You can contact me at matt@matthewbishop.com.au or 0430 622 909.
I see clients by Zoom or phone.
My fee for both counselling and mentoring is $150. Sessions are fifty minutes long. People who genuinely cannot afford my fee are welcome to ask about a concession rate. Please note that there is no Medicare rebate (which can be offered by psychologists, but not counsellors). Payment is by bank deposit.
You are free to see me for a single session, for short-term counselling, or for longer-term work, at a frequency of your choosing - while I am happy to suggest a suitable frequency given your concerns, you will find me always very respectful and encouraging of your autonomy and preferences.
I maintain some empty spots every week for new clients, so that you can see me within a week, and often within a few days. I work Mondays to Thursdays, 11AM - 9PM, so if you would like to book a session please mention some days and windows of time that work for you, and I will suggest a specific time. New clients fill out a brief email intake form, and Zoom clients receive a link on the morning of the booking.
I see clients by Zoom or phone.
My fee for both counselling and mentoring is $150. Sessions are fifty minutes long. People who genuinely cannot afford my fee are welcome to ask about a concession rate. Please note that there is no Medicare rebate (which can be offered by psychologists, but not counsellors). Payment is by bank deposit.
You are free to see me for a single session, for short-term counselling, or for longer-term work, at a frequency of your choosing - while I am happy to suggest a suitable frequency given your concerns, you will find me always very respectful and encouraging of your autonomy and preferences.
I maintain some empty spots every week for new clients, so that you can see me within a week, and often within a few days. I work Mondays to Thursdays, 11AM - 9PM, so if you would like to book a session please mention some days and windows of time that work for you, and I will suggest a specific time. New clients fill out a brief email intake form, and Zoom clients receive a link on the morning of the booking.
Please note, regarding the nature of what I offer:
In my terms and conditions I define my service as “conversations aimed at the cultivation of insight and personal growth for the sake of life improvement.” This is quite different to a clinical mental health service, which should be sought instead from the likes of a psychologist or psychiatrist. My service has nothing to do with "the medical model" of mental health. Rather, with respect to psychotherapy, I draw on all those elements that are focused simply on the generation of insight, personal growth, and life change.
To understand this difference between a therapist like myself versus a clinical mental health professional, consider an analogy with a personal trainer versus a medical doctor. A personal trainer does not offer the clinical services of a medical doctor. However, the trainer may be more effective when it comes to cultivating health, strength, flexibility, and physical well-being. Likewise, I do not offer clinical mental health services. What I focus on, and do better, is the cultivation of insight, personal growth, and general life improvement.
Of course, if you need medical assessments, and treatments such as medication or surgery, you do not see a personal trainer, rather you go to a medical doctor. Likewise, if you view your struggles in clinical or medical terms, or if you seek treatment for disorders which require specialist knowledge and techniques, such as dangerous levels of trauma, volatile personality disorders, psychosis, then you should seek out either a clinical mental health professional or a specialist therapist who focuses on your specific problem. In particular, you should not see me if reflection and remembering places you at risk of entering into a dangerous psychological state.
These things are complicated, for the one same problem can be conceptualised in both clinical and non-clinical ways. That is in part the value of my role - a person might seek clinical diagnosis and treatment elsewhere for their problem, and also see me as a complementary therapist for the same problem. I am not providing them with clinical diagnoses or treatments, but I am helping them develop more general inward and outward skills which may also be very helpful for their clinical problem. In other cases, a person may view view their struggle - which some others view in clinical terms - in non-clinical terms, for example in existential terms. The classic examples of this are depression, anxiety and grief. Are they clinical disorders, or reactions to life and the events within life? Many of us are critical of the degree to which those things are assumed to be clinical problems, and we favour an existential understanding.
So, a clinical mental health professional provides assessments, diagnoses, clinically-approved treatments, and risk management, with respect to mental disorders or diseases. They may also provide formal reports or advocacy in medical, employment or legal contexts. I provide none of those services. Rather, I help people better apply their head, heart and hands to the stuff of their life. I help them become more insightful and wise, and more strong and skillful, and more purposeful and motivated, with regard to their specific problems and their life in general. My approach is not for everybody; it is for people who are safe to, and able to, improve their life by means of their reflection and effort.
In my terms and conditions I define my service as “conversations aimed at the cultivation of insight and personal growth for the sake of life improvement.” This is quite different to a clinical mental health service, which should be sought instead from the likes of a psychologist or psychiatrist. My service has nothing to do with "the medical model" of mental health. Rather, with respect to psychotherapy, I draw on all those elements that are focused simply on the generation of insight, personal growth, and life change.
To understand this difference between a therapist like myself versus a clinical mental health professional, consider an analogy with a personal trainer versus a medical doctor. A personal trainer does not offer the clinical services of a medical doctor. However, the trainer may be more effective when it comes to cultivating health, strength, flexibility, and physical well-being. Likewise, I do not offer clinical mental health services. What I focus on, and do better, is the cultivation of insight, personal growth, and general life improvement.
Of course, if you need medical assessments, and treatments such as medication or surgery, you do not see a personal trainer, rather you go to a medical doctor. Likewise, if you view your struggles in clinical or medical terms, or if you seek treatment for disorders which require specialist knowledge and techniques, such as dangerous levels of trauma, volatile personality disorders, psychosis, then you should seek out either a clinical mental health professional or a specialist therapist who focuses on your specific problem. In particular, you should not see me if reflection and remembering places you at risk of entering into a dangerous psychological state.
These things are complicated, for the one same problem can be conceptualised in both clinical and non-clinical ways. That is in part the value of my role - a person might seek clinical diagnosis and treatment elsewhere for their problem, and also see me as a complementary therapist for the same problem. I am not providing them with clinical diagnoses or treatments, but I am helping them develop more general inward and outward skills which may also be very helpful for their clinical problem. In other cases, a person may view view their struggle - which some others view in clinical terms - in non-clinical terms, for example in existential terms. The classic examples of this are depression, anxiety and grief. Are they clinical disorders, or reactions to life and the events within life? Many of us are critical of the degree to which those things are assumed to be clinical problems, and we favour an existential understanding.
So, a clinical mental health professional provides assessments, diagnoses, clinically-approved treatments, and risk management, with respect to mental disorders or diseases. They may also provide formal reports or advocacy in medical, employment or legal contexts. I provide none of those services. Rather, I help people better apply their head, heart and hands to the stuff of their life. I help them become more insightful and wise, and more strong and skillful, and more purposeful and motivated, with regard to their specific problems and their life in general. My approach is not for everybody; it is for people who are safe to, and able to, improve their life by means of their reflection and effort.