Therapy from a psychologist for those who have experienced Hurtful or Harmful Ministry Experiences

Yes. If you have a current Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP, you may be eligible to receive a Medicare rebate for up to 10 individual psychology sessions per calendar year. These rebates help reduce the out-of-pocket cost for each session. You’ll need to provide a copy of your referral letter and MHTP prior to your first appointment.

Although there are some presentations that I cannot safely treat online, I work with individuals experiencing a range of mental health concerns, from mild anxiety or low mood through to more complex challenges such as PTSD, dissociation, religious trauma, and OCD. If your presentation is more complex, I will work collaboratively with your broader care team (e.g., psychiatrist, GP, or support worker) where appropriate, to ensure you receive safe and effective care.
Online therapy is offered as long as it is deemed clinically appropriate and safe for your specific needs.

Yes. Research shows that online therapy can be just as effective as face-to-face sessions for a wide range of concerns, including depression, anxiety, trauma, and relationship issues. It also offers convenience, privacy, and access to support regardless of location. All sessions are conducted via a secure telehealth platform.

Ministry settings can be complex. You may still care about the people involved or feel conflicted about your own role. Some experiences feel more like disappointment or grief than overt abuse, while others carry deeper trauma. This is a space to process those experiences without pressure to apply a label. If something left you hurt, confused, or struggling, that’s reason enough to seek support.

Yes—this space is judgment-free and honours your intent to reflect and grow. Many ministry workers, leaders and parishioners look back with regret at moments when they followed the lead of someone they trusted or stayed quiet when they didn’t know what to say. Some feel grief over unintended consequences of their leadership. Healing includes the capacity to name, understand, and grow from these moments—not to be defined by them.

Yes. Many people in ministry, church leadership, or faith-based roles experience seasons of deep emotional exhaustion, compassion fatigue, or burnout. Ministry often carries a unique weight: you are supporting others, holding confidential burdens, navigating complex relational or organisational systems, and sometimes trying to meet expectations that feel unrelenting. Over time, this can lead to feeling depleted, numb, overwhelmed, disconnected from God, or unsure how to keep going.

Burnout in ministry is not a sign of weakness or failure. It is often a sign of chronic stress, emotional over-functioning, or working within systems that have not supported your own wellbeing. In some cases, burnout is intertwined with experiences of church conflict, spiritual abuse, role overload, or being placed in situations where your values are compromised.

In therapy, we will explore both the emotional toll and the systemic pressures that have contributed to burnout. This may include:

• Understanding the signs of burnout: emotional, physical, spiritual, and relational fatigue.

• Identifying patterns of over-responsibility, people-pleasing, or self-silencing that can be common in ministry contexts.

• Processing grief, disappointment, or disillusionment that may arise when ministry does not look like what was hoped for.

• Reconnecting with your sense of identity, purpose, and boundaries in a way that allows your wellbeing to be restored.

• Developing personalised strategies to support ongoing resilience, whether you remain in ministry or are considering changes.

This is a space where your faith, your story, and your experience of ministry are taken seriously. Support is offered without judgement, pressure, or agenda — just a steady, grounded place to help you make sense of what has been heavy, and to find a sustainable way forward.

Yes. Leadership conflict and breakdowns in trust can be some of the most painful and destabilising experiences within ministry and church environments. When relationships between pastors, elders, ministry teams, or congregation members fracture, the emotional impact can be significant. These situations often involve layers of responsibility, power dynamics, role expectations, multiple relationships, and deeply held values,  which makes the hurt feel personal, spiritual, and relational all at once.

Support is available for those who are:

• Navigating ongoing tension, unresolved conflict, or communication breakdowns

• Feeling caught between loyalty to others and the responsibility to act ethically

• Processing experiences where power may have been misused, intentionally or unintentionally

• Holding grief or confusion after trust was damaged or lost

In therapy, space is provided to make sense of what has happened, clarify emotional and relational needs, and understand the broader system influencing the conflict — without blame, pressure, or pushing a particular outcome. This may include:

• Identifying where relational patterns or communication styles have contributed to the difficulty

• Understanding how organisational culture or theology has shaped expectations and responsibilities

• Supporting emotional recovery when trust has been fractured

• Clarifying values and boundaries moving forward

The goal is not to take sides, but to help you step out of the emotional “tangle” and regain clarity, steadiness, and self-leadership. Whether the next step is reconciliation, redefining roles, or seeking a healthy transition, this is a space where your experience is taken seriously, and where your wellbeing is prioritised.

