Freqently Asked Questions

Will I be immediately accepted to Wanderlust Psychology. 

No, Wanderlust Psychology aims to provide high quality care to all clients. Your referral will be assessed by our team and accepted on a case by case basis.

 

Conditions:

 

• Wanderlust Psychology will not accept a referral if they do not have capacity to meet your needs for 6-10 sessions of therapy.

• We believe that people should be able to book appointments within a timely manner and not wait months between appointments. 

• Wanderlust Psychology will not accept a referral if the presenting concern is deemed to be outside of the skillset of the treating team. In this instance a conversation will be had.

• Wanderlust Psychology won’t see multiple members of the same family and reserves the right to decline referrals where conflict of interest exists.

 

Are any costs covered under Medicare?

If you have a referral for a Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP or Psychiatrist, you will be eligible to receive a Medicare rebate.

 

Do I need a referral to see a psychologist

No, you can make an enquiry without a referral from your GP. If you have private health insurance that includes psychological counselling as extras cover, you may be eligible for a partial rebate on the cost of your appointment. It is your responsibility to check on this and lodge the receipt with your provider. 

If you do not have a referral an additional questionnaire will be provided in order to obtain some basic information about the concerns prior to your first appointment.

 

What should I expect at my first appointment

Wanderlust Psychology will provide a private, comfortable, safe, respectful and non-judgemental space to discuss anything you need to. It is normal to feel anxious when meeting a psychologist for the first time.

In the first few sessions we will typically ask you questions about yourself, your life and the things that you would like to work on. Together a plan is then created on how therapy can assist these problems, how many sessions it might take and how often you might agree to meet.

Prior to the first session you can prepare by writing questions down or asking yourself what kind of changes you would like to make in your life. The aim of therapy is to work together to achieve these goals.

 

My child needs a psychologist

During the first session, the psychologist will invite both the parent and child into the session at the beginning, then ask to see the child by themselves. At the end of the session, the psychologist will then discuss the most appropriate structure for future counselling sessions and provide feedback recommendations to the parent/s. If there are concerns with strained parental relationships e.g. separation, it might not be appropriate to have both parents present at the same time. This can be discussed with your psychologist

 

Adolescents, depending on age, might request to see the psychologist without a parent present. It is recommended that one parent is always available to attend sessions if needed and parental consent is required for those under 15 years of age.  

 

How long do I need

Each individual therapy session is 50 mins in duration. The amount of sessions you need will depend on your situation. Here at Wanderlust your psychologist will discuss what they think is an appropriate amount of sessions to help you address the presenting problem. This will assist in setting goals and working together to achieve them. Other factors that influence the length of therapy are; complexity of the problem, coping strategies that you already use, your support networks and whether you have done therapy in the past.