Real People Counselling provides a variety of counselling services to the Melbourne public. In addition to general counselling and psychotherapy we also provide specialist counselling services, courses and seminars. People are able to approach our counselling service with or without a referral to directly access the assistance they require. Each member of our diverse team is trained in general counselling as well as specialist forms of counselling and psychotherapy. Consequently we are able to provide counselling services to people who come to us with a range of different difficulties and situations. You can read a little about each of our counselling services and some of the descriptions will have a link to more information about that particular service. If you decide to consult us at Real People Counselling you should know that we provide all our counselling services in the Melbourne CBD. If you do not see a counselling service that applies to you please feel free to call us and we can let you know if we have expertise in that area and if necessary refer you to someone outside our counselling service who is a specialist in that area.
General Counselling and Psychotherapy
Each of our team members are well trained in general counselling and psychotherapy. People seeking general counselling services are often seeking assistance with a range of life issues. Sometimes this will be just be a general sense of feeling unsatisfied or as if something is missing from their life. Other people may need some assistance in working through a major life decision or navigating a life transition. Some people come to to gain a better self understanding or if they have gone off course to reconnect to themselves and to what is important to them. One of the many reasons people engage our general counselling services is to work through and explore interpersonal dynamics. People who choose to engage in longer term psychotherapy work are often able to tackle low self esteem and self confidence, work through issues from the past, deal with persistent feelings of guilt or shame and learn how to tolerate difficult emotions. Intellectuals and creatives also often engage in deeper psychotherapeutic work in efforts to understand themselves and unlock further creativity.
Couple Counselling
When a relationship is working well it can be one of the most joyful and fulfilling experiences a person can have. Correspondingly, when relationships go awry they can cause a great deal of pain and anguish. Many members of our counselling team have specialist skills to work with both members of a couple at the same time to address a variety of relationship issues. People consult our couple counselling service to help improve communication, to improve intimacy, to work through and explore what to do after an instance of infidelity, to resolve ongoing gridlocked relationship issues and sometimes for assistance in navigating the end of a relationship. Read more about couple counselling…
Individual Counselling to Address Relationship Issues
One of the most common reasons people utilise our counselling services is to individually deal with problematic relationship issues that include relationships with partners, family members, friends and colleagues. Members of couples who are having difficulties that are affecting their relationships, such as jealousy, that are not caused by the relationship itself often come to resolve these issues. On occasion one member of a couple may come to counselling because their partner will not attend couple counselling. Much like romantic relationships our families can also be a source of joy and sorrow. Family systems are complex to balance and navigate and some people need a little assistance in finding ways to reduce conflict or to make sure their needs are not being trampled on. In today’s competitive corporate environment, work conflicts and interpersonal difficulties with colleagues abound. Individuals consult our counselling service to gain an understanding of what is going on, to develop skills to effectively tackle conflict and to get some support.
Mental Health Counselling and Psychotherapy
Current statistics claim that one in five Australians experiences a mental health issue. Many people consult our counselling service to get assistance with mental health issues. Mental health issues usually involve clients working with more than one kind of mental health practitioner. Our team members are more than ready to collaborate with GPs, psychologists, social workers and psychiatrists in people’s mental health care. Typical issues that we treat or provide assistance in dealing with include depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and personality disorders. For some conditions research shows that psychotherapy is as effective as medication, whilst for other conditions psychotherapy plus medication has been shown to be more effective than medication alone. Our team members work with people experiencing mental health issues in a non-stigmatising way using a client-centred approach that keeps clients in the driver’s seat.
Anger Management Counselling
For a variety of reasons anger can be one of the most difficult emotions to process and to know what to do with. As a Melbourne counselling service we see many individuals from varied backgrounds who come wanting assistance in dealing with anger. Anger management counselling is one of our specialties at Real People Counselling. We see anger as a normal and necessary emotion, which is only problematic if it is mismanaged. We take a multifaceted approach to helping people get on top of their anger including lifestyle adjustments, exploring personal triggers and relevant history, working towards managing anger before it takes over, examining expectations and perspectives and implementing creative problem solving skills. Read more about anger management counselling…
Anger Management Courses
Due to a variety of reasons some people prefer to attend an anger management course rather than engaging our personal counselling service. The anger management course we offer is designed for busy people and involves completing a workbook over two weeks and attending a one day workshop. People find this to be a rapid and effective way to empower themselves to begin to effectively address their anger management difficulties. Some individuals are referred by their human resources departments or the courts whilst others attend of their own accord. Read more about anger management courses…
Grief Counselling
Grief is a profound and incredibly unsettling experience. People feel such a variety of emotions and physical sensations that they often wonder if they’re are literally losing their mind. There is no set amount of time it takes to grieve and the grieving process is different for each person and for each loss. After a loss people often feel sadness, anger, guilt, anxiety, loneliness as well as experiencing physical symptoms. Depending on circumstances some individuals will experience frozen grief that relates to losses that may have occurred several years or decades previously. Others are sometimes forced to grieve alone (disenfranchised grief) because of the circumstances of their loss. We provide grief counselling working at a person’s own pace, with understanding and acceptance. Read more about grief counselling…
Trauma Counselling
Traumas are events that cause intense fear, hopelessness or horror. Some examples of traumas include being exposed to violence, childhood abuse, sexual assault and natural disasters such as the Black Saturday Bushfires. People experiencing traumatic events may have felt powerless or overpowered at the time of the trauma. Having such experiences often threaten our psychological integrity and they need to be debriefed and worked through. Some people who experience trauma will go on to develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is typified by intense flash backs and significant disruption to a person’s day to day functioning. Members of the Real People Counselling team are experienced in helping people to work through traumas and in providing treatment for PTSD.
Addiction Counselling
People experiencing addictions have trouble controlling the use of a substance or a certain behaviour. Examples include gambling addiction, drug addiction, alcohol addiction and pornography addiction. Twelve step programs and individual counselling are effective ways to help people deal with and recover from addictions. People nearly always engage in addictive behaviours due to underlying difficulties such as past trauma, difficulty regulating emotions (e.g. anger, sadness, stress, shame, low self esteem) or mental health issues. At Real People Counselling we help people directly deal with their problematic addictions as well as dealing with the underlying emotional experiences which fuel the addictive behaviour.