Yes—within appropriate boundaries. I am not theologically trained and won’t offer doctrinal answers. However, psychological support can help you explore where certain beliefs came from, how family systems, institutional environments, or leadership dynamics may have shaped your worldview, and how these influences have affected your emotional and spiritual well-being.

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You are welcome to bring questions, doubts, and spiritual pain into the room. Ministry leaders sometimes need space to unpick belief systems they've carried for years, to grieve losses, or to rebuild a sense of personal faith on their own terms. Therapy does not aim to change your beliefs, but to support you as you reflect, make meaning, and move toward a healthier, more integrated sense of self.

Yes. If you meet criteria and the GP provides a valid MHTP and referral, you may be eligible for Medicare rebates on up to 10 individual psychology sessions per calendar year. Sessions are conducted by a registered psychologist.

Yes. Many people who have experienced ministry-related stress, conflict, spiritual distress, or trauma notice emotional and psychological effects that continue long after the event or season has passed. Feeling anxious, low in mood, overwhelmed, numb, or constantly “on alert” can be signs that your mind and body are still trying to process what has happened.

As a registered psychologist, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health conditions are available — including anxiety, depression, trauma-related conditions, and sometimes Adjustment Disorder, which is a very common and understandable response to significant stress or change. Experiencing these symptoms does not mean there is something wrong with you — it often reflects how much you have been carrying, often in silence, for a long time.

For some people, having a diagnosis can feel helpful and validating. It can give language to your experience and guide treatment. For others, a diagnostic label may feel unnecessary or uncomfortable. Both approaches are completely okay. Labels are simply tools — they do not define your identity or your worth. The focus of therapy is not on the label itself, but on ensuring you receive support that is targeted, evidence-based, and compassionate. If naming what is happening is helpful, we can do that. If it is more supportive to simply work with your lived experience and symptoms, we can do that too.

Therapy may involve:

• Processing the emotional and spiritual impact of what you’ve been through

• Supporting your nervous system to move out of survival mode

• Making sense of grief, disillusionment, betrayal, or loss of belonging

• Rebuilding trust in yourself, your relationships, and your sense of identity

• Developing grounding and regulation strategies that restore steadiness

This is a space where your story is taken seriously — including the role faith, community, calling, and meaning hold in your life. Healing is possible, at a pace that honours where you are now.

No. The aim of therapy is not to steer you toward or away from any particular belief or position. Your faith, values, and lived experience are respected. People come to therapy with a wide range of spiritual backgrounds — some are deeply committed to their faith and want support that honours that; others are questioning, confused, or grieving the loss of a spiritual community; and some feel caught somewhere in between.

Therapy is not about convincing you to deconstruct or reconstruct your faith. It is about creating space to explore what you have been through, how it has affected you, and what you need in order to feel grounded, whole, and connected again — in ways that are aligned with your own values, not someone else’s expectations.

For some, healing my look like reconnecting with faith in a renewed or gentler way.

For others, it may involve setting boundaries with certain teachings, leaders, or systems while maintaining a personal relationship with God.
For others still, it may involve grieving, questioning some aspects of faith, or integrating complex experiences at a pace that feels safe.

The goal is not to prescribe the outcome.
The goal is to support you — your wellbeing, your agency, your voice, and your sense of spiritual and emotional safety.

Your faith is welcome here. Your questions are welcome here. Your story is welcome here

Yes. Seeking therapy does not mean stepping away from your calling — it means caring for the one who is carrying it. Many ministry leaders enter therapy because they do care deeply, and they want to lead from a place that is steady, wise, and grounded rather than exhausted or overwhelmed.

Therapy is not focused on encouraging you to leave ministry, abandon your community, or shift your beliefs. The focus is on strengthening your wellbeing so that your leadership, pastoral presence, and discernment remain sustainable. Ministry involves emotional labour, spiritual responsibility, and the weight of holding others’ stories — and it is normal for this to have an impact over time

In therapy, space is provided to:

• Process the emotional toll of leadership, conflict, grief, or disappointment

• Explore pressures, expectations, and identity as they relate to your calling

• Reconnect with your sense of purpose in ways that feel life-giving rather than depleting

• Clarify boundaries and rhythms that support long-term ministry health

• Recover your capacity for presence, discernment, and compassion

This is not about pulling you away from your community. It is about helping you remain present in a way that is healthy, sustainable, and aligned with your values.

Your commitment to your congregation is respected here.
Your wellbeing matters too.