Access therapeutic support for mental health and wellbeing
This service will soon be closed.
Our Psychological Wellbeing Service provides parenting support and low intensity therapies for children, youth and adults, with minimal wait times.
Our clinicians can help you to support positive behaviour in your child, or help you to recover from and manage common problems such as anxiety, low mood, and alcohol or drug issues.
Mental health support with minimal wait times
Across Victoria, families and individuals are often left waiting weeks or months to access support.
If you are currently experiencing difficulties accessing support, our Psychological Wellbeing Service (PWS) can help.
Some of these difficulties may be due to limited access to services if you are:
- living in a rural community
- living with a long-term health problem
- pregnant or looking after a newborn baby
You may also be finding it difficult to find a service which understands your situation, for example if you are:
- an ex-serving member of the Australian Defence Force
- a refugee or asylum seeker
- experiencing issues related to gender, sexuality, or relationships
Our PWS service is for anyone seeking support and is tailored to your individual needs. Our clinicians offer a choice of support by phone or video conference from any location across Victoria.
We are also able to provide initial face-to-face consultations across the Loddon-Mallee region (north-west Victoria), and regular face-to-face support from our Mildura office.
Learn practical skills to support your child or aid your own recovery
While there are similarities between traditional counselling and PWS, PWS focuses on providing people with the practical skills and knowledge to aid their own recovery or support their children¹.
Our clinicians provide support with:
- practical skills to help you feel better by changing what you do or by finding a more helpful way of thinking
- parenting skills focused on supporting positive child behaviour, such as consistent praise, setting limits and problem solving
- motivational interviewing to talk about change, identify barriers to achieving your goals, and discuss the next steps towards your goals
Access free seminars
Free 30-minute face-to-face or online seminars are available every fortnight, which provide self-help strategies for parents and for individuals.
Learn how you can help yourself to feel better by managing everyday problems and challenges, gradually facing your difficulties, or becoming more active.
This seminar also includes information about local services and online support, many of which are available for free or at a low cost.
Flyer with seminar dates is coming soon!
A range of support options to suit your needs
All individuals accessing the Psychological Wellbeing Service are offered a 20-minute consultation with a clinician to discuss mental health concerns, receive information to help alleviate challenges or difficulties, and agree on the most helpful support for recovery.
For some people, this initial consultation may be enough to provide the support they need. For those needing more support, we offer three options:
1. Join a group with others experiencing similar difficulties
After an initial consultation with one of our clinicians to discuss your needs, you can choose to join a wellbeing group or a parenting group.
By participating in a group, you will have the mutual support of small group of people experiencing similar difficulties. These groups are facilitated by a clinician over four weekly one-hour sessions. Interacting with others in the group is optional.
2. Guided self-help for individuals
Guided self-help includes an initial consultation followed by a 50-minute assessment, to talk about your current difficulties in more detail and provide you with additional self-help resources to help alleviate the main problem or challenges you are experiencing.
This is then followed by weekly 20-minute sessions to discuss your progress and any challenges you are experiencing. In each session you will also be offered guidance to help you decide on the next steps towards your recovery or the support of your child.
The number of sessions is tailored to your situation. For example, most people with moderate difficulties, including common mental health problems or struggles with children’s behaviour, will notice an improvement after four sessions.
Some people may find that 1-2 sessions provides them with enough support, but we can offer up to eight sessions for those who need additional support.
3. Cognitive behavioural therapy or parent coaching sessions for increased support
If you and your clinician decide that guided self-help is not suitable for you, you can be stepped up to more intensive cognitive behavioural therapy or parent coaching.
This usually involves attending weekly 1-hour sessions over a longer period of time. Although most people will notice an improvement after seven sessions, some people may benefit from additional sessions.
Alternatively, you may prefer to be referred to another service which will better meet your needs, such as our Counselling service or one of our Parenting Courses.
How do I access this service?
Individuals and parents can access this service by completing the referral form below and sending it through to us via email at pws@catholiccarevic.org.au
Community service organisations and health professionals can make referrals into the Psychological Wellbeing Service using the referral form below.
If you have any questions about the service or would like assistance with completing the referral form, please call (03) 5051 0000 and ask to speak to one of our clinicians.
Download the referral form
Download the form to your device before filling out details.
Fees
Fees for individual guided-self-help, cognitive behavioural therapy and parent coaching are indicative. Total fees are discussed with families/individuals before commencing this service. Please call us for more information.
All session fees are inclusive of additional time for clinical communication, collaboration, and record-keeping.
Online or face-to-face seminar
Parenting or wellbeing group
Initial consultation or one-to-one guided self-help
Individual assessment, parent coaching, or cognitive behavioural therapy
Option 1 Initial consultation: Choose from a range of free self-help resources or guided self-help with a clinician.
Option 2 Guided self-help / group sessions: Choose attendance of a parenting group, wellbeing group, or an individual assessment followed by one-to-one support.
Option 3 Cognitive behavioural therapy: Choose from parent coaching or cognitive behavioural therapy.
¹More information
How can self-help strategies help me feel better?
The type of support we provide is based upon cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), and involves changing what we do, or finding a more helpful way of thinking. CBT has already helped many people with common mental health problems, including children with behavioural difficulties.
To ensure that our service is easy to access, we mainly provide low intensity CBT. Low intensity CBT, or guided self-help, involves attending brief weekly sessions with a trained professional to support you with using one of these approaches:
- Giving praise to strengthen positive behaviours your child.
- Managing everyday problems to alleviate stress, anxiety or low mood.
- Gradually being in moderately fearful situations to reduce a specific fear.
- Becoming more active to improve low mood.
Low intensity CBT is just as effective as traditional CBT for mild-to-severe common mental health problems. Low intensity CBT includes several effective therapies such as motivational interviewing, parent management training, problem solving therapy, exposure therapy, and behavioural activation. Download our free self-help guide for more information about each of these approaches.
What is traditional cognitive behavioural therapy?
Traditional CBT also focuses on changing what you do or how you think, but usually involves attending weekly 1-hour face-to-face sessions. Longer sessions enable a clinician to provide support with a wider range of approaches and help you practice these approaches in each the session.
Traditional CBT with children also includes providing increased support for parents or carers with using specific praise, and setting clear limits, to strengthen a child’s positive behaviour.
Download the mental health & wellbeing guide
Download the PWS brochure
Client Rights and ResponsibilitiesChild Safety at CatholicCare
Contact us
Please note: This service will soon be closed.
The Psychological Wellbeing Service is offered via telehealth across Victoria, or via face-to-face in Mildura.
Please contact us if you would like to enquire about this service.
T (03) 5051 0000
E pws@catholiccarevic.org.au
MilduraDownload the referral form
Download the referral form to your device before filling out details.
Other services
You might also be interested in some of the following services offered at CatholicCare Victoria: