of their behaviour, spoken in my name.
It is also possible that were I to see you without including them in your change process, and that change process led you to a later and acrimonious divorce that harmed the kids, those children (third parties to the therapy) could some years later, make a health complaint that I failed to protect them from that harm by not including the other parent in your change process.
This is the regulatory framework in which ALL counselors, psychologists and therapists work in Australia, ignored at their own peril.
1.4.3 Exceptions
Where I have agreed to see only one member of a couple after testing what my client really wants (leaving open the option of their partner attending later) I always do so on the basis that I have their blessings to draw on anything they tell me when later their partner attends. At that time I pray to G-d I have prepared the ground well enough.
For example, in a situation where Jack's partner Jill asks him point blank, are you having a gay affair with Bill and Jack denies it, I am free to question Jack. Especially where he had previously led me to the conclusion in private, that his involvement with Bill is emotionally significant, that he feels vulnerable around Bill and that Jill is knowingly excluded from and denied the same psychological intimacy in her relationship with Jack.
I might say, I think it completely reasonable that Jill would come to the same conclusion that I have Jack, that you are having an emotional affair with Bill. It doesn't have to be sexual for your involvement with Jack to have a detrimental effect on your primary relationship. It only has to give away intimacies that rightly belong in the primary relationship.
If your partner refuses to attend I will decline to offer my services if, in my professional opinion, to provide it would harm your primary intimate relationship. I will offer my how to mend a broken relationship as a guide and suggest individual counseling services.
1.5 If you come as a couple
I teach, show and coach you in how to:
- hear, see, feel and understand what the other means by what they say and do
- stand in each other's shoes, even if just for a jaw dropping moment
- not react to the first emotion that comes up
- get assistance self-managing your reactivity if it overwhelms you
- keep moving the relationship out of the adversarial or withdrawn fall back positions to the collaborative approach
- communicate empathy and build a map of each other's world realizing that
- each has a subjective experience of the relationship different from the other with
- a coherent internal logic that makes the world sensible to them because of
- a set of values not always well expressed or understood by self or other
- accept that happy couples struggle to love as well; struggle to manage their anger and disappointments in love and struggle to protect their partner from knowledge of the inner work they do in order to achieve a harmonious, cooperative and enduring connection.
- describe the negative interactional cycle that absorbs much of your time
- weaken the effect of that and of habitual stereotyping and family labeling
- soothe emotional arousal when it's appropriate or get upset when that's important
- catch and manage the monsters that cruel intimacy - criticism, defensiveness, contempt and stonewalling.
- remind you of the difference between what you think you do and what you actually do in relationship
- help you reach down to the layer of emotion beneath your first reactions and from that place slowly begin to ask directly for what you need from your partner
- often this is a straightforward 'make "us" our safe harbour'; 'hold me tight even when we disagree', 'let me comfort you', 'will you catch me if I fall?'.
- For men we often think this need for connection is just about sex. It is not. Men, both gay and straight, struggle with their socialization (and against labeling by others) that says for guys sex is the only appropriate place to ask for holding; to show vulnerability; to ask for acknowledgement, for touch and to be known; to reveal their dreams and fears, and their need for a secure attachment.
- That is what we all want in one place in our lives no matter how we were gender socialized. Sometimes a pet will provide it, and when that pet is lost the loss is as inherently traumatic as any other loss of a deep, wide connection.
- I work as a gender trap catcher; a traffic cop when you talk over each other, or don't hear the internal logic of the other's request, and
- as a fire officer to cool things down so that we can get back to work and at the same time
- advise you on fuel management.
- I will usually give homework tasks and follow them up in our next session that requires a commitment to quality time each week.
If there's a specific problem, I may invite you to describe the problem, maybe even ask you to teach me how I might do the problem in your situation or if I were in your relationship and notice the times/places you don't do the problem perfectly. We do problems except when we don't.
If I know of a proven recipe for the situation you describe, I will tell you and instruct you in its use or refer you to the expert who can. In each of the following sessions we review the outcomes and adjust the process and content.
Clearly therapy and coaching are non-reciprocal processes with a power imbalance. I rarely if ever show my vulnerabilities.
1.6 How many sessions does it take
I am very happy to chat with you for 10 minutes over the phone before you make a first appointment. In that time I can usually give an estimate of how many sessions it could take to deal with the issues you disclose.
