Frequently asked questions

Billing & Fees

  • Please see my fee page for the latest fees.

  • I will send an invoice that you can pay via credit card or bank transfer.

  • No.

    For more information on this, read my blog post about Mental Health Care Plans.

  • Yes, if:

    • I am registered with your health insurance (here is a list).

    • If you have the right coverage

    You can take the receipt and claim directly with your insurance company..

  • No.

  • I charge a 50% cancellation fee for cancellations with less than 2hrs notice. Please let me know if you are just cancelling a session or if you would like to stop seeing me all together.

    My 2hr policy is part of my trauma-informed, neurodiversity affirming practice as many Autistics struggle with executive functioning. ADHDers do as well, and they end up paying a dispropriate amount of late fees and penalties compared to the rest of the population (AKA ADHD-tax)..

Counselling Process

  • No.

    It's my job to help you make your relationship work for you. I might have insights into or strategies that works for AuDHD adults that I might suggest.

    I do work from the perspective that being Autistic/ADHD is similar to being from a minority culture, and the goal cannot simply be to assimilate into neuronormative relationships styles.

    I often think that NT/ND or ND/ND relationships present a unique opportunity to find ways to do relationships differently, in a way that works for both of you.

  • Individual counselling is a session that only you attend. The topic of the counselling session can be about anything, including relationships or parent coaching.

  • Couple's counselling is where you attend with another person to work on the relationship. There does not have to be a conflict that you want to solve, but that is often why people end up coming.

    There are lots of reasons to go to relationship counselling. Some of the reasons you might go:

    • you are in a new relationship and you want to establish how the relationship will work

    • one or more people in the relationship are Autistic/ADHD (or other neurodivergences), and you need help to do relationships differently or be supported in conversations

    • you think the relationship could be better and want some help to explore different ways to improve the relationship

    • your relationship is going awesome, but you want to set aside some time to honour each other and dig deeper in conversation with one another

    • You are separating, but still want (or need) to communicate well through the separation.

  • Parent coaching is when both parents come to sessions with the intent to improve their parenting. This work will likely include individual exploration and relationship dynamics between the partners as well.

    If only one parent intends to come to parent coaching this can be booked under individual sessions.

    Parent coaching can be a good alternative to sending your children to counselling. As parents, you spend a lot of time with your children and have a lot of influence. Changing yourself, your relationship with your child and/or partner and improving your parenting skills can have positive flow on effects to your children.

  • Sessions are either 60 or 90 minutes. 60 minutes is the standard I offer, so please advise at the time of booking that you would prefer a 90 minute session.

    The session will start from the time you have booked for.

    The session time will also include the time it takes to make a booking for the next session and to take payment.

    It may sometimes finish a few minutes early if a natural ending to the session is found. This can be preferable to opening up a completely new topic with only minutes to go.

  • This depends on you and what you are coming to counselling for.

    I tend to focus on more in-depth work, but I will also be guided by you and the goals that you set. Generally the more complex the topic the longer is required.

    You are not locked into a set number of sessions.

    Sometimes people find it useful to take "therapeutic breaks", where they stop counselling for a little while and return after a break.

  • I see most people on a fortnightly basis (If you would like sessions more frequently, please let me know). I usually book people on the same day/time to create consistency and predictability for you. However, if you work shiftwork and you need to change the day/time I can accommodate that too.

    You can move to monthly or ad hoc sessions when ready, or you might feel that you are ready to finish counselling without reducing the session frequency.

    From there you can also opt to do check-ins from time to time.

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What happens in the first session?

  • I will send you a counselling agreement and client form to complete.

    The counselling agreement covers a lot of the administrative aspects of our professional relationship, like payment of fees, cancellations, limits of confidentiality and more.

    I will also send you a Zoom link for the session. This will be the same link for each session.

  • I will ask you about what has brought you to counselling to help me figure out how I can best support you.

    You don’t need to do any preparation for any of your answers, but if you find prompts helpful, you might consider these:

    • What is the key issue that made you look for a counsellor?

    • How long has it been going on for?

    • If the issue has existed for a while, was there a catalyst that prompted you to seek counselling now?

    • Has anything changed since you booked the session?

