Q. Do you have a Fax?
No. Please use the phone or email upweypsychology@gmail.com
Q. What is your Postal Address?
PO Box 1233 Upwey VIC 3158
Q. Do you Bulk Bill?
No. For more details, please scroll down to the questions about Concession Fees.
Q. What is Counselling?
Counselling is a process of guided self reflection and examination of past behaviours & feelings, choices and their consequences. Some of these choices have worked for us while some have not. You and the Psychologist work as a team to discover, like Detectives, new ways to deal with old situations, emotions and difficulties. Counselling can be challenging and uncomfortable some of the time and exciting, liberating and adventurous at other times.
Q. How can Counselling help me?
Counselling provides you with a safe confidential relationship and environment to begin exploring those parts of you and your life that do not work well and are causing you pain or distress. Counselling can give you courage, support, encouragement, insight and necessary skills to change aspects of your life or relationships that are challenging you.
Q. What happens during sessions?
We talk. On the surface this may seem like an interesting conversation about you and what is happening in your life but below the surface many things are moving and changing, understanding is growing and transformation is happening. We cannot change or impact what we do not acknowledge. Counselling increases awareness and therefore power to change our circumstances.
Q. I have tried Counselling before. What makes you different?
Not everyone is ready for counselling. We are different because we do not want to work with you until – you really want to work with us. Attempting counselling before you are ready, is one of the reasons counselling can ‘fail’. There is a right time to begin counselling. We have found it is often the healthiest or strongest member of a couple, family or community that attempts counselling. Looking inside and facing fears about yourself takes courage, persistence and skill. It is hard and can be confronting. So we look forward to hearing from you, when you are ready.
Q. Can you tell anyone what I tell you?
Psychologists are bound by a Code of Ethics and Conduct which protects your right to Privacy and Confidentiality. Everything you discuss in sessions remains Private and Confidential. Sometimes it is necessary to work as a team with other Health Professionals, like GPs. If this is needed, you will play an important role in deciding how we work together.
Q. How does Medicare Work?
We have more information on our site under ‘Medicare’ but in general you need to have a referral from your GP. Medicare Rebates are available for 10 Sessions per year. It may be possible to access additional Medicare Rebates depending on your circumstances. You pay the Psychologist for the session. The Psychologist will provide you with a Medicare Receipt which you can then take to Medicare to receive the rebate.
Q. My GP says they cannot give me a new referral until 12 months after my last referral, what can I do?
You can ask your GP to review your Initial Mental Health Plan/GP Referral and request to be allocated additional sessions from 1 January each year. In this way, you can receive a total of 10 medicare rebated sessions each Calendar Year from the beginning of the year. This is called a “review” is denoted by MBS Item Number 2712. You can provide this number to your GP when you request this service. For further details, please go to the ‘Medicare’ page on our website.
Q. How do I access the Medicare Rebate?
It is necessary to have a referral from a GP to access the medicare rebate for psychology services. This referral is commonly called a Mental Health Care or Wellbeing Plan. Common reasons people request a GP referral to see a Psychologist include symptoms that indicate you may be suffering from Anxiety or Depression. These include crying, worrying, getting angry or consuming alcohol and or other substances more than is usual, feeling low or flat more than not, the desire to withdraw or isolate yourself from people and commitments, too much or too little sleeping, too much or too little eating and experiencing feelings like sadness, despair and or irritability more than is usual.
Sometimes it is the people closest to us who see what is happening before we do and let us know. This might be how you have ended up seeking psychological support. Sometimes your experience of the symptoms mental health have become more intense before you realized there was a problem. Clues that this has happened include avoiding situations in order to cope with your feelings and thoughts, thinking about suicide as a way to find relief and or getting into significant conflict with your partner, family or children. These experiences are all signs you are eligible for a referral from your GP to see a Psychologist.
Q. Can I have a Telehealth or Video Conferenced Consultation with a Medicare Rebate?
Yes this is possible. From 2022, Telehealth will be a permanent part of the Medicare System.