Depending on the duration and intensity of the problems, between 3 and 24 sessions will usually be enough to move a couple into a more satisfying and self-renewing pattern.
De-escalating a negative interaction cycle can take as few as 3 sessions, but getting beneath those reactive emotions to the underlying attachment needs and creating new ways for those to be finally met, can take between 12 and 24 sessions.
2.0 Objectives of assistance
I keep an occasional web log of typical issues clients bring to sessions. Different people seek different outcomes from a consultation. Because of this, it is important to talk to me about what you are expecting, or hoping. I can give you an estimate of the number of sessions required to achieve the results you want and a guide to some observable indicators of progress toward your goals. But I can't help if you're a therapy tourist, come under external duress or withhold information vital to our work together.
To get the best out of sessions the following guidelines may be useful:
1. Aim to attend every scheduled appointment
2. Keep a therapy diary or journal for yourself and reflect on it. If the client is a relationship, this does not mean record your surveillance of the between session couple behaviour. It means keep a diary of your personal journey. I will revisit the between session couple transactions when and how I think it would be most effective.
3. If you wish, make an audio and/or video record of each session or take notes during it, or ask me to write you a summary on the day. All these suggestions are also useful for couple sessions.
4. Develop healthy support networks and draw on them to grow your inner and your relationship process. If the client is a couple, this may mean negotiating boundaries with people that hinder your growth. Or accessing friends and family who can give you breaks from family duties to spend quality time together.
5. At the next session, be prepared to share your observations, thoughts, feelings and your between session experiences openly with me. Read widely and think critically about the ideas that come up.
6. Complete any homework tasks negotiated with me. When unsure, ask for clarification, information or for further reading about any of the activities being recommended or undertaken.
7. Ask any question, discuss any doubts, and raise any concerns you have at any time
8. This is a process that is also governed by your learning and my teaching styles
2.1 Can the benefits be guaranteed?
It is an interactive process, which relies heavily upon you or your relationship. For example, your responses and openness; the particular issues and the personal resources available, and the timing of and readiness for change. No one can guarantee that a therapeutic process will meet the expectations of the person being treated. Many people experience positive and constructive outcomes but not everybody does. [Also see 'Risks' item 4.0 below]
Because we are all unique human beings and all have different perceptions and expectations of what we are seeking, the outcomes can vary as widely as the individual expectations and personal meanings of those who seek my services. I cannot promise any particular outcome, benefit or result from or time frame for the process.
For more information and up to date research on what works and doesn't work in therapy I recommend the talking cure site as a starting point. And the following link featuring a discussion of incompetent relationship therapy.
3.0 FACTS ABOUT MY ROLE
Qualifications and expertise
I am a registered psychologist with thirty five years experience of applied clinical psychology, working with individuals, couples, families and community groups. I attend regular, applied training in my fields of interest and undertake monthly peer supervision of my own process.
I am a member of the Australian Psychological Society, which is a professional body with its own Code of Ethics [found on the APS web site] and of its College of Clinical Psychology. My expertise is in Clinical and Relationship Psychologies.
I am subject to a wide range of professional and ethical requirements, imposed both by ACT statutory bodies, National Privacy Principles and the national professional association. Here are the NH&MRC has guidelines covering sensitive health information.
The effect of these dictates include that my duty to you will remain that of client and psychologist in perpetuity; that I cannot engage in dual business or social relationships with either you or your family, and neither can I accept gifts from you. I will always have more knowledge about you than you will have about me. I am bound to guard those confidences and the consequent imbalance of power in our relationship.
Methodology and approach
I use recognized and effective methods in our work together but they are not without risk. The outcome of psychological treatment is not good for everyone - at the very least not all individuals benefit to the same degree. And some individuals are worse off following a treatment program than they were before.
Consequently, if you have any questions or concerns about the approach that I am taking at any time, please do not hesitate to raise these with me and only proceed after you are completely satisfied with my explanation and your reading of the material I may refer you to.
4.0 The risks of psychological treatment
While people seek and derive many positive benefits from clinical psychology there are also risks. These arise from the effectiveness of the process as well as from a less than adequate fit of the process with the particular client or couple. Even in the context of a University research trial to test the effectiveness of a treatment process, conducted with world's best practice and safeguards, some people may be worse off after the treatment trial, even when the majority experience significant improvement.
From a scientific viewpoint it is not possible to determine whether the individual who did not improve in the intended way was actually harmed by the psychological treatment. But from a legal point of view it matters not.
