Our approach to therapy
The therapeutic relationship relies on there being what is known as a “good fit” between therapist and client. Sometimes, despite best intentions, the match isn't quite right for various reasons. This could be due to differences in communication styles, therapeutic approaches, or simply personality compatibility. If either person is feeling there is not a good fit, we will discuss this openly, and help you find a fit that’s right for you.
Therapy focuses on something that you identify isn't working in your life or something you want to change. It helps us if you have a clear idea on what this is, but we can also help you work this out if you are not sure.
As registered psychologists, we are bound by our code of ethics to use evidence-based approaches. This involves processes including psychological assessment, formulation, and treatment planning.
Psychological assessment means evaluating your concerns in detail. It means asking what's happening, how long it's been going on, what impact it's having, and what you've already tried. This is not the same as a formal diagnostic assessment.
Formulation is our individualised “theory” about what might be keeping you stuck or causing a problem or problems. Essentially, why you haven't been able to solve this yourself despite your best efforts. This draws on psychological knowledge, our expertise (including, at Neudle, lived experience of neurodiversity), and is guided by your personal experience.
Treatment planning flows from this formulation and involves identifying what we will do. This involves evidence-based approaches to create positive change. This is crucial to provide direction for our sessions and helps us track progress.
If either of us feels we're getting off track with our intended focus, we can discuss this promptly by going back to our formulation and treatment plan to ensure our work remains relevant and aligned with your goals.
Our clinicians are informed by various approaches to work with a variety of presenting concerns, including:
- EMDR
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Schema Therapy
- Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)
- Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT)
- Parts-models, such as IFS-informed approaches
As therapists, we are able to be creative and draw on additional evidence-based approaches as the needs arise. We also seek continuing professional development and consultation with supervisors to ensure we are practicing in line with the best current evidence and techniques. If you think a specific approach would be helpful for you, let us know. In some instances, referring to a different therapist with specific skill and experience in a particular area might be advisable.
We encourage you to speak with your individual clinician about the therapy modalities they use, and how these apply to your formulation and treatment plan. You can learn more about the Neudle team here, or get in touch if you have any questions.
Like all relationships, the therapeutic one has a start, a middle, and an end. Therapy might end because you have met the particular goal you sought-out help for. Sometimes it becomes clear that it's time for the therapy to conclude due to there not being a good fit with the therapist, or simply identifying a different approach is needed as discussed above. Other reasons, such as financial, health or capacity reasons might also require a change in therapy plans. We are committed to making any transitions as smooth as possible and can assist with referrals or handovers to another therapist if that would be helpful. Please let us know if you have concerns at any time (we won’t get offended!) and we can help you navigate this.
There are a few important boundaries you should be aware of:
- Communication outside of hours. Therapeutic work will happen in our scheduled time together. Neudle is not set up to conduct therapy over e-mail or in phonecalls outside of sessions. You are welcome to send brief updates before a session, please discuss what arrangement works best with your clinician. Lengthy content may need to be read in session time. For any administrative needs, please contact our team at admin@neudle.com.au.
- It is important to understand that Neudle is not a crisis service. Whilst we are able to help you safety plan in sessions, there may be times when supporting you in a crisis will be outside of our scope and resources. For example, there are no staff available outside of hours. As such, it is our duty of care and professionally contracted responsibility to encourage you to reach out to crisis services when the need arises. For example, if we identify you need a higher level of support, such as community mental health services, we will provide you with information about who to contact. We acknowledge you may already be familiar with some of these services. We acknowledge that these services are not always helpful. Please let us know if a particular service already works for you.
- We do self-disclosure a little differently here (this means talking or sharing about ourselves). Generally, psychologists are taught to keep self-disclosure to a minimum. For a long time, it would be taboo for a psychologist to tell you they are neurodivergent. The thinking behind this is that it can compromise boundaries and the therapeutic relationship if your therapist discloses too much. Excessive self-disclosure can cause a variety of issues, for example, you may find yourself more concerned about your therapist's wellbeing than your own! On the other side, many clients tell us that knowing their clinician “gets it” is extremely important, or even crucial. As such, at Neudle many of our clinicians take a risk by being out and open about their neurodiversity status, meaning they self-disclose about some aspects of their neurodivergent experience. The purpose of this is as a therapeutic tool which is aimed at helping you feel less alone in your experience. However, we recognise people feel different ways about self-dislosure. Please feel free to let us know if you have a preference about self-disclosure, or something that makes you feel safer, and we will respect that. Some of our clinicians even share their experiences publicly. If this troubles you in any way, please feel comfortable to block or un-follow said clinician(s).
We rely on your feedback about what is and isn't working to continue to best serve our clients. Your openness will help us refine our approach and do better.
If you want to share feedback at any time, we encourage you to speak to your therapist in the first instance. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, please reach out to admin@neudle.com.au. You can also request a feedback form where you can submit feedback anonymously.
