Counselling for Children

NDIS support available

Children are central to the family services we provide, and their caregivers are central to every intervention.

As a result, our children’s counselling service consists of a blend of individual and dyadic (child-caregiver pair) sessions, delivered in developmentally enriching environments. Children’s counselling is for younger children (birth to around 12 years old) where any type of social, emotional, cognitive, developmental, behavioural, or parenting concerns exist.

The service is appropriate for a range of different family contexts including intact families, separated families, blended families, and foster, kinship, culturally defined, and alternative care families. This service can help with:

  • reducing challenging, troubling, or unusual behaviour

  • decreasing emotional over-sensitivity

  • managing anxiety

  • developing social skills

  • addressing school difficulties (social, learning, and/or behavioural)

  • providing specialised parenting interventions

  • reducing family conflict

  • the blending of families

  • responses to parental separation/divorce

  • the impact of parent mental health

  • historical exposure to family violence

  • impact from child safety concerns

We understand that these concerns can sometimes be compounded by child mental health difficulties associated with:

  • anxiety and anxious behaviour including separation anxiety, fears and phobias

  • depression, or excessive amounts of un-regulated anger, sadness, or frustration

  • historical exposure to stressful or traumatic events

  • developmental disorders including ADHD, ASD, Global and specific delays, ODD, and attachment disorders

What to expect from our Children’s Counselling service

This service begins with an initial session with the child’s parent, guardian, or carer. This is followed by play-based individual counselling sessions with the child, and individual sessions as needed with the child’s most important grown up. Finally, play-based dyadic sessions with the child and their most important grown up are facilitated by the counsellor, to help achieve family goals. Appropriate evidence-based interventions are used throughout this process.