Wellbeing Counselling can assist you when you are having problems and need to talk. Psychologists provide a private, personal and professional environment to discuss your life, create meaning and come up with solutions for issues concerning you. We can help you make significant changes to improve your wellbeing, quality of life and health. You don’t have to have a severe mental health issue to benefit from wellbeing counselling.

We all go through issues both inside and outside of our performance setting that cause stress and unhelpful emotions. These issues can effect your performance, health and wellbeing if left unmanaged. Stress affects people in different ways but when it piles up and is effecting your functioning and relationships it is time to seek help. You don’t have to bury your feelings or go through troubling times alone.

Summit Performance Psychology can help with:

• Crisis & Transition
• Injury Recovery Support
• Relationships & Communication
• Habits & Behaviours
• Stress, Self-Esteem & Mental Health Issues
• Perfectionism
• Life Balance, Lifestyle & Wellbeing

 

The Therapeutic Process: not so mysterious after all

Some people do not know what to expect when going to a psychologist, or have had a bad experience in the past. Below is an example that may help you understand the stages of therapy, as I see it. The therapeutic process hinges on creating a strong trusting relationship between, which can take time but is a valuable investment for best results. This is just an example, each person’s life and needs are different.

1. Relationship Building – Creating Trust and Safety

• Collect historical information and information on what’s wrong now
• Understand support provided in therapy
• Feel trust and safety to open up about your life
• Understand your rights, our role, boundaries in therapy

2. Education – Creating Meaning

• Understand the human mind, learning and behaviour change
• Human traits, physiology, personality, thoughts, behaviours, emotions
• Understanding CBT and mindfulness therapeutic approach to change
• Putting your story and current problem in psychological frame

3. Goals and Plan – Creating Change

• Plan to change/cope with situation, thoughts, behaviours, feelings
• Setting goals, learning new skills, engaging in healthy social activity
• Improving lifestyle choices, diet, sleep, and exercise- wellbeing
• Creating meaning to life’s activities – values, purpose, sense of belonging

4. Monitoring and Support – Creating Ownership

• Review progress and setbacks, provide support to overcome barriers
• Relapse prevention, accountability to changes long term
• Monitoring progress and improving ownership

Our Principles Psychologist, Abra Garfield

Abra Garfield provides a safe non-judging space for anyone – regardless of race, gender, sexuality or religion – to come and speak about their life. His framework for support is both solution-focused and evidence-based. Abra has a lot of experience in working with young people, and can connect to a diverse range of personalities with compassion and genuine interest.

Abra takes a client-focused positive psychology approach to counselling and therapy, utilising;

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Mindfulness-based therapies (Acceptance and Commitment therapy)
• Counselling

In his general psychology practice he works with people suffering from depression and anxiety most commonly, as these conditions afflict such a large proportion of the population at some time in their lives (1 in 6 experience depression, 1 in 4 experience anxiety). Abra provides counselling and therapy to help these clients manage their conditions and improve their quality of life and ability to reach their potential.

Abra:

I believe in a Positive, Compassionate and Practical approach to supporting people to:

Positive – I believe that positive psychology helps clients to recognize the capacity for change, growth and happiness is within them. Positive Psychology involves moving past the limited focus of fixing problems, to focusing on becoming who you want to be.

Compassionate – I am committed to constructing a safe place in which you can speak about your life, feel strong emotions and heal/change. I am here not to judge you but rather listen to you and to understand you, so that I can help. I am committed to creating a working alliance with clients, in which we work together to create change.

Practical – I work in a solution-focused process utilising many tools and techniques to solve problems and create change in a timely fashion. Although part of therapy is talking and getting to know each other, I recognize the need to progress. I work to make sure we have clear goals and are moving towards them. I want to get people “unstuck” and moving down a better path from the start.

“I like to help people see themselves, their situation and their world in a new way, and challenge old stale ways of thinking and behaving that limit potential solutions and success.”