SERVICES FOR INDIVIDUALS
Stress Management - Personal Problems - Counselling - Benefits - Counselling Psychology Hypnotherapy - Benefits - Stopping Smoking - Weight Loss - Experiential Therapies - Life Coaching - Consultations
Do you want to
- increase emotional intelligence?
- reach your full potential?
- build confidence or creativity?
- improve business/personal relationships?
- feel better, gain clarity and make decisions easily?
- learn empowering skills to help you achieve your goals?
- release stress and experience peace and contentment?
Stress Management
This service provides an opportunity for individuals to learn a variety of stress management techniques which have been shown to be effective on the basis of research evidence as well as Linda's professional experience. For useful free self-help information on stress reduction, read or download the article "Releasing Executive Stress in 5 Minutes" by clicking on the Self-Help Articles button on the left hand side of this page.
Linda healed her own difficulties with the aid of 'exceptional' international helpers and this has inspired many who come to her with the confidence and courage to do the same. She provides gentle and safe support through an attitude of genuineness, empathy and unconditional acceptance. Her approach is holistic, flexible and open, and if you choose, can involve self-hypnosis, music, visualization, breathwork, body therapies, therapeutic touch, muscle relaxation and meditation in addition to more conventional therapies such as questioning your beliefs and talking things through. If she is not the right person for you, she'll help you find someone who is.
Linda has considerable experience in assisting people to effectively deal with the following types of issues: relationship difficulties of all kinds (e.g. communication difficulties, indecision, sexual difficulties, sexual preference, conflict, shyness, social skills, assertiveness); divorce/separation; grief; anxiety; phobias; panic; depression; post-natal depression; addictions (e.g. smoking, alcohol, sex, internet, love addiction; shopping, over-work; over-eating); self-defeating habits (e.g. binge eating; nail-biting, hair-pulling); trauma; childhood abuse; emotional reactivity; health-related problems; life transition and adjustment issues, obsessions and compulsions; management of pain; self-esteem and self development; sleeping problems; weight management; public speaking difficulties; and spiritual issues. See the Couples and Family page of this website for relationship counselling, couple counselling (marriage counselling, premarriage counselling, defacto couple counselling), sex therapy, family and adolescent counselling and step-family counselling.
Counselling - Benefits - Counselling Psychology
What is Counselling?
Counselling is a confidential two-way process in which a trained and experienced counsellor spends time listening to what you say, getting to know you, developing an understanding of your particular circumstances and offering you support, insight and encouragement to:
- Discover a way to look at things that makes life easier for you
- Behave or respond to situations or people in a way that works better for you
- Create new strategies and solutions for your situation
- Increase your self-awareness, self-empowerment, skills and independence.
Counselling assists you to explore, clarify and understand your difficulties in a non-judgmental environment. Good counselling can empower you to trust yourself and make your own decisions as to how to move forward in your life and deal more effectively with the people around you. Counselling doesn't necessarily lead to a change in your life situation, although it can. What it can do is empower you to handle life's challenges in a more successful way or change your attitude so that your life circumstances no longer bother you. In other words, it helps you to do what the Serenity Prayer recommends:
"Change what you can, accept what you cannot, and have the wisdom to know the difference."
Who Can Benefit from Counselling?
Having problems is part of being human. Sometimes we get too many challenges to deal with all at once and end up overwhelmed and not coping with anything. This can happen to anyone.
These days, with the incredibly busy lives most people live, it is not always possible to share our concerns, confusion or overwhelm with someone close. Even if that opportunity exists, friends and relatives can sometimes be upset by what we tell them, get annoyed that we don't take their advice, or we might feel guilty for burdening them with our troubles. Also some people prefer to confide in someone who is removed from the situation who can provide confidentiality and objectivity.
Thus, chatting to a counsellor is not just for those who can't cope. It is not the role of a counsellor to give advice, provide solutions or in any other way, tell you how to cope or run your life. However, counselling can be a helpful and reassuring option for anyone, a first difficult step on the road to resolving problems.
