Supports & Fees

Play therapy is a form of counselling that is specifically designed for children, taking into consideration their stage of development. Unlike adults, children’s brains, bodies and nervous systems are not fully developed to effectively engage in traditional talk-based interventions. Children also may not have explicit memories of previous experiences they are needing to work through given their age and development, where these experiences may be stored inside their bodies. Play therapy offers a great opportunity for kids to use their primary language of play within the context of a safe relationship with their play therapist to safely explore difficulty experiences or challenges that for some reasons have yet to been processed by their brains.

What can play therapy help with?

• social difficulties or bullying
• anxiety
• anger/acting out behaviors
• low moods
• early trauma challenges
• grief and loss
• selective mutism
• chronic illness/medical
• trauma
• oppositional challenges
• parental separation and stress

What can it help my child with?

• learn about different emotions, how they feel in their body and ways to express them
• shifting/change behaviors
• build problem solving skills
• shift negative self-talk
• develop skills to build relationships
• build more positive connection to self
• develop self-advocacy skills
• increase resilience

There are a number of different play therapy approaches that can be used with your child and family. Please make contact to discuss your child’s individual needs, to see how we can assist you. First step in the process, would be to book a parent session to complete a developmental history of your child, learn about you and your child and develop an individualised treatment plan.

Medicare rebates may apply.

Family Therapy and Parenting Support

Families are one of the most influential and protective factors in their children and young people’s lives, where there is so much parents/caregivers can do in and out of sessions to support their children’s mental health and overall wellbeing. At times children and young people may be reluctant to engage in their own therapeutic process, however that does not mean that supports are not available to assist in their healing. When children/teens are attending their own therapeutic space with a therapist, this is only for 50 minutes once a fortnight or once a month, where parents and caregivers are at home daily with their children and young people. This provides a unique opportunity to bring greater change.

Healthy Minds and Wellbeing Supports have a number of ways to support your family, these include;

• Family Therapy
• Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT)
• Parent Support Sessions

Family Therapy

All families experience challenges from time to time. This does not always have to be connected to a traumatic event, but can be associated with periods of change, transitions or stress. Sometimes families appear to be struggling to connect like they use to and need a little assistance from an external person, supporting them to understand what is going on in their unique family system and offering guidance to help get them back on track.

How Does Family Therapy Work?

Family therapy is an intervention that looks at the entire family system, but specifically at the interactions and patterns of behavior that are currently playing out and potentially increasing stress and conflict, impacting the overall functioning of the entire family.

All families are unique and require a comprehensive assessment and treatment plan targeted to their individual needs. At times this may include focusing on separating out parent sessions from sibling sessions, before bringing all family members together in sessions.

What can family therapy offer?

Family therapy offers a diverse range of benefits. This includes a unique opportunity to:

• explore your family dynamics and understand current patterns of behavior that may be adding additional stress or pressure to the system
• work to improve family interactions and overall communication
• work on conflict resolution skills
• learn to develop and communicate boundaries
• work on reducing stress and conflict in the home
• strengthen family relationship between members
• explore and honor your parenting strengths
• explore new ways to understand and offer support to your children and young people

Other Family Support Options

Family therapy is typically a talk-based intervention, incorporating a minimum of two members of a family system. However, there are other ways to support families, especially with younger children. These include; Child Parent Relationship Therapy which combines both family therapy and play therapy techniques, typically aimed at families with younger children or Parent Support sessions that look at therapists supporting parent/caregivers to deepen their understanding of their young people and make changes, without the children/young people ever attending.

Medicare rebates may apply.

For more information or to discuss your families' unique needs, please feel free to make contact.

Teen Therapy

Healthy Minds and Wellbeing Supports are pleased to offer therapy for teenagers and young people. Therapy is designed around a young person’s unique needs. Typically, families reach out for talk based interventions to support their young people, however, at Healthy Minds and Wellbeing Supports, we are flexible and can incorporate the use of sand tray, art or gaming to best connect and support young people.

Teen Therapy can assist with:

• Relationship difficulties/bullying
• Self-image, including body image concerns
• School stressors, including study/exam pressures
• Parent/teen relationship stressors
• Manage anxiety and depressive symptoms
• Support for self-harming thoughts/behaviors, risk taking behaviors or suicidal thinking
• Trauma/grief and loss

Our therapy approach is informed by a number of different modalities and techniques that are targeted to meet a teens individual needs. These include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
• Family Therapy
• Interpersonal Therapy

Teen therapy can occur face to face in either our Kyneton or Castlemaine office or online.

Medicare rebates may apply for sessions. Please make contact to discuss your unique needs.

Child Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT)

What is CPRT?

CPRT is a play based therapeutic program, that can support families where children are struggling with a number of vulnerabilities, these include concerns with externalised behaviors, social and emotional development issues as well as attachment concerns. The approach was first developed to support young children aged 3-8 years but has been further developed and researched to support families with children aged 2-12.

What will happen during CPRT sessions?

Unlike other therapeutic interventions, CPRT focuses on the parent/child relationship as the avenue of support and healing, as opposed to the therapist/child relationship in other therapeutic approaches. Parent’s will work alongside a trained therapist who will support them in developing new skills in order to better understand and respond to their child’s needs. These skills will then be practiced at home during weekly play time sessions between caregiver and child to strengthen their relationship. CPRT can be run as a small group program, or with families individually. CPRT typically occurs for around 10 sessions. The initial 3 sessions are aimed at getting to know families, teaching caregivers' new skills and preparing them to hold special play time sessions at home with their child. The rest of the sessions are then focused on practicing these skills and being supported, coached and guided by the family's therapist.

Is CPRT for our family?

CPRT is a therapeutic intervention that can meet the needs of many families. The following are a list of concerns that families may benefit from engaging in the CPRT process:

Does your child:

• struggle following caregiver requests
• difficulties managing big emotions and become easily angry, overwhelmed
• engage in power struggles
• disruptive behaviors at home, school or childcare settings
• struggle to connect with either or both parents
• concerns with oppositional behaviors
• aggressive behaviors towards parents, siblings or other children.

Goals of parent child relationship therapy include:

• strengthen parent-child relationship
• support child’s ability to manage big feelings
• support building child’s self-esteem
• support parents to understand and set age-appropriate expectations for their child

If you feel that CPRT maybe the right fit for your family, or you would like to know more, please feel free to make contact to discuss your personalised circumstances.

Medicare rebates may apply.

Professional Supervision

Healthy Minds and Wellbeing Supports offer a unique opportunity for social workers, therapists, educators and mental health clinicians from varying discipline's to be provided a safe and reflective space to explore their clinical work and be supported to further develop their professional skill set.

As professionals in the helping sector, we need to also prioritise our own mental health and self-care needs and continue to aspire to ongoing professional and personal growth. Professional supervision can be a part of this process.

Belle has had lived experience working within a number of different settings that may be able to assist with your professional supervision needs, these include:

• The Out of Home Care Sector
• Education Sector
• Public Mental Health
• Private Practice

And has a passion and experience in working with other clinicians with the following presentations:

• complex family systems
• children and teenagers
• inter-generational trauma
• parenting complexities
• eating disorders
• neurodivergence
• new graduate social workers

Please feel free to reach out and make contact to explore your supervision needs.