What you can expect
Book Appointment
Book your appointment in the 'Book Online' "Book Now' or 'Services' tabs or call 0476 720 030. Private appointments require payment by 12 noon the day prior to your appointment. View the 'policies' or F&Q tab for information on rescheduling paid appointment and cancellation policy. Please indicate the address and details where you would like the session to take place at the time of booking and age of child/young person
50 minute meet and greet (no charge)
Stand Strong Psychological will contact you to arrange a 50 meet and greet (no charge). The meet and greet is mainly to meet the client or child/young person, introduce myself explain a bit what will happen in the session, what can b eexpected, and answer any questions they might have. This is also the time for parents/caregivers to give me any necessary information about where and how the session will take place for example, home or school. The meet & greet is a part of Stand Strong's Psychologica's client focused approach. We want to start out with  you feeling more comfortable and in control from the first session and set you up for a successful therapeutic experience.
First Session: Parent Session (if child is under 18)
Every familiy's/person's situation is different. As a Mental Health Psychotherapist my role is to work around the client  which, if dealing with young people, is the child/young person and the context that is around them. If the trapeuti session is for a child/young person, the first session will be a parent's/caregiver's session which the young person may or may not partially attend. The main point of the first session with parents/caregivers is for me to explain how I work and discuss confidentiality and for me to gain to gain information about the reasons you are coming to see me for therapy or practical social work services. I request information around   medical conditions, behaviours, what outcomes the indvidual or parents/caregivers are hoping to achieve. What has worked, what hasn't worked, what iare your or the child's/young person's communication style, what are their triggers if any? What if any events have occurred in the young person's life that may have led them to this point. I understand that this can be a difficult conversation. My role is to be non judgemental and to meet you / young person where you are and working collaboratively with you. You are the expert on your own lives, I seek to gain information to help me use my knowledge and skills as a social worker/therapist to assist in achieving the desired outcome which ultimately leads to a happier, healthier you, child, family unit.
Second Session: Child/young person's first session
The first session is with the client. This session is an important one in regards to continue to create space of trust and safety. In this session I will: - Revisit what we discussed in the meet and greet about what to expect going forward. - Discuss the confidentialty clause. - For those who are attending under parental/caregiver direction, we will have an age appropriate discussion around what confidentiality means and the reasons when I may not be able to keep confidentiality due to the safety and well being mandate. We will discuss what will happen in those scenarios. - For those 16 and younger I like to do up an age appropriete client counselling client contract that we both will sign and the young person gets a copy of this to help with feelings of empowerment and collaboration as well as committment to the therapeutic process. - A discussion is had around the options of inviting their parent/caregiver into the session for all or part of the session or what if anything they would like to be shared with the parent/caregiver and who will share it. Thus the client (child/young person) has complete control over this decision although I will make suggestions from time to time. Most likely the involemvent of parental participation will vary throughout the sessions. - The rest of the first session with the child/young person is doing an engagement activity of their choice from options offered. This is to help build trust for the child/young person. whilst also engaging and becoming more familiar with each other.
Third Session: Assessment
If the therapy is for a child or young person under 16 years of age, this session is around gathering information about the child/young person in order to create a therapeutic treatment plan. If the therapy is for an adult this will be done in the second session. Depending on the age of the child a parent/caregiver may be needed to assist in providing some of the information needed. Stand Strong uses Biopsychosocial Assessments which are based on the biopsychosocial model proposed by Dr. George Engel in 1977. According to Engel's model, a person's biological, social and psychological factors are all intertwined and influence their well-being. In other words, a person's body and mind are not separate entities. For example, if a client experiences a physical illness while lacking social support, they may become depressed or anxious. Similarly, if a person has depression, they might withdraw from their friends and family and neglect self-care, impacting their physical and social wellness. Stand Strong recognizes the need to view clients holistically and consider how various aspects of a person's life might contribute to a mental health issue, impair the functioning or maintain a disorder. A biopsychosocial assessment helps counsellors, social workers, and other behavioral health professionals learn about their clients on multiple levels and better understand their subjective viewpoints. As a result, a biopsychosocial assessment will support Stand Strong to develop an effective treatment plan.
Fourth Session Parent/Caregiver & child/youth
In this session I will discuss the outcome of the Biopychosocial Assessment and propose a treatment plan with a review date.
Ongoing sessions
From here on I work with the adult, child or young person according to the treatment plan until the review date. I believe strongly that the best outcome for a successfull therapuetic outcome is when family,friends and community can support the child/young person externally with thie goals and strategies. To support the holistic approch parents/caaregivers will recieve email communication throughout the couse of the child's journey with Stand Strong. The information provided will be in keeping with confidentiality and be a broad outline of what the child/young person is working on and what steps we re taking to achieve that. For example the child/young person is working on emotional regulation (managing their emotions under stressfull conditions) I might share this and explain "child (name) is working on mindfulness techniques of taking 5 deep breaths in and out) I might share that the child sometimes needs prompting to use this technique or prehaps the child favours this technique over counting or using senses awareness (what can you see, what can you smell etc) Thus without breaking confidentiality I can support the child's progression outside of therapy to encourge and support consistency in their continual development.
Review
If a review date was set you will recieve reminder email one week prior to the review date. This session will involve discussions with the adut, child/young person (as age appropriete) around reviewing the goals that were set and their views of the therapeutic process this far, and what would be helpful moving forward. This may be more sessions. I will have aa review discussion with the parent/cregiver at the end of this session and put forward my reccomendation going forward. Future sessions for those paying privately is of course dependent on what you decide.