Good counsellors listen, support and empower you to discover your own solutions. Counselling can be very helpful if you are feeling overwhelmed or depressed, need someone to help you gain some clarity so you can set priorities and make decisions you are happy about. Counselling can be very helpful in dealing with: relationship and family issues, sexual difficulties, major life changes, separation and divorce, conflict, eating problems, anxiety, stress, phobias, cultural differences, loneliness, building self confidence, grief and loss, anger, parenting and step-parenting, career concerns and many other issues affecting emotional and mental well-being.
Before you go to your first counselling session, it would be beneficial for you to ask yourself what you hope to achieve and how you will know if counselling has been successful.
How Do I Find the Right Counsellor for Me?
There's no easy answer to this question. Counsellors have a wide variety of backgrounds, training, experience, attitudes, values and styles of counselling. A counsellor who proves to be good for your friend or relative may not be the right counsellor for you. You will need to consider::
- Whether you would feel more comfortable with a male or female counsellor
- Whether you prefer a young or more mature counsellor
- Whether you need a counsellor who is available out of business hours
- Whether you need counselling in another language
- Whether your privacy is protected
- Whether the counsellor has experience with your issue, culture or sexual preference
- What techniques or style the counsellor uses
- The counsellor's training and experience
- Whether the counsellor is a member of a professional association which sets standards of competence, training and ethical behaviour
- Cost (Try not to let financial considerations interfere with finding the counsellor who is right for you because outcomes have been proven to be highly dependent on a good counsellor-client relationship)
- Manageable methods of payment (e.g. credit card) and whether you can claim a rebate from private health insurance
Most of the above matters can be dealt with by thinking about your preferences and examining counsellors' websites and/or calling counsellors' rooms. However there are other important considerations which you may not be able to assess until your first visit. A good counsellor will:
- Be warm, responsive, genuine and exhibit personal integrity
- Treat you with respect, care, consideration and dignity
- Understand you and believe in you
- Encourage you to make your own choices and respect your decisions
- Have faith in your ability to work through your issues
- Be trustworthy, sensitive and non-judgmental
- Have values and attitudes that you are comfortable with
- Respectfully challenge your viewpoint when it is helpful to you
- Work with you in a way where you can see progress toward your goals
If, after the first visit, you are unsure whether the counsellor is the right one for you, trust your instinct and find another counsellor. If after further counselling sessions, you become unhappy about any aspect of our counselling, the best thing is to raise your concerns directly with your counsellor. If the matter is still unresolved, feel free to change your counsellor. You have the right to begin and end counselling at any time. Don't worry about wasting sessions telling your story all over again. If you have confidence in your new counsellor, you will get more out of your time together. Good counsellors can be helpful without knowing everything about you and it is usual for good counsellors to be helpful in the first session.
Counselling Psychology
There is much confusion in the community over the difference between a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a psychotherapist, a counsellor, a counselling psychologist and a clinical psychologist.
Psychiatrists are medical practitioners who are trained to diagnose mental illness and prescribe medication (drug therapy).
Psychologists are non-medical personnel who are trained in counselling and non-drug therapies (psychotherapy). Clinical psychologists are trained to diagnose mental illness and deliver non-drug therapies and counselling to the mentally ill (people with a history of schizophrenia, bipolar/manic depression or a personality disorder and/or have been prescribed drugs to manage psychosis). Counselling psychologists are trained to use counselling and non-drug therapies with people who are facing any normal life problem including phobias, anxiety and any type of depression which does not involve psychosis.
In Australia, all psychiatrists and psychologists are registered under state law and must have undergone extensive training and supervision.
In general, psychotherapists are people who use non-drug therapies. Many psychologists and some psychiatrists call themselves psychotherapists. However, in Victoria, there are no statutory regulations determining who can call themselves a psychotherapist or a counsellor. Anyone can call themselves a psychotherapist or a counsellor regardless of whether they have any training or experience.
