We get it. Everyone is kind of uncertain about seeing a psychologist. But, on the awkward scale, we’d rate your first session at worst about 6.5/10. It’s a bit hard for maybe like fifteen minutes, then you get into the swing of it and it becomes a lot easier. At the end of the first session, most people are surprised by how much they had to say. 

You are an expert on your own life, so the psychologist's job is to simply ask questions about your world and get to know who you are. We ask all the easy questions first - who are your friends, where do you study/work, what do you like to do for fun and who’s in your family. Then we ask about the harder stuff, sometimes with the help of a parent. Sometimes it takes us a few sessions together to fully understand what’s not going well, other times we can jump straight in.

It depends on what is going on for you. Some people need support over a long period of time, others only need a couple of sessions to get back on track. The frequency and length of your contact with us is something you decide together with your therapist. 

But just so you know - the good news is that medicare can provide you with at least ten subsidised sessions per year. See our referrals section for more info on this. 

Don’t worry, this happens a lot for families. But it’s okay. As frustrating as it is, we can’t force a person into therapy. In our experience, it’s mostly a timing mismatch. Parents are often ahead of the problem and some teenagers haven’t quite caught up yet… Sometimes it's about planting the seed in conversation and waiting for the young person to be ready to engage. As an alternative, we can also offer some short term parenting support to help understand things and provide families with some guidance. 

All of our sessions go for 50 minutes.

We recommend booking at least four - six sessions in advance to secure an ideal time slot. 

Our after school/work appointments are in high demand, so if you need these, then it's best to be proactive! We also offer tele-health appointments, so this can help if you have a tight schedule.

While we often talk about relationships and intimate partners in our sessions, we do not provide couple counselling at The Wattle Tree Clinic. 

If you cannot make one of our sessions and need to cancel, don’t worry!

Please make sure to cancel or reschedule your booking 48 hours before the allocated time. Cancelling within this 48 hour window will incur a cancellation fee. Reminder text messages are sent to help avoid this.

Our clinic is open five days a week, with appointments starting from 8am and finishing around 8pm. However, most of our clinicians work part-time, so their hours vary. It’s best to get in contact with our admin team to discuss. 

At the moment our clinicians are busy doing therapy and we have not yet opened up our books for formal assessments. However, if this is something that you need, our clinicians can provide you with advice and local recommendations as to how to get this sorted.