You will need to have a referral letter and a Mental Health Treatment Plan (MHTP) from your GP to access Medicare rebates. A MHTP is a support plan for someone experiencing mental health issues and identifies what type of health care you need and your goals.
If you have private health insurance and extras cover, you may be able to claim part of a psychologist's fee. Contact your health fund to check. Please note you cannot use your private health insurance ancillary cover in conjunction with Medicare rebates for psychology services.
A clinical psychologist or psychotherapist is a trained professional who helps you improve your mental health and emotional wellbeing. They work with you in a safe, confidential, and supportive environment to understand what you’re experiencing and what you would like to change.
Using evidence-based therapies tailored to your needs such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based approaches, and other therapeutic methods they help you develop practical coping strategies, gain insight into emotional patterns, and build resilience.
Therapy can support you with concerns such as anxiety, stress, depression, trauma, relationship difficulties, life transitions, and self-esteem. The process is collaborative and paced to suit you, with the aim of helping you feel more confident, balanced, and empowered in your life.
Your first session is an opportunity for us to get to know each other and for you to talk about what has brought you to therapy. We will discuss your current concerns, relevant background information, and what you would like to gain from therapy. There is no pressure to share anything you are not ready to discuss.
Your psychologist will also explain how therapy works, confidentiality and its limits (as required under Australian law), fees, Medicare rebates (if applicable), and how sessions are structured. This is a chance for you to ask any questions you may have and to decide whether the approach feels right for you.
Together, we will begin to identify goals for therapy and discuss which therapeutic approaches may be most helpful. The first session is paced according to your comfort level and focuses on creating a safe, respectful, and collaborative space.
Psychotherapy involves more than learning quick techniques or strategies. Meaningful change requires time to build a trusting relationship with your therapist and to understand long-standing patterns that may operate outside of conscious awareness.
While some approaches focus on short-term symptom relief, deeper and more lasting change often unfolds gradually. Difficulties that have developed over many years usually take time to understand and shift.
Therapy follows a similar dose–response principle to other forms of healthcare progress builds over time. Patience and consistency are important, especially when working with complex or longstanding concerns. Although the process can feel slow at times, the changes that occur are often more sustainable and life-enhancing.
In your first session with your psychologist, you can discuss the number and frequency of your sessions as part of your overall treatment plan.
Factors to consider may include:
The Medicare Better Access Scheme provides rebates for up to 10 sessions per calendar year with a psychologist when referred by your GP under a Mental Health Care Plan.
Having a collaborative and open discussion with your psychologist will help you both work out the session frequency and duration that best fits your needs, and this is something that can be reviewed as the treatment progresses.
Being an active participant in your sessions and taking an open and collaborative approach with your psychologist is the best way to get the most out of your sessions.
Some treatment approaches will require you to do some homework between sessions, or practice skills and tools discussed in sessions. Writing a few notes on these experiences between sessions and bringing them in to explore is a useful way to support the transfer of what happens in sessions to your outside world.
On a practical note, ensuring your sessions are at a time and place where you can commit your full attention is important. This means, where possible, eliminating distractions related to work, family, or technology.
Yes you can. You can now access your sessions with a psychologist via phone and videoconferencing, which has recently been made permanent under the Medicare Better Access Scheme.
As a general guideline for using telehealth, it is important to ensure you have a good internet connection, space to talk privately, and a time where you are not likely to experience any distractions related to work or family. Your psychologist will give you more information on how to best utilise these telehealth options now available.
