Windermere Child and Family Services

Counselling Services

Windermere’s highly skilled and qualified counsellors provide one-on-one counselling, family therapy, and group work for children and families. We also provide cognitive and developmental assessments, as well as training and workshops for professionals.

Family Counselling
The primary focus of our counselling team is to help children and young people build resilience and resolve issues relating to bullying, cultural differences, anxiety, family violence, and abuse, to name just a few. We aim to give the child and family a voice and provide support and recommendations to ensure that all get back on track. Our counselling programs are wide and varied and include:

Groupwork
We also offer an extensive range of groups covering parenting issues, family conflict, anger management, positive parenting and adolescent issues. Groups are based on school terms and are run both during school hours and after work. Depending on client’s needs, groups are generally schueduled to run twice a year. Please contact our group leader for more information.

See list of upcoming groups below: 

Click here to view all groups for Term 3 & Term 4

Click here to view '1-2-3 Magic Parenting - (morning) - a 3 week program to assist parents of children aged 2 to 12 years to manage difficult behaviour.
Click here to view 'Post Separation Parenting' (morning) - a 3 week program to help parents to better understand the effects of separation on their children and learn useful strategies for helping children to adjust.
Click here to view 'Post Separation Parenting' (evening) - a 3 week program to help parents to better understand the effects of separation on their children and learn useful strategies for helping children to adjust.
Click here to view 'Steps' Program - Making Stepfamilies work (a course for couples) - a 6 week program that increases parents understanding and ability to cope in a step family.
Click here to view 'Change' - an 8 week program for pre-teen boys aged between 9 and 12 and their parents, aimed at understanding strong emotions, especially anger.
Click here to view 'Rollercoasters' - a 4 hour program for children aged 5-8 years who have been affected by parental separation and divorce.

Cost
Depending on the service requested and funding arrangements with our partners, some services are free and some are charged. All Early Intervention Service groups are free. Other groups have a minimal cost. The services that we charge for are based on a sliding scale in accordance with income levels. The cost of preparing formal reports and undertaking assessments is negotiated according to requirements.

Counselling locations
Our counselling services are offered at the following locations:

  • Narre Warren
  • Pakenham
  • Dandenong
  • Cranbourne

For more information please contact us.

Our partnerships
We work closely with schools in developing behaviour management plans and advocating on behalf of children at risk of suspension. We also offer workshops to teachers who are dealing with stressful situations in the classroom.

We also work closely with Maternal and Child Health, local government, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and other service providers to offer a coordinated approach to improving outcomes for children and families.

Professional Training
We have a team of psychologists, family therapists, social workers and psychotherapists who can develop and deliver training workshops to human service professionals and welfare workers in basic counselling skills, behaviour management and family violence. We can create training packages for specific organisations, which can be delivered on or off-site, depending on needs. Topics for training workshops include:

  • Dealing with trauma - welfare practitioners, health providers, emergency services, personal and business
  • Dealing with difficult behaviour
  • Child and adult anxiety and depression
  • Grief and loss
  • ADHD (Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder) behavioural and case management
  • Adolescent issues such as relationships, sexuality, self image and offending behaviour
  • School issues such as bullying, school refusal, social skills, transition to secondary school and assessments

For more information please contact us.
Or email us at: counselling@windermere.org.au

Click here to view PDF Brochure

Transcending labels: the story of Sarah*

Sarah first came to Windermere after she lashed out at some of her classmates with her fists during lunchtime at school. The school – immediately labelling her a bully after the incident – sent her to us for counselling for anger management. Instead of accepting the label, her caring Windermere counsellor began the hard work required to establish the underlying reason that Sarah behaved the way she did.

After a while, Sarah started to feel comfortable in her session; relaxing enough to draw her worries on paper. She then started to open up, but Sarah had a secret that she was initially too frightened to disclose. Eventually her counsellor discovered that Sarah spent her days at school sitting in abject fear, wondering whether her mother would hit her when she returned home from school.

It turns out that Sarah’s mother suffers from mental health issues and does not always take her medication - so her moods are out of control.

Sarah’s counsellor discovers that Sarah was suffering from enormous stress, which led her to explode during lunchtimes, hitting out at her fellow classmates.

Much of Sarah’s stress related to the fact that she felt that telling someone about her problems would mean having to return to foster care.

But thanks to the trust established by her counsellor, Sarah found the courage to break her own code of silence, starting to cry silently, but understanding that the counsellor would help – because Sarah knew being hit was not okay.

The counsellor then began working with Sarah and her mother, both separately and together. Journals were written. Feelings were expressed. Boundaries and safety concerns were discussed. Medication was reviewed with the doctor, and some ‘time out’ for both the mother and daughter was suggested.

After six weeks of sessions, the fighting stopped at school and at home, and Sarah stopped being afraid. The future now holds great hope for Sarah and her mother.

* Not her real name

 
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