Brisbane psychology services to help you manage your anxiety and trauma
Anxiety treatment
Sometimes, life can feel a little more difficult to handle than usual. Asking for help can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re struggling to find the right words to describe what’s happening in your head.
An experienced psychologist will be able to help you work through those first nervy steps and help you on your way to understanding your anxiety disorder and how best to manage it.
Trauma & PTSD treatment
Trauma can profoundly impact our emotional well-being, relationships, and overall quality of life. If you have experienced a traumatic event or are struggling with its aftermath, I’m an experienced trauma psychologist who can help you manage and overcome post-traumatic stress disorder.
I provide compassionate support and evidence-based therapies to guide you towards healing, resilience, and a renewed sense of empowerment.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
If you’ve been told to ‘just think positive’ or ‘be grateful’, you will find ACT a form of anxiety treatment that is far more realistic and effective. It’s about acceptance rather than avoidance.
Live life consistent with your values
ACT will teach you how to better manage unwanted thoughts and emotions and live a life consistent with your values. For example, using ACT as an anxiety treatment, you might define your values as:
- strong and loving relationships
- mental and physical health
- fulfilling career or purpose
- contentment, peace and enjoyment of life
Following this, ACT can help you identify how to take action to live consistently with your values. There is strong evidence that people with rich and full lives (that is, happy people) live in accordance with their values.
ACT is a proven anxiety treatment (and works on many other conditions)
I specialise in ACT therapy because it’s proven to be effective for a number of conditions, including anxiety, depression and trauma.
While it focuses on values-based living, it also incorporates mindfulness, self-compassion, handling negative thoughts more effectively and other helpful strategies..
ACT teaches you how to respond better to fluctuating emotions, especially during crisis or overwhelm. This helps you make wiser decisions, reducing the chances of you doing or saying things you regret later.
ACT is transdiagnostic, meaning that it works as a treatment for a variety of conditions such as:
- anxiety
- depression
- trauma
- addiction
- sadness and grief
- and many others
Other treatment therapies
Some of the other therapies I use include:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): is a powerful evidence-based therapy practice to treat trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). EMDR is particularly effective for those whose traumatic memories still impact their present lives.
With EMDR therapy, you can overcome trauma and move towards a meaningful and joyful life.
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT): a process of reframing problematic thoughts and managing unhelpful behaviour to develop better coping skills
- Motivational Interviewing (MI): a treatment designed for people struggling with alcohol abuse disorders, addictions or other unwanted behaviours such as overeating or gambling
How long does treatment take?
It depends on so many factors, making it difficult for me to give you an indication. Some people notice instant changes, others find things start to fall together after a few weeks or months. In our initial appointments, I’ll be able to give you a timeframe of how long I think we should work together.
How can I improve my chance of success?
Over many years, I have noticed similarities in clients who get the best outcomes. They are typically:
- truly ready to make a change to their life
- open and willing to take the actions we agree on
- okay with temporary feelings of discomfort and possibly unpleasant conversations
On the other hand, I find the people who have limited success will likely be:
- wanting me to fix them with little effort on their part
- attending because a parent or partner insisted
So, if you feel ready to make a change in your life, it might be time to seek treatment.
