Services

Treatment of the following in persons from the age of 18
A Referral or Mental Health Care Plan is NOT required.

You may arrive with an understanding of the nature of what you have to work with or you may not. Some of the familiar terms and areas include:

  • Depression and Bipolar disorder.

  • Anxiety disorders.

  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

  • Problems relating to trauma experienced in childhood and adolescence including physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

  • Distress relating to adoption.

  • Loss and grief.

  • Role transitions. For example, facing middle age, loss of work, relationship breakdown.

  • Burnout.

 OR you may arrive with a knowledge that something is not right, something may be broken, or you have fallen once again into a familiar pattern of suffering or difficulty, either with the relationship you have to yourself and or others.

For this problem you may not yet have words or labels, just a sense of something not being right.

Regardless of how you arrive we will spend the time needed to arrive at a joint, agreed understanding, using language that has meaning to you and that you are comfortable with.

Trauma, particularly that experienced in early childhood, needs to be treated over a longer period of time using other therapies that reduce alienation and give you a greater sense of control over your life. This is an area in which I have considerable experience. I use psychodynamic therapy informed by the work of Dr Carl Jung and attachment theory. If you would like to explore the evidence base for these therapies please go to : Evidence Base

PLEASE NOTE: The follwoing areas are outside my scope of practice.

  1. Drug and alcohol withdrawal services nor the prescription of any medication other than those directly used for the care of mental illness.

  2. Eating disorders

    Eating disorders require a dedicated, mutlidisciplinary team to look after all the facets of care, a service that I am unable to provide as a solo practitioner. These are best cared for within a GP clinic that can access medical specialists by referral and allied health practitioners such as nurses, dieticians and psychologists via the various care plans that are available.

  3. Emergency Care. I am a solo practitioner and cannot immediately accomodate every request that is made for an urgent consultation. Furthermore I do not offer after-hours care. In an emergency please call 000, if less urgent contact your GP, local mental health team or hospital. Further resources can be found on the ‘resources’ page.

4. Acute Psychosis. This is an emergency requiring hospitalisation and a psychiatrist.

5. Trans-gender medicine. This requires a team with a GP, endocrinologists and psychologists.

6. Treatment of ADHD. This is best done within a group general practice.

            “I am not a mechanism, an assembly of various actions. And it is not because the mechanism is working wrongly, that I am ill. I am ill because of wounds to the soul, to the deep emotional self and the wounds to the soul take a long, long time, only time can help.”

— D H Lawrence

  • Community Education

    I welcome enquires from groups that may require a health professional to speak about mental illness.

  • Men's Wellbeing

    I can provide expertise about the care of mental wellness and illness at gatherings that seek to improve the wellbeing of men and boys. This could range from speaking at community gatherings to providing online retreats for individuals or groups or facilitating retreat gatherings held over a few days.

  • Professional Supervision

    Doctors that would like either a single or ongoing session to assist with their provision of care to more difficult cases. This may involve using our shared expertise to discern optimal treatment in the general practice setting and or provide support to practitioners' personal mental wellbeing who undertake this work.

Medical education.

I have provided education to medical students and GP registrars for over twenty years. Presently I am the Deputy Director of the Rural Community Clinical School and Mental Health Convenor in the School of Medicine at Deakin University.

In addition to providing curriculum content my particular interest is using the humanities such art, literature, poetry and music to assist in the holistic formation of students and junior doctors

There may be times when I have a medical student or registrar working with me. At these times you will be notified and have the option of having that person involved in your care or not if you should wish.