If you or your children are not safe, contact your local emergency services or the police. The line listed below is a family and gender-based-violence line.
Crisis numbers in Australia
- 1800RESPECT, the national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling service: Tel: 1800 737 732
- All crisis lines in Australia
What couples counselling is
Couples counselling is talking therapy for two people together, with the relationship itself as the work.
Titles you will see include Psychologist (Psych), Provisional Psychologist (Prov. Psych) and Clinical Psychologist.
Launceston is in Tasmania.
Approaches generally share similar features 1. The counsellor takes an active part and works on the patterns that keep a difficulty going. They build an alliance with both of you at once.
The counsellor does not take a side.
It is not family dispute resolution. Separated parents in Australia have to attempt that before they can apply to a family law court for parenting orders 2. If it does not settle things, it ends in a certificate, not in counselling. Family violence is one of the grounds for exemption from it.
Couples counselling is for couples married, in de facto relationships and undecided. Relationship distress is an ordinary reason adults seek therapy 3.
Is couples counselling the right first step?
Joint sessions are not always the right first appointment. A careful practitioner screens before agreeing to see you together. The usual reasons are moderate to severe aggression between partners, active alcohol or other substance misuse, a continuing affair, and psychotic symptoms 1. Individual or specialist treatment comes first.
Couples sessions require safety. If one of you is afraid of the other, that is a safety question first. Going alone is a sensible beginning, not a sign you have given up on the relationship.
If the problem is safety rather than the relationship
Where there is violence or fear at home, these routes come before counselling.
The national service is 1800RESPECT, funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Social Services 4. It gives information, referral and counselling on domestic, family and sexual violence, at any hour and in confidence. It answers the people supporting someone as well as the person at risk.
The legal route runs through the states. The Magistrates' or Local Court hears applications for a protection order 5. The services around them differ from one state and territory to the next. Paid family and domestic violence leave is a national workplace entitlement.
Family Relationships Online is the Attorney-General's Department route to family counselling, family dispute resolution, legal advice and a search for local help 6.
A concern about a child goes to the state or territory government, and each has its own mandatory reporting law 7.
Nearby places and related listings
- Couples therapists by city, the couples therapists page, not tied to a place
- Couples counselling in every Australia city listed
References
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Vincenzo (Enzo) Sinisi, Clinical Psychologist (HPCSA), Psychoanalyst (IPA/SAPA), Group Analyst (IGA)