As already mentioned, a counselling psychologist is a psychologist who specialises in counselling people who do not have a serious mental illness. Advantages in seeing a counselling psychologist include high ethical standards enforced by statutory regulations and state law, availability of a range of skills and psychotherapeutic approaches in addition to basic counselling, and the ability to claim psychology rebates from your ancillary health insurance.
Linda is a counselling psychologist registered in Victoria. She is also a member of the Australian Psychological Society College of Counselling Psychologists and has a doctorate in counselling psychology from Monash University.
Using a mentoring approach, Linda provides a safe, accepting, non-judgmental and practical context in which people can gain clarity and understanding about the things that bother them and take their next step forward.
Helping people build confidence and better relationships, as well as getting rid of indecision and feelings of inadequacy, is often part of Linda's work. She has considerable experience working with men, women, couples, families and adolescents of diverse religious, spiritual or cultural values and sexual preferences.
Some issues seem to require more than discussion, in which case hypnotherapy or an experiential approach is usually suggested.
Hypnotherapy - Benefits - Stopping Smoking - Weight Loss
What is Hypnotherapy?
Originally endorsed by the American Medical Association in 1957 as a valid and useful form of treatment, hypnotherapy is therapy conducted when the client is in a state of hypnosis. Hypnosis is a totally natural phenomenon. It is a non-ordinary state of consciousness or state of profound relaxation called a trance state in which the brain wave frequencies are in the slower alpha or theta range instead of the normal beta range which we experience when we are thinking. We regularly experience this state of hypnosis when, for example, we pass from waking to sleeping and vice versa. We also commonly enter a state of hypnosis during other relaxing situations such as while soaking in a warm bath, lying in the sun, meditating, listening to relaxing music or having a massage. Typically, we feel detached and dreamy, knowing that we could open our eyes at any time but feeling just too comfortable to bother.
As you know, you are well aware of what is going on while engaged in these activities and can choose to stop them at will. The same is true for hypnotherapy. Nothing can be done without your cooperation and consent and you may change your mind whenever you want to. You cannot be made to act out or say things that are contrary to your personal values. In other words, you are in control at all times. The myth that you are under the control of the hypnotherapist has been perpetuated by the tricks of stage hypnosis.
How Can Hypnotherapy Help?
If Hypnosis, used alone or in conjunction with other techniques, is a powerful tool for accessing the subconscious and achieving personal goals or facilitating desired change. It can do this because hypnosis is a non-ordinary state of consciousness and the human psyche is far more amenable to positive change, healing or beneficial reprogramming when we are in an hypnotic state than when we are in our usual beta state of consciousness (our thinking mode). For more information, take a look at the work of psychiatrist Dr Stanislav Grof. He has written numerous books and research articles on the healing power of non-ordinary stares of consciousness. In addition, there is documented evidence that hypnotherapy compares very favourably with the most popular forms of therapy. In volume 7 (1) of Psychotherapy, the psychotherapy journal of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr Alfred A Barrios has reported the following success rates averaged over a number of studies:
- Hypnotherapy 93% recovery after 6 sessions (about 1.5 months)
- Behaviour Therapy 72% recovery after 22 sessions (about 6 months)
- Psychotherapy 38% recovery after 600 sessions (about 11.5 months)
How is Hypnotherapy Done?
There are many ways of doing hypnotherapy. Basically, there are two aspects to the process. First, the client must be put into an hypnotic state. This is usually referred to as an hypnotic induction. This can be done in numerous ways. Some of the most common ones involve visualization (mental imagery), breathing and muscle relaxation, arm levitation or focusing on an hypnotic spiral. However, there are other highly effective methods which the client may not even recognize as an induction. For example, if I ask you to become fully aware of the details of shape and size and location and intensity of an emotion which is happening in your body, and you do that, you will immediately enter an hypnotic state.
The second part of the hypnotherapy process involves doing therapy while you are hypnotised. There is an endless array of possible approaches that a therapist may use. The process selected needs to be tailored to fit the individual client's psyche, and the hypnotherapist should be sufficiently experienced to be able to calmly and safely lead the client through whatever experiences he or she needs to have in order to achieve the result they are looking for. In general, the client is aware of what is happening at all times and will remember their experiences after the session.
