Psychological services at Circle of Life Psychology Practice Sydney

Circle of Life Psychology Practice offers comprehensive and collaborative services with an experienced psychologist. Psychological services are provided face-to-face in Sydney CBD, or online via tele-health.

Circle of Life offers Psychological services in Sydney CBD and online. Our services can assist people with developing self-effectiveness and self-efficacy. We aim to help people who are facing mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and PTSD, poor self-esteem, grief and loss issues, emotional dysregulation (i.e. anger management issues) and relationship issues.

Psychological services are provided in accordance with the APS Ethical guidelines on confidentiality. Read the guidelines (external link).

Psychologist Carmen Iancu works with adults aged 18+ in a holistic, compassionate and person-centred approach.

Services can be facilitated in Romanian and Spanish, if required.

“Self-realization and self-fulfilment

are the sine qua non for human existence.”

Arthur Miller

"Self-realization and self-fulfilment are the sine qua non for human existence."

Arthur Miller

Striving Together for Mental Wellness

Circle of Life Psychology Practice aims to support individuals aged 18+ who seek recovery from a wide range of mental health issues, including:

Substance misuse disorder and co-morbidity
Relapse prevention
Compulsive behaviours
Anxiety disorders
Mood disorders
Personality disorders
Trauma/complex trauma/intergenerational trauma
Existential crisis
Self-esteem issues
Attachment issues
PTSD

Grief and loss issues
Post-natal depression
Parenting issues/concerns
Anger management issues
Relationship issues (not couple therapy)
Emotional dysregulation
Self-harm and suicidality in pre-acute or post-acute stage
Family issues (not family therapy)
Sexuality issues
Workplace stress/and burnout syndrome; workplace trauma

Psychological Services Sydney CBD are available in person and online.

Clinical Interventions

Carmen is equipped to facilitate clinical interventions within the following treatment modalities.

Person-centred therapy
Narrative therapy
Gestalt therapy
Strengths based approach
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based CBT
Dialectal behavioural therapy (DBT)

Solution focused brief therapy (SFBT)
Schema therapy
Motivational interviewing (MI) and motivational enhancement
Crisis Intervention and Risk Management
Psycho-education to improve self-awareness and self-efficacy

How it works

Psychologists study human behaviour, and collaboratively investigate the processes related to how people think, feel and act. We work collaboratively in the context of individual history and potential predisposition for mental health illnesses. This can be based on family history, and life stressors that could precipitate the onset of mental health issues.

Psychologists provide therapy and counselling to reduce psychological distress and to help people better manage transient or persistent psychological problems such as the ongoing management of mental health illness.

Psychological services could be accessed with a referral from a treating GP or without a referral. The treating GP would provide the following mental health interventions:

a mental health assessment and development of a mental health treatment plan,
referral to a psychologist for a specialised mental health assessment and further treatment, including a referral to a psychiatrist, when needed,
pharmacotherapy to assist with transient and/or prolonged mental health issues.

The mental health treatment plan is developed collaboratively with the treating GP and gives access to up to 10 Medicare subsidised sessions for specialised mental health treatment within 12 months from the date when the mental health treatment plan was formulated.

Moving forward with a psychologist

After the completion of 6 sessions with a psychologist under a mental health treatment plan, the GP will provide a review of the mental health treatment plan based on the feedback provided by the person engaged in specialised mental health treatment and the treating psychologist.

The review of the mental health treatment plan would establish treatment progress and identify feasibility for treatment continuity. If treatment continuity would be deemed adequate, the treating GP will provide an additional referral for 4 more consultations with a psychologist.

Engagement in treatment without a referral requires attendance for an initial consultation where treatment issues and treatment goals can be collaboratively identified, including an estimation of the duration of treatment and frequency of attendance.

Please note that engagement in treatment without a referral requires payment of full fee, without Medicare subsidy; private health care insurance may cover a part of the full fee depending on the policy and level of cover for mental health services.

Therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes

Lambert and Barley (2001) found that 30% of client outcomes in psychotherapy could be attributed to ‘common factors’. These factors included the therapist’s facilitative competencies, such as empathy/warmth/and congruence, and the therapeutic alliance. This is upheld by the Australian Psychological Society (APS).

“A therapeutic alliance involves the therapist and client agreeing on the goals of therapy, collaborating on the specific tasks to be achieved, and sharing an affective bond.”
(Bordin, 1979; Zuroff & Blatt, 2006)

Treatment outcomes are determined by each individual’s investment in fulfilling their mental health recovery goals. Outcomes are heavily influenced by the subjective experiential response to the psychological services provided. This is somethimes in conjunction with the pharmacotherapy prescribed by a treating GP and/or a treating psychiatrist. Specialised services such as exercise physiology have proved to be effective for mental health and overall wellbeing improvement. Additional effective services include pain management services, dietician services, AOD services (ie. detoxification programs, residential rehabilitation services) etc.