FAQs

The Mindspace Psychology Team of friendly psychologists are highly qualified, uniquely trained and very experienced. Our priority is to provide therapy to our clients to help them overcome the challenges and difficulties that they are facing. We believe in working collaboratively with clients using a warm and empathetic approach that is non-judgmental, to help clients reach their full potential.

Psychologists undergo extensive education, training and supervised practice before they can be recognised as having full registration by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).

Psychologists are required to complete a minimum of 4 to 5 years of education, following which, they can begin practice as a Provisional Psychologist. Provisional Psychologists are able to practice as registered Psychologists would, with additional mentoring and supervision by a Board Approved Supervisor.

Here at Mindspace Psychology, our Provisional Psychologists are qualified, knowledgeable and skilled in delivery of mental health assessments and interventions, and will typically transition to a fully registered Psychologist after approximately 1-2 years of supervised practice.

Whilst Provisional Psychologists are not eligible to offer Medicare rebates, for this reason we charge a lower rate than the registered Psychologists in our practice. The benefit of seeing a Provisional Psychologist is that they are not limited in the number of sessions they can provide. When working with clients, Provisional Psychologists are still working in the same way as a fully registered psychologist. However, they have a senior psychologist on call that they can check in with to make sure they are effectively supporting clients.

At your first appointment, a thorough assessment is conducted with your treating Psychologist, to allow for the development of the best treatment plan. Treatment options will be discussed during the initial appointment and these will form the basis for future sessions. We will also make a plan for future sessions.

The number of sessions you may need is dependent on a number of factors. The most important consideration is depending on the severity of your particular issues, goals of therapy & willingness to explore your issues, make change and stay the course of therapy when things get tough or difficult and are not changing or improving. As the client it is completely up to you how you choose to commit to therapy, and thus to make the decision as to how many sessions you are willing to commit to, over what period of time, & how often. We will inform you of the research evidence around number of sessions over time in the initial session/s, and of course, as we get to know you and your issues and work with you in therapy. Following this, your Psychologist will then inform you of consistency and duration of therapy as we go along the therapy journey together. 

In considering the current research, this suggests that:

• 13-18 sessions of psychological therapy is needed for 50% of clients to fully recover and maintain the changes ta 6 months follow up after therapy has finished.
• The remaining 50% of clients need greater than 20 sessions to achieve their therapy goals
• In Australia, clients attend only 6 sessions on average. What this means is that unfortunately most clients do not receive anywhere near enough therapy to achieve long lasting change and prevent relapse of their mental health issues (Turmanis, 2022).

When a child is referred to therapy, we ask that the initial consultation is a PARENT ONLY session and that you do not bring your child to this appointment. This will allow the Psychologist to be able to complete a comprehensive assessment of your child’s family background and presenting issues, whilst also allowing for the development of the best treatment plan for your child. Following this initial session, the second session will be an opportunity for your child to meet their Psychologist for their initial appointment. At this session, we ask that you bring your child to therapy, whilst explaining to your child that you will remain in the waiting room for the duration of their appointment to allow them to build a rapport and help them become comfortable with their Psychologist as they commence the therapy journey.

No, you may choose to see a psychologist without seeing your doctor first. If you have private health insurance, you can claim through them directly instead or you can simply pay the full fees without any rebates. Keep in mind that private health fund rebates for psychological therapy can vary widely and rebates are often not as high as the equivalent Medicare rebates.

At Mindspace Psychology we understand the importance of being seen as soon as possible. For urgent cases, we do our best to fit clients in within 1-2 weeks of first contact, however typical wait times could extend to 2-4 weeks particularly during busy periods. If your case is urgent, please advise our receptionist and ask to be placed on our waiting list and you will be prioritised in the event of another patient cancelling/changing their appointment.

Under the Medicare Better Access to Mental Health Initiative, those with a Mental Health Care Plan receive rebates for up to 20 psychological consultations per calendar year. The current rebate for a General Psychologist is $88.25 per session.

As we are a private billing clinic, Mindspace Psychology operates as a fee for service practice. This means that we do not currently offer bulk billing services. The only exception is for NDIS clients, where the full rate is claimed directly with your plan manager.

Should you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please contact Mindspace Psychology as soon as possible, to ensure that your appointment time can be offered to someone else. Please note that we require a minimum of 48-hours or 2 business days notice, to avoid a cancellation fee. Missed appointments and cancellations within less than 2 business days notice incur a full cancellation fee because the time that has been set aside for you often cannot be filled within this short timeframe. Please note that this cancellation fee needs to be settled before another appointment may be offered and this fee cannot be claimed through Medicare or your health fund, even with a GP Management Plan. Whilst Mindspace Psychology does offer a SMS reminder service for all appointments, this should not be relied upon if needing to reschedule or cancel your appointment. We thank you for your understanding on this and should you have any queries please contact reception.