What It Involves
Therapy for anxiety and depression uses evidence-based psychological approaches, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), to help you better understand the relationship between your thoughts, emotions and behaviours.
Your psychologist will work with you to identify patterns that may be contributing to ongoing worry, low mood or emotional distress and develop practical strategies to help you manage these symptoms more effectively. Therapy may focus on reducing unhelpful thinking patterns, improving coping skills, managing stress, rebuilding motivation, strengthening emotional resilience and developing healthier responses to difficult situations.
Treatment is tailored to your individual circumstances, with the approach adapted to your needs, experiences and goals.
Who It's For
This type of therapy may be helpful for people experiencing persistent worry, anxiety, low mood, reduced motivation, feeling overwhelmed or difficulty managing everyday life.
It can also support those experiencing changes in sleep, concentration, confidence, energy levels or enjoyment of activities, particularly when these difficulties begin to affect work, relationships, family life or general wellbeing.
You do not need to wait until symptoms become severe to seek support. Early intervention can help you develop practical strategies and a greater understanding of your emotional wellbeing.
What to Expect
Your first sessions will focus on understanding what you are experiencing, how it is affecting your daily life and what you would like to achieve through therapy.
Your psychologist will work collaboratively with you to identify patterns in your thoughts, feelings and behaviours and develop strategies suited to your individual situation. This may include practical techniques that can be used between sessions to help manage symptoms and reinforce progress.
Your treatment approach will be reviewed over time and adjusted as needed, helping ensure therapy remains relevant to your changing needs and goals.
How Addiction Arises
Substance abuse generally begins voluntarily – an individual tries alcohol, drugs or an addictive behaviour like gambling, through curiosity or a desire to become part of a group. Most of these affect the brain’s reward system, and flood the brain cells with dopamine, a natural chemical that causes a ‘high’. Over time, however, the brain adjusts to the increased dopamine levels. You must take more drugs, alcohol or engage in addictive behaviour more frequently to get high. This effect – known as tolerance – also means you may have less time for, and get less pleasure from, other activities you once enjoyed, like food, relationships or social occasions.
The Symptoms of Addiction
Long-term use of alcohol or drugs changes many systems and chemicals in the brain. Substance use can affect behaviour, decision-making, judgment, learning and memory, destroy relationships and cause increased stress.
When drug use continues despite these negative consequences, the patient is addicted.
Physical symptoms include bloodshot eyes, dilated or pinpoint pupils, weight changes, problems sleeping or excessive sleeping, tremors, slurred speech or impaired coordination. When people become addicted, their physical appearance deteriorates and they may have unusual smells or significant body odour.
Treating Addiction with Counselling
One of the first steps in counselling is to help the patient recognise and admit that a problem exists. Denial is a very common part of addiction. Many people are unwilling to seek help until they “hit bottom” and the negative consequences become overwhelming – often taking everything from their lives they held dearly before addiction began – relationships, money, jobs, and even a home.
Even after physical detoxification, when the body is free of the chemical influence of addictive substances, behaviour patterns can lead to a relapse. Social activities, stress, environmental cues, and friends who use, can all increase relapse risk. That is why counselling in important, as it can help you get to the root cause of why you began engaging in addictive substances or behaviours in the first place – what physical or emotional pain lies beneath the addiction – and can help you find ways to address and cope with these issues, as well as ways to improve self-control to stay clean in future.
Counselling for Family Members of Addicts
Addiction counsellors work with both patients and families because addiction affects everyone. Both patients and families must be educated about addiction, its causes, symptoms and possible outcomes. Sometimes family members are enablers and must learn to change their own behaviour in order to help the patient. Family members may increase a patient’s stress by nagging or becoming angry. Relationships between partners or parents and child are damaged by addiction and must be painstakingly rebuilt. Change is possible, however, with the help of counselling.
Book an Addiction Counselling Appointment
At Psychological Health Care we have experience in working with people who misuse alcohol and other drugs across a variety of settings, such as residential rehab clinics, prisons and community settings.
We structure individual treatment programs that aim to uncover and address the underlying issues that may have caused the addictive behaviours. This involves helping people explore the origins of their problematic behaviour, understand their triggers, develop healthy coping strategies and creating a meaningful and fulfilling life.
We treat patients from all over Perth at our Clinical Psychology clinic in Dianella. To make an appointment simply give us a call or fill out the contact form on our contact page with your details and we’ll call you to confirm.
You may want to ask us a question, request an appointment or find out more about the Clinical Psychologists you can see at either of our clinics. Choose the right option for you below: