Persistent Pain and Trauma Therapy

I primarily see adults over 18 years experiencing trauma and persistent pain. This is my focus area. I am slowly expanding my clinical skill set, but do not yet provide treatment to children.

I do not provide couples or family therapy, assessments or reports for autism or ADHD, assessments or reports for legal matters, mandated therapy under corrections orders, or therapy to clients funded by National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), WorkCover, Victims of Crime or Department or Veterans Affairs (DVA).

In accordance with ethical principles, I do not work with anyone who has a close relationship with an existing or former client; nor anyone I have a present or past personal relationship with. This means that I do not provide psychological therapy to students that attend my yoga classes.

If you have a query or concern about accessing one of my services and potential conflicts of interest, please don't be afraid to get in touch and we can discuss your options. I would let you know if working together would be in violation of my ethical code of conduct and in that scenario, I would be most happy to provide recommendations for other local yoga teachers, yoga therapists, body workers, counsellors, psychotherapist and clinical psychologists that you could consider seeing instead. I am a part of a wonderful network of skilful trauma and pain care providers in Geelong and the Surf Coast - if I cannot help you, I can point you in the right direction to others than can.

You will need to make an appointment with your current GP or Specialist (Pain Specialist, Psychiatrist, Gynaecologist etc) and ask them to refer you to me. Even if you do not wish to claim sessions through Medicare, I ask that you still obtain a referral from a doctor (and they will still often opt to write you a Mental Health Treatment Plan (MHTP)). This is my preference because I work with people with complex medical histories, and it is best practice that a full medical examination has been done to rule out medical red flags for your pain. Additionally, it is important that I understand your relevant medical history to ensure I can provide the safest and most effective psychological treatment to you.

I highly recommend checking with the GP’s administrative team if you need to book a longer appointment to obtain a MHTP, as GP’s often require an extended consultation to complete this assessment and care plan. 

Medicare Pathway: Mental Health Treatment Plan (MHTP)

If you are experiencing poor mental health, your doctor can create a MHTP with you to guide your recovery. Your MHTP will have goals, treatment options, arrangements for referrals (for example, sending a referral to me) and plans for review and follow-up, agreed by you and your doctor. A MHTP lets you claim up to 10 individual sessions with me each calendar year. To start with, your doctor or specialist will refer you for up to 6 sessions. If you need more, you will have to return to your GP for a MHTP review, and I will write to your doctor to request 4 more rebated appointments. You doctor will decide if they grant you further appointments with me to continue to work together to achieve your theraputic goals.

Medicare Pathway: GP Chronic Condition Management Plan (GPCCMP)

There is no strict, fixed list of eligible conditions for a GP Chronic Condition Management Plan (GPCCMP), instead, eligibility depends on your GP's clinical judgment that you have a condition that is ongoing or expected to last for at least six months, or is terminal. Common qualifying conditions include:

• Diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2)

• Heart disease and high blood pressure

• Asthma and other chronic lung conditions

• Arthritis and osteoporosis

• Musculoskeletal conditions (such as back or joint pain)

• Cancer and stroke recovery

• Kidney disease

• Mental health conditions connected to an ongoing physical illness

Your GP decides whether your chronic condition would benefit from allied health services, such as Clinical Psychology. A GPCCMP lets you claim up to 5 rebated appointments with me per calendar year, and I would write to your GP to request more rebated appointments after our first appointment and then again to share your progress with treatment, after our fifth appointment.

Private Health Insurance

Private Health Insurance Extras Cover (that includes Psychology) may partially rebate appointments. Many people use their 10 Medicare rebated sessions first, then switch to Private Health Extras for rebates on subsequent visits. You cannot use both Medicare and Private Health Insurance Extras Cover on the same single session (i.e. your Extras cannot be used to pay my gap fee arising from Medicare rebated sessions).

Traffic Accident Commission (TAC)

The TAC is a Victorian Government-owned organisation set up to promote road safety and help pay for treatment and benefits for people injured in transport accidents. Within the first 90 days of a transport accident, they can help pay for some treatments and services without the need to contact them for approval first. In other circumstances, you will need to contact them for approval. In either instance, please see obtain your medical documentation or see your GP to have a record of medical or psychological injuries relating to the accident as soon as possible. For our treatment to continue via the TAC pathway beyond 90 days after your transport accident, we will need to send them a request in writing or a copy of the mental health treatment plan we have written together.

To find out if you are eligible for this referral pathway, visit the TAC website.

Full Fee Paying

I welcome referrals from those with the financial means to self-fund their treatment, this option is the most expensive but also the most flexible. I just ask that a referral letter is sent from your GP that a full medical examination has been done to rule out medical red flags for your pain, and any other relevant medical history, so that I can offer the safest and most effective psychological treatment to you.

