Your consultation
An initial consultation is designed to develop a clear understanding of your experiences before recommendations about treatment are made.
Every patient arrives with a different history, priorities and questions. Taking the time to understand those differences allows care to be thoughtful, evidence-based and tailored to the individual.
Good treatment begins with good understanding.
Before Your Appointment
Before we meet, you'll receive an online intake form.
This provides an opportunity to share information about your health, current concerns and any previous treatment. It isn't expected to capture your entire story, nor does it need to be completed in full. Anything not included can be explored together during your consultation.
If you've been referred by your GP or another healthcare professional, referral letters and relevant reports will need to be provided before your appointment.
The aim is simple: to spend less time on administration and more time focusing on you.
Telehealth
Consultations are conducted securely via Xestro's telehealth platform.
Before your appointment, you'll receive a secure link by email or SMS. At the time of your consultation, simply open the link from your phone, tablet or computer and follow the prompts to join.
No software downloads are typically required.
All you need is a quiet, private space and a reliable internet connection.
90 minutes
The initial consultation is intentionally longer than a standard medical appointment because meaningful assessment cannot be rushed.
Before treatment recommendations can be made, it's important to understand not only what you're experiencing, but how those experiences developed and the context in which they occur.
Rather than working through a checklist of symptoms alone, we'll build a picture of your health, your history and the broader context of your life. Together, these pieces help explain not only what you're experiencing, but why.
The beginning of the consultation is often more structured than you might expect. There is a significant amount of information to gather before thoughtful conclusions can be drawn. At first, this can feel more clinical than conversational.
That structure is intentional.
Careful assessment is not separate from treatment. It is the foundation that allows every recommendation to be made with confidence, context and clinical judgement.
As the consultation progresses, the focus naturally shifts from gathering information to making sense of it together. We'll discuss what we've learned, answer your questions, and begin developing a personalised plan for your care.
You may arrive unsure how to describe what you've been experiencing. You don't need to have the right words.
Part of my role is asking thoughtful questions that help build a clear picture.
Making Sense of the Bigger Picture
Mental health is rarely explained by a single symptom or diagnosis.
Sometimes a diagnosis becomes clear during the initial consultation. Sometimes it develops over time as new information emerges and patterns become clearer.
A diagnosis may form part of the picture, but it is never the whole picture.
The aim is to understand the biological, psychological and social factors that have shaped your mental health, recognise the patterns contributing to your current difficulties, and develop a shared understanding that guides future care.
The quality of treatment depends on the quality of understanding that comes before it.
Planning Your Care
Every treatment plan is individual.
Recommendations may include medication, psychological therapy, lifestyle interventions, further assessment, additional investigations, or a combination of approaches.
Every recommendation is informed by current evidence, careful clinical judgement and an understanding of your individual circumstances.
Treatment is not selected because it is routine.
It is selected because it is appropriate.
The aim is to develop a plan that fits your life while remaining grounded in evidence-based medicine.
Ongoing Care
Mental health care evolves over time.
As your understanding deepens and life changes, your treatment can evolve alongside it.
90 minutes
60 minutes
30 minutes
Initial appointment:
90 minutes
Second appointment:
60 minutes
Care is designed to be thoughtful, discreet and individualised.
Where medication forms part of your treatment, prescriptions are provided electronically as an eScript for your convenience.
Consultations are privately billed, with Medicare rebates available for eligible patients with a valid referral.
With your consent, we communicate with your GP and other treating clinicians to support seamless, coordinated care.
Sometimes, an assessment and treatment plan is all that's needed before returning to the care of your GP. At other times, ongoing specialist support may be helpful through different stages of life.
Whatever your journey, your care is tailored to your individual needs and reviewed regularly to ensure it continues to support your wellbeing and long-term goals.
Areas of clinical focus
Before we finish
You don’t need to know exactly what you need before reaching out.
You don’t need to know whether what you’re experiencing has a diagnosis.
You don’t need to have your story perfectly organised.
Sometimes the most valuable outcome of an initial consultation isn’t leaving with every answer.
It’s leaving with greater clarity about what has been happening, what may be contributing to it, and what comes next.