  • Now that I know what has brought you to counselling, I will want to know more about how we should use our time together.

    This is important because I don’t have a predetermined destination in mind for you - I want you to decide where you want to go. And if you don’t know - which does happen, that’s okay. That might be part of the work for us to figure that out.

    Again you don’t have to do any preparation work for this before your session, but if you find prompts helpful, these might help:

    • What does success look like for you?

    • Imagine we have finished our counselling; ideally, what would be different?

  • You might already know some things that work well or don’t work well for you based on previous therapy experience. I want to work with you in a very individualised way, so knowing this is helpful for me.

    If you have had counselling before, these some prompts that might help with answering this questions:

    • What has worked well for you in counselling previously?

    • What would you want to do more of?

    • What hasn’t worked well in counselling previously?

    • What do you definitely do not want to do?

What happens in the last session?

  • In an ideal world, we would plan for when the last session would be so that we could have the opportunity to reflect and plan. This is especially helpful if you have been doing long-term counselling (10 sessions +).


    This is not always possible. Sometimes people have to stop counselling suddenly because their financial situation changes, they move away, or there are schedule changes. Some people feel a bit akward to end so they don’t want to tell me it’s their last session. If for whatever reason you have to stop counselling more suddenly, I would encourage you to spend some time on these aspects, perhaps through journalling or discussing with someone.


    How will I know I am ready to end counselling?

    Most people can feel when they are ready to stop having counselling on a regular. basis. And this is usually when they have had sustained change outside of the counselling sessions and they now feel comfortable going on more independently. If you are not sure, make sure to bring it to counselling and we can talk about it!

    Can I have reduced sessions instead of ending?

    Yes! This can be a very gentle way to end counselling. Some people like to stay on irregular sessions (e.g. quarterly).

    Will you ever end the counselling relationship?

    This is sometimes necessary, but it is something I will talk to you about if it happens. Some people have been fired by counsellors or other allied health in the past, and it can be really traumatic. It is especially common for Autistics/ADHDers and those with complex trauma. If this has happened you, feel free to bring it up with me in our first, or any session, so that we can talk through this in more depth.

  • It can be helpful to look back at where you started and to see how far you have come. This might look like thinking back to:

    • why you first came to counselling

    • your first session

    • moments that stand out to you

    • changes that you can identify in yourself and what helped you create those changes

    • things that were helpful for you in the counselling sessions

    • things that were not helpful for you in the counselling sessions

    You might also want to reflect on what ending feels like, for example, how do you feel about ending this counselling relationship?

  • Moving from having regular counselling to not may feel like a really big step! Like all of a sudden, you are on your own. Reducing the frequency of your sessions first can help with this sometimes.

    Even if you do feel confident about moving forward, there are some things that you might want to plan ahead for:

    • How will you know it’s time to come back to counselling (thinking about triggers, life circumstances, issues resurfacing, reduced mood, etc)?

    • How will you maintain your changes, what preventative/proactive things will be helpful?

    • What do you need to do well?

    You might have some specific things you want to plan for and we can discuss those also.

NDIS

  • No.

    This means I can only see plan or self managed clients.

  • Yes, if:

    • you have funding for therapy in your plan

    • the counselling helps you to work towards your NDIS goals

  • I can.

    If this is something you are interested in, please let me know when I first start seeing you so that I can do additional assessments that will help with report writing.

    Quotes for report writing are upon request.

  • Yes.

  • If you are plan-managed, you will know that you can fees are bound to the NDIS price guide.

    My fee for NDIS clients and non-NDIS clients is the same.

    There is a lot of work that goes into sessions, including:

    • session prep

    • note writing

    • research

    • providing resources

    • in-between session contact

    • supervision

    There are also administrated-related tasks.

    The NDIS fee is $156.16 per hour. I charge this, plus a fee for non-face face charges that covers the items listed in the dot points for each session.

    The non-face to face time I charge is the minimum amount that I require for on each session. However, to keep the billing fair between NDIS and non-NDIS clients, I will never charge you additional even if these tasks take longer. This also means you know that what I quote you for my services is what you will pay.

    *If you are self-managed, your invoice won't include this level of detail unless you request this.

