I just posted this in my Au Pair Support Groups, but I feel this information is useful to many people, so I thought I would share it here also.
Hi Au Pairs,
I have had some au pairs asking about free mental health services.
Here is a list of mental health resources in Australia, where you can get free phone or internet therapy, or minimal cost private therapy.
Generally speaking, most Universities in Australia have a public Psychology clinic, where FREE or dramatically reduced rate therapy sessions are conducted by Provisionally Registered Psychologists (post-graduate psychology students, who have already completed 4 years of undergraduate training to register with the Australian Psychology Board, and need to complete another 2-4 years of clinical and research training, depending on their specialisation). Sessions range from FREE to $20-60 per session. Some clinics base the fee on your income, others it is a flat-rate.
Please note this is not a comprehensive list. If you do a google search for “University Psychology Clinic” including the main city you live in or near, or any local universities you know of, then you will probably find one at your local university. I know there are clinics in Canberra at universities there also. There are many many more free or low cost psychological services available to people on low incomes and you do not need to be an Australian citizen or covered by medicare to use most of the university clinics.
Online help for anxiety and depression:
https://virtualclinic.org.au/
Emergency counselling hotline:
https://www.lifeline.org.au
Online resources for finding help:
http://www.headspace.org.au/
Online resources and helpline:
http://www.beyondblue.org.au/
Online resources for mental health:
http://www.sane.org/
The University of Sydney Psychology Clinic $20 adult psychology sessions with Provisionally Registered post-graduate psychology students:
http://www.psych.usyd.edu.au/clinic/adult_service/adult_service.shtml
UNSW Psychology Clinic, sessions with Provisionally Registered post-graduate psychology students:
http://clinic.psy.unsw.edu.au/Clinical_Services.htm
Student-intern counselling clinic Pyrmont, have drastically reduced therapy sessions by supervised counselling students:
http://www.jni.edu.au/clinic
Other University run reduced-rate psychology clinics:
Macquarie Univeristy – near Ryde area:
http://www.psy.mq.edu.au/clinic/services.htm
University of Western Sydney – for those out west – this is a FREE service:
http://www.uws.edu.au/ssap/ssap/psychology_clinic
Bond University QLD:
http://bond.edu.au/about-bond/facilities-services/psychology-clinic/clinic-hours/index.htm
University of QLD, Brisbane:
http://www.clinic.psy.uq.edu.au/
University of Adelaide:
http://health.adelaide.edu.au/psychology/clinic/CTAD/
University of Western Australia, Crawley WA, first session $35, all after $30 (they also have a clinic specific to eating disorders):
http://www.psychology.uwa.edu.au/community/clinic
Monash University, Melbourne ($20-60 per session depending on income):
http://www.med.monash.edu.au/psych/research/clinics/mpc/ref.html
Hey I am so grateful I found your website, I really found
you by mistake, while I was looking on Aol for something
else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say
kudos for a fantastic post and a all round
thrilling blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time
to go through it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and
also added your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read
much more, Please do keep up the excellent work.
Thanks for the lovely compliments 🙂 I don’t post as often as I should, but hopefully when I do, it’s worth reading (I hope)!
Thanks for reading! Now that I have some followers I will have to pick up the pace! Haha