Some hypnotherapists limit their work to hypnotic scripts in which they talk to the client's mind. However, for long term change, there is usually a need to do more than reprogram thinking because beliefs are strongly affected by emotions. For example, a hypnotic suggestion that a client is an okay person will encourage thoughts of being okay. However, if the person later has a difficult challenge and experiences a strong feeling of inadequacy, the mind will believe the feeling and toss out the hypnotic suggestion. This view is supported by my clinical experience where I find that the most effective forms of hypnotherapy reprogram the emotional centres of the brain known as the limbic brain.
Two forms of this type of hypnotherapy I use regularly include:
- body-oriented hypnotherapy (somatic hypnotherapy), and
- Holotropic Breathwork.
You can read about body-oriented hypnotherapy on our Professional Articles page. Some of the techniques in this therapy lend themselves to self-help and the first article in our Self-Help page provides instructions. For more information on Holotropic Breathwork, consult "The Journey of self-Discovery" by Dr Stanislav Grof.
Would I Benefit From Somatic Hypnotherapy?
Linda has found somatic hypnotherapy particularly useful in assisting people with personal problems such as: relationship issues (personal and business relationships, divorce, separation, conflict, impotence and women's sexual difficulties); public speaking anxiety; stage fright; exam nerves; eating problems; weight problems; lack of confidence, assertiveness, motivation or achievement; low self-esteem; shyness; grief; frustration and anger; jealousy; worry and anxiety; conception difficulties; phobias (irrational fear of flying, driving, heights, closed spaces, open spaces, insects, groups of people, snakes, storms, dentists, the dark etc.); panic attacks; reactive depression; endogenous/major depression; post-natal depression; addictions (alcohol, smoking, food, sex, TV, etc); self-defeating habits (e.g. hair-pulling, blushing, nail-biting, stuttering); trauma and abuse; post traumatic stress, dream therapy and so on. This list is by no means comprehensive and if you have a problem that is not listed (and do not have a serious mental illness), please feel free to contact us on 9836 8629 during business hours. By serious mental illness, we mean personality disorders and psychoses such as schizophrenia and manic/bipolar depression. Unfortunately somatic hypnotherapy is not helpful for people with these conditions.
Successes achieved through somatic hypnotherapy can be startling. It sometimes enables people to make all the changes they want in the very first session, although this is not the norm. Most issues require between 2 and 6 sessions. If there are multiple issues, 4 to 10 sessions is usually adequate.
The likelihood of success depends on factors such as: (1) whether you are comfortable with the hypnotherapist; (2) whether you can be hypnotised (about 20% of people cannot be hypnotised); (3) a willingness to do whatever it takes to resolve your issue, including stepping beyond your comfort zone, and (4) an openness to the possibility that somatic hypnotherapy can help. Somatic hypnotherapy cannot help you to do what a friend, relative or colleague wants for you if you do not want it for yourself.
Why Somatic Hypnotherapy Usually Works
Few people realise the awesome power their subconscious limbic brain patterns have over their lives. Most of our personal problems are rooted in emotional patterns in our limbic brain rather than the thinking in our neo-cortex. Thus we need an approach which will reprogram our emotional patterns in our limbic brain rather than focus on our thinking. Once the emotional patterns are changed, we change our mind as a result of our changed experience.
How Do I Choose a Good Hypnotherapist?
Regardless of whether you find out about a hypnotherapist from the Yellow Pages, the Internet, a professional association for hypnotherapists or psychologists, a recommendation from a friend, relative, colleague, or a referral from your doctor or another therapist, there is no guarantee that person is the right hypnotherapist for you. Even though some hypnotherapists consistently get better results than others, clients vary enormously in terms of the personality, values and therapeutic styles which work best for them. Thus, a miraculous outcome for your friend, doesn't necessarily mean a miraculous outcome for you. In addition, professional referrals are often made on the basis of personal liking for a particular colleague or a good impression received at a seminar without any knowledge of their success with clients.