    **Please note that these non-face-to-face charges do not include report writing.

Bookings

  • No.

  • No.

    Counselling requires a person to engage with the process, and an important part of that process is the intial step of asking for help.

    I offer a number of different ways that people can get in touch to assist with neurodivergent needs.

  • You can.

    However, I am often unavailable to take cals because I am in session.

    If you prefer a phone call, you can also send me a text and I can call you back.

  • Yes.

    Send me an email and I'll send you a booking link where you can choose a day/time for a quick chat.

  • Any weekday session that starts after 9am and finishes before 5pm will be charged business hours.


    Any weekday session that starts before 9am or finishes after 5pm and all weekend sessions will be charged after hour rates.

  • Yes.

  • If your child is 16 or 17 years of age, I will accept a booking made by a parent.

  • No.

What happens in subsequent sessions?

  • I will usually check-in if there is something specific that you want to bring to the session to explore. I find that being explicit about what you want the session to be about can help with a sense of purposefulness of the sessions.

    Some people find it helpful to set an agenda for the session.

    Not everyone finds this way of working helpful, or they are not sure how to do it - and that is okay. If this is you we will work together to find ways to determine what we spend the session on. This might look like:

    • reviewing the last week/fortnight

    • identifying issues or wins that have happened

    • doing check-ins with yourself (physically and/or emotionally) to see what you notice

    • Talking about what it is like to come to counselling but not know what to talk about

    This is your session, and we can spend the time on what you find necessary. I believe everything can have a purpose in our counselling sessions.

  • I use a range of counselling methods because I want to adapt my style to your needs.

    For more about how I work an my training visit my About Me page

  • Depending on the content of our sessions, I might use different check-ins.

    Check-ins might look like:

    • subjective rating scales

    • informal screening tools, like the DAS-21

    • open-ended questions

    • noticing questions

    This helps us both to check where you are in the session, but also give us some data over the longer term to help observe and measure change.

    Lots of strategies depend on you noticing what is happening for yourself, so building this as a habit of mind can be very helpful in applying the relevant strategy.

  • Depending on the content of our sessions, I might use different check-ins.

    Check-ins might look like:

    • subjective rating scales

    • informal screening tools, like the DAS-21

    • open-ended questions

    • noticing questions

    This helps us both to check where you are in the session, but also give us some data over the longer term to help observe and measure change.

    Lots of strategies depend on you noticing what is happening for yourself, so building this as a habit of mind can be very helpful in applying the relevant strategy.

  • I will often ask reflective questions throughout the session. This is to help you stop and take note (and get better at noticing!). The brain also makes connections between things when it is asked to reflect, so like check ins, this is a helpful habit to develop.

    Some people find it particularly hard to reflect on the counselling session at the end of their session. Again this is totally okay - you might find that your make the connection later or we find alternate ways to reflect.

  • It depends, but usually no. Generally your homework will be self-directed by putting in place or practicing the things we discuss in our counselling sessions.

    Why don't you get homework?

    Formal homework is usually counsellor directed and not individualised, for example a worksheet for you to do during the week.

    I rarely set formal homework because it is rarely helpful for neurodivergents. For many people it also activates their perfectionist or people pleasing parts. For PDAers it will just feel like being told what to do and can cause resistance.

    I don’t believe it’s usually necessary to set homework, because transferring what you are learning and experiencing in counselling will transfer into real life when you are ready or when it is safe. (And we can talk more about this process in sessions if you want to).

    I do, however, work with you on developing individualised strategies and we talk about how you might practice them outside the counselling room as well. This allows you to set the pace and to come back for feedback and guidance, in a very safe and self-directed manner.

  • Couple's counselling & parent coaching works a little bit differently from individual counselling. So, whilst we might still use all the tools I have listed above, there will be some distinct differences.

    Depending on what you bring for discussion on the day and what your overall goals for counselling are, this might look like:

    • digging deep into exploring a strategy

    • having a guided conversation, and focusing on implementing strategies that you are working on (e.g. reflective listening or soft start-ups)

    • getting a deeper understanding of the origin of issues, exploring individual perspectives and impacts

    • exploring how different neurotypes or differences within the same neurotype impact the relationship and ways to work through this

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