If a psychologist does not engage their client proactively in a frank discussion about treatment risks, and warn of the possibility of deterioration during treatment s/he might be held to have caused the deterioration even where there is no scientific or logical evidence of a causal link. Read: 'Tell your clients you might hurt them.' O'Brien-Maloney & Diamond - Australian Psychologist Vol. 41 No 3 November 2006 page 164.
It's the very nature of a therapy to work and to work with issues and areas of people's lives that may expose, or be a catalyst for exposing those involved to a wide range of healing, joyful and challenging thoughts; of clarifying attitude changes that demand a re-think of long established patterns; of strong emotions, reactions and interactions; of mood and life changes.
Sometimes people have both positive and negative mood swings within and between therapy sessions. These may last a moment or hours and even days. These include experiences of joy and sorrow; of grief and anger; willfulness; despair; spaciousness and kindness; guilt and fear; love and hope; isolation and confusion; connection or temporary disorientation.
Others discover a loss or change of direction and/or a loss or change of motivation that has been bubbling under the surface for a long time. Some find old issues with spouses, family or friends re-surface, despite their best intentions to avoid the issue or move on.
There can also be physical signs and symptoms, including alteration in sleep patterns and in appetites; lack of or excess of energy; unusual or confronting sensations, thoughts or feelings. Sometimes headaches, rashes, dizziness, nausea, breathlessness and gastrointestinal upset can also occur. Mind and body are isomorphic.
When the client is a relationship or a family, its dysfunctional equilibrium, chronic adverse patterns and reciprocal interactions (e.g. blaming) can be disturbed or interrupted both for good and for ill. This might be experienced at times, as the relationship getting worse before there are sure signs of it getting better or of it being too hopeless to repair. Whilst these occurrences are hard to predict and to prepare for, the my job is to maintain a robust, well-contained and resourceful anchorage during these transitional phases of the process.
Sometimes these feelings, reactions and experiences can be very severe - to the point that they are quite debilitating in terms of the clients' daily life, their personal and professional commitments and their intimate relationships. Consequently, it is important that you let me know at the beginning and at any time thereafter, whether you have any current personal or professional issues pending, which could be seriously affected if any of the above risks arose. Likewise if you are likely to be facing any such issues during the period of your treatment and beyond, which could be seriously affected if any of the above risks arose. For example, do you have any job interviews, significant business or financial transactions, legal matters, family engagements, surgery, training or examinations or important employment related issues which, if you are seriously affected by a therapy process, could mean that you face unacceptable outcomes, including financial loss?
While relatively rare, it is also possible for the process to be a catalyst for reactions and feelings that lead to the desire for self-harm and/or for harm to others and/or to damage significant relationships. Therefore, it is very important that you share with me if you have ever experienced those feelings before and that you immediately raise those thoughts and feelings with me should they ever arise.Each person is different, so it is impossible to exhaustively list every possible adverse effect. If you're at all concerned about the potential risks and impact of a change process at this junction in your life, then you should consider whether now is the right time and place to proceed. You can always come back after that important personal or professional issue has been dealt with.
Go to my Links and Self-help pages for useful information here and on the web.
New clients are required to fill out my new client agreement form.
5.0 Terms, conditions, hours of operation and fees
Hours of practice
I am available from 10.00 am to 6.30 pm on Tuesday and Thursday and 2.00 to 5.00 pm Wednesdays from February to mid December in Canberra, except for June/July.
I can be reached by telephone or email to which you can expect a response within 24 hours.
I do not provide an emergency service outside the ordinary hours of practice or the limited after hours service. The ACT mental health emergency team is on (+61) 6205 1065 or (+61)1800 629 354 and Lifeline is on (+61) 13 1114. I am not in a position to provide any warranties or recommendations in relation to the above or any alternative service providers.
As my resources are limited I may not be available at short notice even within ordinary business hours or within the limited after hours sessions.
5.1 Fees
My fees are in return for the time I spend with you so that you are not indebted to me as one would be to a friend who provided a skillful, non-reciprocal relationship. The fee gives me the discretionary time to live a full and personally enriching life. That more than anything provides a healthy foundation in which to work with you or choose not to work with you.
My professional fees are as follows:
In person, by telephone, skype or email: $200 per hour and $250 for first consultation. You get $20 discount per session if you require no more paper work from me than a receipt. Some Private health insurance covers my services.
