This page is only intended for people who would like to book an appointment for psychotherapeutic services. If you are seeking clinical supervision, training, or wish to contact me for another reason, please click here instead.
**UPDATED January 2022: As stated above, I am fully booked with a full waitlist. I am currently unable to accept any new referrals for:
- solo (one-on-one) therapy
- generic relationship and family therapy enquiries outside of my areas of specialisation
As of 10th January 2022, I have some limited availability only for:
- short-term sessions with people seeking asylum with Asylum Appeals Tribunals (typically 2-4 sessions maximum)
- clinical supervision from an anti-oppressive practice approach (solo or group)
As of 10th January 2022, my waitlist is closed to new general referrals. I have some limited possibility to add to my waitlist (not for immediate bookings) a limited number of people seeking relationship and/or family therapy (not solo psychotherapy) in my areas of specialisation that many people report having been rarely accepted or understood by practitioners. This includes family members who are (any one or more of the following):
-
- neurodivergent
- practitioners of traditional African and/or Caribbean spiritual traditions
- involved in polyamorous and/or multi-partnered relationships
- involved in BDSM/kink relationships
- plural people/systems and/or medians
- Otherkin, Therians, and/or furries
- non-binary gender and/or non-gendered/agender
Due to access and equity considerations regarding the ethical duties of specialised practitioners, I am not able to consider any generic relationship and/or family therapy referrals.
**NEW!! Phoenix (she/her), another psychotherapist on the Ansara Psychotherapy team, is accepting new referrals. Click here to view her bio and make a booking enquiry.
To value your time and prevent an influx of referrals I am unable to consider, I have temporarily removed my booking form. Please check this page in February 2022 for possible updates.***
As a therapist in private practice, I am unable to provide on-call crisis counselling. Please note that we are not a 24hr service. If you are in crisis, please contact 000 or click here for information about crisis support and suicide prevention services.
**Please read the information below and/or have a support person discuss it with you if that helps you, before you submit the form below:**
Q: Are you currently available for bookings with new people? How soon can I book a session?
No, I am not currently available for new solo (one-on-one) psychotherapy referrals.
Solo Psychotherapy: Due to clinical and ethical considerations in solo psychotherapy and my current waitlist being full, I am unable to book first sessions with any new people seeking solo psychotherapy or to add new people to my waitlist at this time. Please check back in 2022 for an update.
Relationship & Family Therapy: Due to the distinct nature of Relationship & Family Therapy, I might be available for a limited number of Relationship Counselling or Family Therapy sessions with you later in 2022, but am unable to add new people to my waitlist outside of my areas of specialisation explained above. This will depend on a number of clinical and ethical considerations, to ensure I have capacity to provide services to you at my professional standard of care. In addition, due to the need to prioritise access and equity from a social justice perspective, I am no longer able to accept generalised referrals outside of the underserved priority populations and lived experiences centred by my practice.
Sessions are prioritised based on a combination of queue order, anti-oppressive practice principles, and on clinical and ethical considerations.
The length of time you will wait for a session after you request a booking will depend on which timeslot and session length you want. Some high demand timeslots are already booked through December 2022. In contrast, some lower demand timeslots might be available within 2 weeks of when I am next available for new referrals (but please note that I am not currently able to take new referrals due to being fully booked). The more flexibility you have in terms of the day and time of your session, the sooner I will be able to work with you.
Please note that weekday evening and Sunday sessions (in Narrm / Melbourne time) are in extremely high demand, so I am only able to add people to my waitlist for these timeslots as spaces become available. If your only availability is on weekday evenings or Sundays in my local timezone, then I will need to refer you to another therapist to reduce your wait time.
Q: What are your fees?
I use an income-based, sliding scale rates chart for income equity. For enquiries about my rates, please first review my Income Equity Rates Chart, available rebates, and payment policies here. Since May 2020, all of my pro bono (no fee) severe economic hardship and low income/student slots have been either full or reserved for people who have previously submitted enquiries. This means I do not currently have concession slots available for new people. I will update this information when concession slots become available.
Q: Can I use rebates to pay?
I am a Registered NDIS Provider and a registered provider with Bupa, MediBank, and several other private health funds. If you have NDIS funding for Therapeutic Supports, therapy sessions with me will be bulk billed (no fee gap). For enquiries about rebates, please submit a booking request.
Q: What about Medicare rebates?
If you are seeking fortnightly or weekly sessions for 3 months or longer, therapy with me is likely to be more affordable overall than therapy with a Medicare-rebated provider. This is because:
- Medicare has an annual rebate limit, so you will typically have to pay full fees with no rebates after you exceed that limited number of sessions,
- most providers charge a fee gap even for rebated sessions, and
- additional sessions after the rebated sessions are billed at an unexpectedly high rate (e.g., APS 2019 recommended schedule of fees: $251 for 45-60 minutes and $364 for 76-90 minutes).
In addition, Medicare rebates cover only a limited range of therapeutic methods, excluding a range of international ‘gold standard’ methods with an extensive peer-reviewed evidence base.
Medicare rebates may or may not cover some types of distance therapy, and typically do not cover relationship or family therapy, and require your therapist to provide some of your personal clinical information to the government. In contrast, I provider a wider range of psychotherapeutic services and will never share your personal clinical information with anyone– government or otherwise– except where legally or ethically required to do so (e.g., where there is credible risk of imminent harm to you or another person).
I am unable to assist you if you are:
- requesting Medicare rebates through a GP’s Mental Health Care Plan. Although I regularly collaborate with GPs when providing mental health care and am happy to receive a GP’s Mental Health Care Plan for clinical rather than financial reasons, I am unfortunately unable to provide Medicare rebates.
- seeking a forensic risk assessment (i.e., providing a court with an evaluation of your risk of re-offending). I am unable to provide forensic risk assessments for people charged with causing harm to another person.
Response Time:
I strive to be a responsive and accessible practitioner to those seeking my services as a psychotherapist whenever possible. Although my pre-COVID response time was within 72 hours, the massive influx of new enquiries throughout the pandemic and the increased needs of many people participating in therapy with me have resulted in longer delays in my response time. Unfortunately, under these challenging conditions, I am doing my best to prevent burnout by limiting my daily working hours. This makes it possible for me to continue to provide support to people who participate in therapy with me. Please wait one week after you have contacted me, then please follow up to contact me directly at gavi at ansarapsychotherapy.com (substitute the ‘@’ symbol for the word ‘at’ and remove the spaces between the words in bold).
Unless I am on leave, I will do my best to respond to your enquiry within one week. If you have not received a reply within one week, please assume I have not received your message.
Please note that abusive, threatening, and/or scam messages will not receive a response and can be formally reported. Thank you for your understanding.
Ansara Psychotherapy & Professional Advocacy Services: Engage. Reflect. Transform. 