At Psynapse Therapy, we offer a wide range of assessment and therapy services for children, adults and families. Our mission is to enable people to be the best versions of themselves. 

Children can experience challenges as they navigate their way through childhood. Most of the challenges can be normal. However, occasionally, your child may experience events or be displaying behaviours that may be concerning. At such times, you may benefit from some professional support to assist you to best support your child.  

We take an attachment focused approach in counselling. We offer parents information about the child's brain development, and provide them practical and effective strategies so that they can match their expectations appropriately to the age and stage of the child's development. In the process, parents will be able to strenghthen their relationship with their children, inculcate self-esteem and build resilience in children. 

Counselling for Children

We tailor our approach to suit the age and stage of your child's development. With younger children (2-7years), we take a primarily play-based approach to therapy. We incorporate art and other creative therapeutic tools to assist your child to express themselves. With older children and adolescents, we will use a combination of creative therapies and talk. Some of the most commonly presenting concerns we work with are

• Stress
• Generalised Anxiety
• Separation Anxiety
• Panic, Phobia & Fears
• Sleep difficulties
• Adjustment difficulties following big life transitions (including parental separation, adoption, out-of-home placements)
• Transition to Kinder & School
• Attention and processing difficulties
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Non-Suicidal Self-Injury (self-harm)
• Suicidality
• Trauma (acute and chronic) including child abuse and neglect.

Assessment

At Psynapse Therapy we offer a wide range of assessments depending on your needs.  We conduct cognitive, educational and ASD assessments. Most assessments are conducted over 4 sessions. A classroom or behavioural observation may be conducted, in some instances, as part of the assessment process. Medicare rebates may apply for these sessions.

Parent Support

“Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting.”   - Brene Brown

Often parents/caregivers may want support to enhance parenting skills without wanting to engage their child in therapy. At Psynapse Therapy, we help parents understand how their child's developing brain can influence thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Through counselling, we help parents become aware of how their own childhood experiences and attachment histories may be influencing their parenting. We seek to enhance the parent/caregiver -  child relationships by providing practical and effective strategies to help support children in building reliance and self-esteem.