Referrals Pathways I don’t currently service

Like most private allied health practitioners, sadly I cannot offer bulk billing. I do not currently accept referrals for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), WorkCover, Victims of Crime or Department or Veterans Affairs (DVA) funded clients.

Once I have received your referral, I will email you an intake form to fill in some of your historical and clinical information - which saves us going over this in our assessment (first 1-3 appointments). In this first email I will also send you the Client Service Agreement, Informed Consent & Privacy Collection Notice - this important legal document has all the information you need to know about upfront and sign as our agreement before we start treatment (it includes my service agreement, informed consent, Telehealth terms, fees and cancellation, confidentiality and its limits, and privacy policy and collection notice). I will also offer you an appointment and recurrent weekly or fortnightly time, depending on your preference. I have a consulting room at Yoga Farm in Mount Duneed. I am located there and offer regular weekly or fortnightly appointments there on Fridays only. You have the option to see me in-person or via Telehealth.

There is usually a clear beginning, middle and end phase of therapy. During our first few appointments, the focus is on assessment and getting to know the challenges you face, change you want help to make and how you’d like me to help you make that change. Our sessions are 50 minutes in duration. The frequency of sessions I usually recommend is a recurrent fortnightly appointment, however you may also opt for a weekly appointment (same appointment each week or fortnightly), especially for the first six appointments. This appointment scheduling structure is based on the fact that I am a single independent practitioner offering just five appointments per week - this structure allows me to offer consistent and equitable care to as many people as possible. The likely length of treatment will be discussed and mutually agreed upon in the beginning, or treatment planning phase of our therapeutic process.

Once this is established and we know the work you want to do, we get down to the work and play of psychoeducation, psychological skill development, trauma and pain reprocessing. Depending on your circumstances, this can take merely a few sessions, or a few years, but I do not believe you need to recline back on the couch for 30 years to “fix” yourself. Lets go slow, and work hard - together, to get you where you want to be, as soon as possible.

Once you have achieved your goals, your symptoms have improved, you feel more somatically, emotionally, mentally and relationally skilful, or you have reprocessed the pain or trauma that brought you to therapy, our work together is complete.

The approach I use is based on a collaborative discussion with you, that starts when you fill out my intake form and is an ongoing conversation when I seek your feedback following each session. There are literally hundreds of therapeutic approaches and we know that at the core of what makes each one of them effective or ineffective, is the strength of the therapeutic relationship. Understanding the profound importance of this relationship, the felt-sense of safety, respect, honesty, compassion and belief in your capacity to heal is at the heart of my therapeutic approach.

My primary therapeutic approach is EMDR therapy, which is a gold standard approach for treating trauma, and often works well treating pain and other physical symptoms too. I interweave techniques from parts-work, somatic and mind-body approaches I am trained in, based on your goals, interests and needs, along the therapeutic journey.

Many people starting out in therapy for the first time, think that all we do is talk. This is understandable given that this is the traditional approach and an enduring depiction of therapy in popular culture. However, my therapeutic approach is more embodied than traditional talk therapy. Whilst I’m interested to hear the story in you that wants to be told and heard - the story the body has to share is of equal importance to me. This means that we sometimes pause the narrative story, to be with the sensation or emotion or movement that the body is making in that moment. This can become a kind of somatic meditation, which helps support a completion of survival responses (incomplete fight, flight, freeze responses from the past), increase your body/somatic awareness and develop deeper psychological integration. Within a therapeutic process, there are hundreds of small moments and opportunities for healing, all contained within the safe boundaries of our treatment plan and agreement that you to ultimately become your own therapist - or your own most adult, embodied and compassionate internal leader.

My consulting fee for psychological therapy is $250 per appointment.

As of July 1, 2026, the following rebates can be applied for psychological therapy:

Mental Health Treatment Plan (MHTP)

The Medicare rebate for a Clinical Psychologist under a MHTP is $149.05. This rebate leaves a gap fee of $100.95 per appointment, with up to 10 appointments able to be rebated per calendar year.

Chronic Condition Management Plan (CCMP)

The Medicare rebate for seeing a Clinical Psychologist under a CCMP is $63.40. This rebate leaves a gap fee of $186.60 per appointment, with up to 5 appointments able to be rebated per calendar year.

Private Health Insurance

Rebates depend on policy which varies by insurance providers and tiers (rebate may be between $50-$120, for example). Rebates may be subject to waiting periods and maximum limits, so you need to self-manage these reimbursements with your insurance provider (i.e. you pay for your appointment with me in full and then send your private health insurance provider your paid invoice, so that you can claim your rebate directly).

TAC

The TAC rebate for a Clinical Psychologist is $250. If you are eligible, TAC covers my full consultation fee. However, you are required to self-manage these reimbursements directly with the TAC (i.e. you pay for your appointment with me in full and then email TAC your paid invoice so that you claim your rebate directly).