Cognitive behavioural (CBT)
Working the loop between thought, feeling and behaviour: testing predictions against evidence and changing what maintains the problem.
Melbourne guides · 04
Therapy approaches used at Melbourne Counselling Centre
Evidence-based methods, chosen to fit the person in the room rather than applied as a house style.
In short
Melbourne Counselling Centre uses cognitive behavioural strategies, mindfulness and nervous-system regulation, solution-focused work, and The Richards Trauma Process for trauma. The approach is chosen to fit the presenting problem rather than applied as a house style, and it is explained in plain terms in the first session.
Different problems respond to different work. Anxiety usually needs physiological settling and graded exposure; depression needs activation before insight; relationship difficulty needs the pattern mapped before either partner changes their behaviour; trauma needs stabilisation before any processing. The approach follows the problem.
No outcome can be guaranteed. What reliably predicts change is engagement between sessions — do the work and change will come. Where a different modality, a medical review or another practitioner would serve you better, that is said plainly.
Mindfulness & regulation
Breath, grounding and attention work that brings the nervous system down far enough for clear thinking to be possible.
Solution-focused
Starting from what you want more of, identifying what already works, and building on it rather than only analysing the deficit.
TRTP
The Richards Trauma Process — a structured four-part trauma resolution process that works with the subconscious, without retelling the event in detail.
Questions people ask
Will we only use one approach?+
Rarely. Most work blends them — regulation skills early, cognitive work in the middle, and structured trauma resolution where that is the presenting issue.
What is TRTP, briefly?+
A four-part process delivered across a small number of sessions, with preparation beforehand and consolidation afterwards. It resolves the emotional charge of an event so it is stored as memory rather than experienced as a live threat.
How do I know which approach suits me?+
You do not have to. That decision is part of the first session, and it is explained in plain terms rather than presented as a menu.
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