For all these reasons, you need to trust your own judgment. You must feel comfortable with the person you choose to work with. Do you feel welcome and accepted? Is he/she genuinely interested in you and your problems? Does he/she have lots of life experience as well as clinical experience? Do you feel empowered by him/her? Would he/she be happy for you to have a friend or relative present in the session if you want it? Does he/she teach you techniques or other ways to become self-reliant so you don't need to keep going back to them when future life difficulties arise? Does he/she recommend or provide something for you to read with explicit instructions to help you become self-reliant? Does he/she provide a personalised service tailored to your uniqueness or do you get the impression that every client is treated the same way?
Do not be overly concerned with the per session fee. The rate at which your issues are being dealt with is equally important in the overall estimate of the cost of treatment. For example, if you got the outcome you wanted after three sessions costing $160/session ($480), you would be better off than if you went to someone with whom it took 8 sessions at $90/session ($720). Hypnotherapists vary enormously.
No-one can know in advance how many sessions your issue will take to resolve. There are far too many variables such as the personalities of you and the therapist, how much you want to resolve your problem and what other issues exist. Be assured though, that hypnotherapy or other therapies which use a non-ordinary state of consciousness usually speed the process up significantly. What may take months or years with regular psychotherapy can usually be accomplished in weeks with hypnotherapy. It is not uncommon for certain issues such as grief and phobias to take only one session.
Research also indicates that most of the improvement that is going to happen occurs in the first 1 to 8 sessions and the greatest improvement happens in the first 2 or 3 sessions (E.g. Bill Robinson's article in Psychotherapy in Australia, Vol. 10, no.1).
For this reason, if you are not getting anywhere after 2 or 3 sessions, consider whether you should look around for someone else. In fact, if you have a competent and ethical therapist, they should be taking the initiative to discuss the lack of progress with you and if a way forward cannot be found, refer you to someone whom they expect is likely to be more effective in your particular case. The lack of progress doesn't necessarily mean the therapist is incompetent. It may be that the therapist is not a good match for your personality or values or their therapeutic style doesn't suit your psyche.
That's why I like to let people know as much as I can about me and how I work before they come to see me. It reduces the mismatches and increases the likelihood that my work with any particular person will be rewarding for both of us.
If you would like to learn more about me and how I work, I hope you will take a look at the rest of my website.
How Can I Stop Smoking?
Many people have trouble giving up smoking or take up another addiction such as over eating or drinking when they do give up smoking. The reason this happens is that most smokers are unconsciously using smoking to prevent them from feeling the stresses, anxiety and other bad feelings which they would be forced to feel if they didn't keep smoking or take up a different addiction. For this reason, my approach to helping people to stop smoking involves eliminating the underlying stresses, anxieties and other bad feelings as well as dealing with the habit itself. The most effective methods in my experience involve somatic hypnotherapy - see the article on body-oriented hypnotherapy in the professional articles page of this site.
How Can I Lose Weight?
Many people start dieting, lose a certain amount of weight and then give up the diet and put it all back on again. They often berate themselves for lack of willpower not realizing that their lack of success is due to the fact that when we lose weight, our body becomes more sensitive to the stresses, anxieties and other bad feelings we don't like to feel and so it becomes more attractive to put the weight back on again. Alternatively, eating may have become the only comfort in our lives and it is hard to live without any nurturance or comfort.
In the former case, it is necessary to deal with the underlying stresses, anxieties and bad feelings in order for the weight loss to be maintained. In the latter case, there is a need to build up sources of comfort in our lives other than food so that we don't miss the food, and this may involve dealing with defense patterns which have prevented us from doing this in the past.
Sometimes there are other reasons for weight gain. For example, if a married woman is not enjoying her sex life, she may gain weight unconsciously to reduce her husband's desire for her. Alternatively, a divorced woman may be so frightened of having her heart broken again that she unconsciously puts on weight so that she will not be attractive to possible future partners.
