Individual Counselling @ Harris Counselling
1
What is Counselling?
Individual counselling is a confidential, one‑to‑one space where you can slow down, reflect, and make sense of what’s happening in your inner world. It’s a collaborative process that supports you to explore your thoughts, emotions, and patterns with a trained therapist who is attuned to your goals, your pace, and your lived experience. Many people seek individual counselling when they’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or disconnected — but it’s just as valuable for personal growth, strengthening resilience, or navigating important life transitions.
In individual sessions, the focus is entirely on you. Together, we look at what’s working, what’s not, and what you want to change. This might include understanding the impact of stress, anxiety, or past experiences; improving relationships; building healthier coping strategies; or reconnecting with your values and sense of self. The work is grounded in evidence‑based, trauma‑informed approaches that honour both your emotional safety and your capacity for change.
At Harris Counselling, individual therapy is not about “fixing” you — it’s about creating a supportive, non‑judgmental environment where you can explore, heal, and grow. Each session is shaped around your needs, helping you move toward clarity, confidence, and a more grounded way of living.
Individual counselling offers a steady, predictable rhythm: a private space where you can speak openly, be heard fully, and explore what’s happening beneath the surface. While every person’s experience is unique, there are some common elements you can expect when you begin therapy.
A Safe, Respectful Environment
Your sessions are confidential and grounded in emotional safety. You can bring whatever feels important — worries, questions, past experiences, relationship patterns, or moments you’re not sure how to make sense of. There’s no pressure to perform or “have it all together.” The pace is set by you.
A Collaborative Process
Counselling isn’t something done to you — it’s something we do together. Early sessions often involve getting to know your story, clarifying what you want from therapy, and identifying the patterns or challenges that are showing up in your life. As trust builds, the work becomes more focused and tailored to your goals.
Space to Explore Thoughts and Emotions
You’ll have time to slow down and notice what’s happening internally. This might include understanding emotional triggers, unpacking long‑held beliefs, or exploring how past experiences shape your current responses. Many people find that simply having uninterrupted space to reflect brings clarity and relief.
Practical Strategies and Insight
Alongside deeper exploration, you’ll learn tools to support day‑to‑day wellbeing — ways to regulate emotions, communicate more effectively, manage stress, or respond differently in challenging moments. These strategies are always matched to your needs and grounded in evidence‑based, trauma‑informed practice.
A Gradual Sense of Progress
Progress often shows up quietly: feeling more grounded, responding to stress differently, noticing new choices in moments that once felt automatic, or experiencing relationships with more confidence and clarity. Counselling helps you build these changes in a sustainable, meaningful way.
2
Our Point of Difference
At Harris Counselling, the difference isn’t just in what we do — it’s in how we do it. Our practice is built on more than 20 years of clinical experience, but what truly sets us apart is the way we bring together deep therapeutic expertise with a calm, grounded, and genuinely human presence.
A deeply relational, emotionally attuned approach.
We don’t rush to strategies or quick fixes. Instead, we take the time to understand the emotional patterns, attachment needs and protective responses that sit beneath the surface. This creates space for real, lasting change — not just temporary relief.
Safety first, always
Every session is shaped by trauma‑informed principles. We move at a pace that protects your wellbeing, honour your lived experience, and ensure that you feel respected, understood and in control of the process.
Inclusive, affirming care for every person and relationship
We actively create a space where all identities, cultures, families and relationships are welcomed and affirmed. Inclusion isn’t an add‑on — it’s embedded in every part of our practice.
Evidence‑based therapy grounded in real‑world experience
With two decades across clinical practice, family therapy, organisational consulting, governance and community work, we bring a depth of understanding that helps clients feel confident, supported and genuinely held.
A calm, steady presence in moments that matter
Clients often tell us that what makes Harris Counselling different is the sense of steadiness they feel — a therapist who listens deeply, holds complexity with care, and helps them make sense of what feels overwhelming or confusing.
Medicare & Mental Health
Medicare helps make mental health support more affordable and accessible. If your GP completes a Mental Health Treatment Plan, you can receive rebates for sessions with an eligible mental health clinician, including accredited mental health social workers and psychologists.