Q. How do I make an appointment?
It is easy to make an appointment using our Online Booking System. Just click on the link.
Q. How do I make a payment?
We ask everyone we work with to store their payment details with Square. You will receive an initial invoice at the beginning of treatment asking for these details. Session payments are charged at the time of your appointment.
Q. How do I change my appointment?
We ask everyone we work with to manage cancelling and rescheduling their appointments themselves. It is easy to change your appointment. Just three simple steps.
- Go to your Appointment Confirmation Email (emailed to you when you made the appointment, check the SPAM FOLDER)
- Scroll down to the bottom
- Click on the link to CANCEL or to RESCHEDULE
The CANCEL LINK & RESCHEDULE LINK will allow you to cancel your appointment up to 24 Hours before your original appointment, and you can select a new time.
We ask you to manage your appointments yourself because you will know if there is a conflict coming up in the future. If you cannot cancel or reschedule within these time frames and you want to make another appointment, we will ask that carry to cost for the session you missed.
Q. I need a Medical Certificate to take time off work to see you. Can you provide one?
Psychologists provide a Certificate of Absence to people who need time away from work to receive treatment. This is the equivalent of a Medical Certificate provided by a GP.
Q. Can I have a concession?
We are no longer offering concession rates for sessions. Until 1 September 2016 we were offering offering some concession rates to 10% of the people we were working with at any one time. Common reasons people have requested concession rates previously include being aged under 25 years or over 65 years, being currently unemployed or unable to work and or holding a valid health care card.
We have found providing counselling at a concession rate actually works against positive therapeutic outcomes. We found people receiving a concession rate tended to value counselling less, were less likely to commit to the counselling process, were more likely to cancel their appointments and therefore less likely to achieve a positive therapeutic response.
A positive response to counselling happens as a direct result of investment and commitment. You might say you get out of counselling what you put in. Meeting the fee for counselling service is one way to demonstrate your commitment to yourself and making change. The fee payment allows the Psychologist to continue offering the therapeutic support because this is how they earn their living.
Q. Your fees are too high. Can you reduce them for me?
Paying fees for counselling is an important part of the process. We are committed to making quality psychological support accessible to as many people as possible, so we keep our Standard Fee as low as possible. If you cannot meet the cost for counselling at this time, it is probably not the right time for you to begin. We look forward to working with you when you are ready.
The Australian Psychological Society’s Recommended Fees for the period 2023 to 2024 stipulate the fee for a One Hour Session should be $300.00. Our fees are significantly less than this Professional Standard.
Q. Why do I have to pay for counselling?
Counselling is a maintenance service for our well being the same way a ‘car service’ maintains the well being and functionality of our car. Car servicing can cost in excess of $600 each car service. We accept that our car needs to be serviced and accept that we must pay for this to be done correctly or in a short amount of time, we may not be able to drive our car. However when it comes to providing ourselves with a necessary ‘service’ we can see things differently. Would you expect your car to be serviced, so it can stay on the road, for free?
If you are finding yourself having difficulty meeting the cost for counselling, it may be that it is not the right time to begin or it may be that our service is not the right fit for you. We need to work with people who are ready for counselling and willing to meet the associated costs or we cannot continue to offer our services. If the time is not right now, that’s O.K, the time may be right in the future. We look forward to connecting with you then.
Q. Why do you store payment details with Square?
We store payment details with Square to make everything easier for both of us. We are living in a world where more and more of our everyday tasks can be completed online because it is faster and easier.
Paying for Sessions using payment details stored with Square is much easier because all of the details are already recorded and your receipt is automatically emailed to you. Neither of us need to be distracted by problems with processing payments or administration and we can both focus on why you are coming for treatment.
It is possible to “unlink” your Card from Square. Please see their website for details.
Q. Can I pay for sessions with Cash?
We are no longer accepting payment for psychological services in Cash. We have made this decision to reduce additional administration costs required to provide our services to you. Storing payment card details with Square is easier, reduces our costs, saves time and we can pass this on to you in the form of reduced cost for treatment.
Upwey Psychology & Herbs 