Questions

Confidentiality – Sessions are confidential and will remain private. It is a requirement of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) that counsellors keep case notes of sessions, and these also are confidential.

The only exceptions to this are when your prior consent for release has been obtained, your counsellor believes there is a risk of danger to yourself or others, or there is a situation where there is risk to a child. Case notes may be subpoenaed by the Courts, but this is rare.

referrals from a GP are not required and you can simply book an appointment when you are ready – see Appointments

1. What happens during a session? The 50-minute sessions do not follow a pre-defined structure. This is your time and the sessions will be guided by you and your needs and wants. There are some administrative requirements that need to be completed in your first session, but after that it’s up to you.

People choose counselling for many reasons and vary in what they want to achieve, so it is difficult to put a number on the number of sessions needed. It is generally considered that as a rule of thumb six to eight sessions are required to make sustainable change, but again this will depend on the issue and the individual. It is important to note that you can stop sessions at any time if you wish.