WHAT WE DO

At REFOCUS online we help children and women to resolve presenting psychological problems, reset and refocus their thinking and improve their quality of life in order to be restored to wellness. We do this by doing socio-emotional assessments and developing a treatment plan.  At REFOCUS Online Therapy, we will work on understanding your current struggles and we will help you refocus  your thinking and reactions and provide you with tools to cope with your situation or to overcome them and become resilient.

Individual Therapy with Children

At REFOCUS online, we offer age appropriate counselling techniques to support children and young people dealing with emotional issues via an online platform called Coviu.  By using play-based therapy and other expressive modalities, we try and limit the impact of trauma, create a safe space by a child being in their own home, and feel empowered and experience healing.

Specialized training

Heidi has obtained specialized training in working with children and adults, which includes unique child-centered play therapy (directive and non-directive), and trauma therapy, anxiety treatment as well as EMDR training.

Play therapy can help children with academic and social problems, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, anxiety, depression, grief, or anger, as well as those with attention deficit disorders or who are on the autism spectrum.

Individual Therapy with Adults

Heidi is also trained in various modalities for adults. In some cases it is necessary to explore childhood issues, help the person come to terms with what happened and then providing strategies to deal with life. In other cases we focus on the presenting problem, refocus what needs to be done and then look at ways to resolve the problem.

Assessment

An assessment will be done at the start to determine the reason person came for therapy and what therapy modality to use. Usually a K10 test or DASS test will be done to determine the level of anxiety or depression.

Types of therapy

We use various interventions and modalities like  play therapy, expressive therapies, CBT, Relaxation strategies, Skills training, Parenting skills, Trauma therapy and Grief and loss therapy ,   as well as EMDR.

FAQ

Women, children and their families are supported and helped with the following conditions:

  • Relationship changes and challenges (divorce, separation)
  • Depression
  • Anxiety and panic
  • Anger management
  • Self-harm
  • Self-esteem issues
  • Childhood trauma (like abuse)
  • Life transitions and adjustments
  • Grief and loss
  • ADHD, ASD, OCD – social skills and emotional regulation.
  • Stress management
  • General emotional and mental wellbeing.
  • Mindfulness and relaxation
  • PTSD and Complex trauma
  • Behaviour management.

In the therapy process, we will work on understanding your current struggles and we will help you refocus or reframe your thinking and reactions and provide you with tools to cope with your situation or to overcome them and become resilient.

This is a 2 hour session (spread over 2 weeks) with the child (depending on the age).  After the first two sessions, we have a feedback session with the parent to discuss the outcome and treatment plan.

Various direct and indirect play techniques will be used to explore the following aspects of the child’s life:

  • Self-esteem
  • Significant relationships
  • School experiences
  • Peer group
  • Personality development
  • Temperament style
  • Emotional development
  • Signs of possible trauma experiences

The assessment is not only for the children with problems or emotional difficulties, but also an effective way to get information of the child’s relational and emotional experiences.  It will help parents to know, understand and relate better to their children.

A similar assessment process is done with adults and adolescents, but age appropriate.

Play therapy differs from regular play in that the therapist help children to address and resolve their problems through structured or semi-structured play.

Some of the things used in play therapy may be a small sandbox with miniature items, hand puppets, toys, dolls, bubbles and art material for drawing.

With play therapy children learn to communicate and engage with others, express their emotions and change behavior.  It also helps to facilitate healing from past traumatic experiences.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.  Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.  EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma.  When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound.  If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.  EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.  The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health.  If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes.

Online Australia-Wide