Missed appointments/sessions may be charged at the following rate:
48 hours or More Notice - No Charge
24 to 48 Hours Notice - 50% of Minimum charge
Less than 24 hours Notice - 100% of Minimum Charge
The Minimum Charge for a missed appointment or session is for one hour.
The terms of payment are either on the day of the session or, within fourteen days of the issue of an invoice. I reserve the right to charge an invoice fee of $20 per invoice per week on overdue accounts and to cease providing services unless payment is made promptly.
Top cover of a number of Private Health Funds rebate both individual and relationship sessions.
5.2 Medicare Provider No. 2768391A. Clinical Psychologist Medicare items are: 80000 to 80020.
Medicare may refund some of my fee (more if you have reached the safety net) for 6 sessions per calendar year, if referred by your GP (on a GPs Mental Health Care Plan), a Pediatrician or Psychiatrist for treatment of an assessed mental disorder such as depression, anxiety, trauma or an Adjustment Disorder (temporary maladjustment to major life events). A further six sessions may be approved by the referring GP after they have conducted an in person review (Medicare Item Number 2712) or they have approved a second set over the phone to me AND I have written a report for the first six sessions.
Note: Medicare rules state that, 'Psychologists must provide a written report to the referring medical practitioner following the first six services and/or on completion of the course of treatment. The written report should include information on: any assessments carried out on the client; any treatment provided, and recommendations on future management of the client's disorder.'
Medicare rebate fact sheet in .pdf
The mental disorder must be one managed by your GP or from a psychiatric assessment and management plan; or on direct referral by a psychiatrist or pediatrician from an eligible Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) service. An 'assessed mental disorder' might be Adjustment Disorder: European criteria, USA Criteria. Other disorders are listed on those links.
5.3 Referrals
I will not attempt to assist you in areas beyond my expertise or outside my current area of interest. In such cases I will, if appropriate, refer you to another professional with the relevant skills. In that case, by signing the agreement, you will be authorizing me to contact another practitioner on your behalf and provide that practitioner with any information he/she reasonably needs to assist you. You can review this authority with me at any time.
5.4 Records
The records created by me in relation to you are for me to be able to responsibly assist you and in order to reflect reasonably what has occurred in the client relationship. They are securely stored in my computer. I am the only person who has access to them. The National Privacy Principles contain special provisions applying to such sensitive information see www.privacy.gov.au or call the Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner on(+61) 1300 363 992 or visit the NH&MRC web site.
At all times the records and their contents remain my intellectual property. A copy will normally be available upon request by you and a small fee is payable. Subject to any statutory requirements and Privacy Principles, I reserve the right to provide you with a summary of your client record. Generally, I retain the records for 7 years but also I reserve the right to responsibly dispose of records at any time after the termination of our client relationship.
5.5 Confidentiality
Subject to the Agreement you may sign and the terms of the consent contained within it, all information in relation to you will be treated as confidential. However, it is not privileged information in the legal sense and can be subpoenaed. An ABC law report discussion of doctor-patient confidentiality. At times you may find a fragment of your story, presented out of context and in conjunction with fragments of other clients' stories in a composite characterization on the weekly analects page in this site. If even the possibility of this is likely to disturb you, please tell me immediately.
5.6 Complaints
It is the nature of any service provider that clients may, from time to time, have concerns about some aspect of the service being provided. Should you have a concern about any aspect of my services, please raise it with me in the first instance. If, after raising it, you are still not satisfied with the outcome, I will recommend the Conflict Resolution Service [(+61) 02 6295 5998] as the next step for us both to take. In the unusual event that you still remain unsatisfied, you will no doubt consider contact with the Health Services Commissioner and the ACT Psychologists Registration Board.
5.7 Third party complaint
If a member of your family is a client of this or another service, and you are concerned about the service being provided to your family member, there is an avenue of complaint open to you when you have exhausted the direct avenues.
Section 39(1)(vi) and sections 48(2) and (3) of the Human Rights Commission ACT 2005 does not prevent the Commission from investigating a complaint by a person who has not received a health service from a practitioner but has reason to complain about a service they have provided to another.
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 ZPJ Fox All Rights Reserved www.peterfox.com.au
Source for the idea of this page: "Risky Practices - a counselors guide to risk management in private practice' by Nigel McBride and Michael Tunnecliffe, Bayside Books 2001.