Thus, the task in helping people to successfully lose weight and remain slim is to not only deal with the habit of over eating, bingeing or eating the wrong food, but also to uncover the unconscious reason why their psyche has decided that they need the excess weight and reprogram their limbic brain using somatic hypnotherapy. For information on somatic hypnotherapy, see the published article reprinted in the professional articles page of this site.
Experiential Therapies
Linda often uses an extension of the highly successful cognitive behavioral therapy 'exposure' and 'flooding' techniques which involves techniques adapted from hypnotherapy, Gestalt therapy, psychodrama, Holotropic Breathwork and body work, and various somatic psychotherapies. This is especially suitable for dealing with issues which do not respond to counselling and for people wanting an experiential approach. She also incorporates music and Jungian and other humanistic/ transpersonal approaches when required.
Life Coaching
Life-skills coaching is about helping people find direction, motivating them to achieve their goals and teaching them effective skills to enhance their lives. Linda teaches techniques which she has found to be powerful and effective in resolving a broad range of relationship, personal and business issues. For more information on life coaching, click on the Life Coaching and Career Mentoring button on the top left side of this page.
Consultations
Availability of Consultations
Consultations are held in the Camberwell, Canterbury, Surrey Hills, Burwood area of Melbourne by appointment during business hours and after hours (Saturdays).
We currently have a waiting list for new clients which varies from about two to eight weeks. Therefore, it is extremely important that you let us know as soon as possible if you cannot keep your appointment. If you can give us 48 hours notice of your intention to change or cancel your appointment, there will be no cancellation fee. If you cannot give us 48 hours notice, let us know as soon as possible and we will waive the cancellation fee if someone else is able to use your appointment time.
If you are in crisis during the night or the weekend or at any other time when you cannot see a counsellor, call Life line on 13 11 14 or Suicide Help Line Victoria on 1300 651 251.
If you are currently involved in an abusive or dangerous situation, call Violence Against Women 24 Hours Helpline on 1800 200 526, Women's Domestic Violence Crisis Service of Victoria on 1800 015 188 or Child Abuse Prevention Services on 1800 688 009 or Centre Against Sexual Assault on 9344 2210.
How Many Consultations Will I Need?
The majority of people seeking counselling or hypnotherapy for personal issues require 2 to 6 sessions. All sessions are long (60 minutes, occasionally longer). In most cases, the first session involves history taking, discussion of procedures for dealing with your issues and discovering whether the two of you are likely to be able to work together effectively.
Through life coaching, many executives and professionals can achieve one or more concrete business goals in just a few consultations. However those who are looking for a significant increase in emotional intelligence would be well advised to budget for regular mentoring over three months.
Fees
To eliminate account-keeping costs, we require payment at the time of the consultation. There is a $10 administration fee for late payment.
Our fees reflect the quality of our service and are close to the Australian Psychological Society recommended fee. The fee for a 60 minute session during normal business hours is $195. An additional fee of $30 applies to Saturday consultations.
Payment may be made by cash, cheque, money order, Visa or Mastercard. To cover bank charges, there is a $5 convenience charge for using a credit card.
Our services are GST free.
Rebates
Those entitled to psychology rebates from Health Funds usually claim a refund of between 20% and 90% depending on which ancillary or 'extras' schedule they have chosen. Ask your Health Fund for details.
We do not bulk bill and you probably cannot claim a rebate from medicare because medicare rebates apply to G.P referred treatment for mental illness only and Linda does not specialize in mental illness. Her expertise is in assisting people to enhance their relationships, careers, emotional intelligence and their lives in general with a focus on coaching and education.
Copyright Dr Linda Edwards 2001-2007, Art of Living Psychology (Consulting Rooms are in Melbourne in the Camberwell, Surrey Hills, Burwood and Canterbury region, also serving Ashburton, Balwyn, Box Hill, Glen Iris, Hawthorn, Kew and Malvern).