With a valid plan, you can access up to 10 individual therapy sessions each calendar year under the Better Access initiative. These rebates apply to both in‑person and telehealth appointments, giving you flexibility to choose what feels most comfortable and convenient.
At Harris Counselling, we can guide you through the process, help you understand your rebate options, and work alongside your GP to ensure your care is well‑supported and coordinated.
3
Emotion Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT)
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) is a compassionate, evidence‑based approach designed to help people understand and transform the emotional patterns that shape their lives. Rooted in attachment science, EFIT supports you to explore how your experiences — past and present — influence the way you relate to yourself, others, and the world. It’s a gentle but powerful model that helps you move from disconnection, overwhelm, or self‑criticism toward a stronger sense of clarity, confidence, and emotional balance.
How EFIT Works
EFIT focuses on the emotional signals that sit underneath your thoughts and behaviours. Rather than simply managing symptoms, EFIT helps you tune into the deeper needs, fears, and longings that drive your responses. In therapy, we slow down and explore these emotional moments together, creating space for new experiences that feel safer, more connected, and more aligned with who you want to be.
Why EFIT Helps
Many people come to EFIT because they feel stuck in patterns they can’t seem to shift — anxiety, self‑doubt, burnout, relationship struggles, or the lingering impact of past experiences. EFIT helps you understand these patterns not as personal failures, but as understandable responses shaped by your history and your attachment needs. As you make sense of these patterns, you begin to experience yourself differently: more capable, more grounded, and more emotionally flexible.
What EFIT Sessions Feel Like
EFIT is collaborative and deeply attuned. Sessions often involve:
-
Exploring emotional triggers and the stories you’ve learned to tell yourself
-
Understanding how past experiences shape current reactions
-
Making space for emotions that have been pushed aside or misunderstood
-
Creating new emotional experiences that support healing and growth
-
Strengthening your sense of self and your ability to respond rather than react
The process is gentle, paced to your comfort, and grounded in emotional safety. You don’t need to “perform” or have the right words — we work together to find them.
The Heart of EFIT
At its core, EFIT is about helping you reconnect with your own emotional wisdom. When you can understand and respond to your inner world with compassion rather than fear or judgment, life begins to feel more manageable, relationships become more secure, and you gain a clearer sense of direction.
4
Trust and Cultural Safety
At Harris Counselling, trust is not assumed — it is built with care, consistency and respect. We understand that seeking support often means sharing parts of your life that feel vulnerable, complex or deeply personal. Our role is to create a space where you feel safe enough to bring your full self, without fear of judgement, misunderstanding or harm.
Cultural safety is central to this. We recognise that people’s experiences are shaped by culture, identity, family, community, history and the systems around them. Feeling safe in therapy means knowing that these parts of you will be honoured, not overlooked.
What Trust Means in Our Practice
A steady, reliable therapeutic relationship.
You can expect a calm, grounded presence — someone who listens deeply, holds your story with care, and responds with honesty and compassion. We move at a pace that protects your wellbeing and ensures you feel in control of the process.
Transparency and clear boundaries
We explain what we’re doing and why, check in regularly, and make sure you feel informed and empowered. Your privacy, autonomy and consent are always respected.
A space where your experiences are believed and valued
Trust grows when people feel genuinely understood. We take the time to understand your world, your relationships and the meaning behind your experiences.
Our Commitment to Cultural Safety
Respect for all identities, cultures and communities
We welcome people of all backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and families of all shapes and structures. Your identity is not something to be explained or defended — it is recognised as an essential part of who you are.
Awareness of power, privilege and lived experience
We pay attention to the ways power shows up in therapy and in the world. Cultural safety means acknowledging the impact of racism, discrimination, colonisation, gendered expectations, and systemic barriers — and ensuring these realities are not minimised or ignored.
Curiosity, humility and ongoing learning
We don’t assume expertise in your culture or lived experience. Instead, we approach with openness, respect and a willingness to learn from you. Cultural safety is an ongoing practice, not a checklist.
Creating a space where you can speak freely
You are invited to bring your language, your traditions, your family story and your worldview into the room. Therapy becomes more meaningful — and more effective — when it reflects the whole of who you are.
At Harris Counselling, this is not an add‑on — it is the heart of our work.