Finding the ‘right’ psychologist
Feeling confident that you’ve found the ‘right’ psychologist to effectively guide you through your stress, anxiety or other mental health concerns can sometimes be a challenge! It might take several sessions before you feel that the therapeutic relationship has ‘clicked’. Asking a prospective psychologist for the opportunity to briefly meet and/or talk before consultations begin may help to foster initial confidence. The Australian Psychological Society, which is not a compulsory organisation for psychologists to join, has a useful ‘Find a Psychologist’ tool. The tool allows you to enter up to three ‘issues’ and nominate a radius around your postcode. The search results can be further refined by therapeutic approach, available appointment times and gender of the psychologist.
I refer to psychologists at the Small St clinic in Hampton, to psychotherapists at Bayside Psychotherapy* in East Brighton and further afield.
A number of well designed online resources and even an App, including mindspot, moodGYM and ‘anxiety online’, are available. A comprehensive list was found here at the Beyond Blue website at the time this article was written. Completing the DASS test, which is a validated questionnaire developed by researchers at the University of New South Wales, will provide a very useful insight into the nature and severity of one’s condition. The easiest way to do this is online, such as at this UK based online DASS site.
*Some of the psychotherapists at Bayside Psychotherapy are not registered for Medicare rebates, but they are fully qualified health professionals. Psychotherapists differ from Psychologists in that they look more deeply into your formative history in order to link it with your present problems.
