Counseling Services

G’day, I’m so glad you’re here.

At Kookaburra Community, I offer virtual counseling primarily for individuals navigating relationship struggles, stress, and mood challenges, as well as couples who are looking to reconnect, repair, or simply understand each other better. My work with couples is grounded in a gentle, emotionally-focused approach that helps partners get underneath the surface patterns and into the deeper places where change and healing can actually happen.

I’m not a quick-fix or advice-giving kind of therapist. My style is relational, grounded, and experiential, meaning that we don’t just talk about your life and challenges from a distance. We will get intentionally curious together, in real time, about what’s showing up in you and what that might be asking for. It’s deeper work, and in my experience, it’s the kind that leads to real, lasting transformation.

I draw from approaches that help us understand how your past experiences and relationships might be shaping what you’re feeling now but always with compassion, not judgment. My aim is to offer a space where you feel supported, seen, and safe enough to let some of your inner guard down so we can meet the parts of you that need the most care.

I do accept insurance for individual counseling, and while couples therapy is often not covered by insurance, I’m happy to provide a superbill for you to submit for possible out-of-network reimbursement.

If any of this speaks to what you’re needing right now, I’d love to connect

Couples Counseling

When problems arise in a romantic relationship, it can be the cause of great distress. Most of us wish to have committed and fulfilling relationships and when a relationship breaks down, it can create feelings of anger, sadness, grief, and isolation. People going through a relationship breakdown are more likely to experience mental health problems (especially in the form of anxiety or depression), poor physical health, and reduced productivity at work.

Each of us are unique. We have learned how to be who we are through the particular circumstances of our family, and the society in which we live. Unfortunately, some of our early conditioning may result in us having feelings and behaviours that no longer serve us well, reduce our capacity for spontaneity and individuality, and our ability to relate well. Low self-esteem, poor personal boundaries, difficulties with intimacy, and feelings of shame and guilt impede our capacity to relate.

Letting go of this negative conditioning is possible. We tend to hang on fondly to old patterns of being and relating, fearing change or of being confronted with aspects of our personalities we prefer to keep at the blurry edges of our awareness. Whilst dipping into the unknown can be anxiety-provoking, it can also be exciting and enlivening, opening up possibilities only previously dreamed of.

If you are concerned about your relationship and want to improve it, or wish to learn how not to repeat the mistakes of the past in a new relationship, you may consider reaching out today. For more on the approach we use to address couples, see this post about Emotion Focused Therapy for couples.

Individual Counseling

Counseling for parents

The beginning of healthy development in children starts with a parent who isn’t perfect, but is good enough. We provide individual counseling for parents of children under the age of 5 as well as run parenting classes, groups and child-parent psychotherapy for parents with children experiencing challenges to their psychological, social and emotional development. We specialize in supporting parents in the perinatal period (pregnancy through to age 1).

We also run groups (currently online) for parents of infants and toddlers. Our most popular group is The Circle of Security group. This is an 8 week group programme for parents of pre-school children. Parents usually come to this group when there is a concern about the child's emotional and/or behavioural development, or where the bond between the parent and child has been disrupted in some way.

The group helps parents to:

• Understand their child's emotional world by learning to read emotional needs;

• Support their child's ability to manage emotions;

• Enhance their child's self-esteem;

• Understand their child's desire to be in a secure relationship with their parents.

There will usually be up to 8 parents in the group, both mothers and fathers can attend. The group lasts for 1.5 hours. The group uses videos to explain some concepts, and there is plenty of time for talking and reflecting too. The group is run by a Licensed Professional Counselor and a trained co-facilitator.

Infants and toddlers

One of the ways in which we help children is through Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). CPP is an intervention model for children aged 0-5 who have experienced at least one traumatic event and/or are experiencing mental health, attachment, and/or behavioral problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Therapeutic sessions include the child and parent or primary caregiver. The primary goal of CPP is to support and strengthen the relationship between a child and his or her caregiver as a vehicle for restoring the child's cognitive, behavioral, and social functioning.