Our Approach
At South Melbourne Psychology, a collaborative, safe and flexible approach sets the foundation for the therapeutic alliance.
Therapy Modalities
Mindfulness-Based Interventions
Mindfulness is the ability to maintain awareness of the present - including your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and the environment around you. Mindfulness-based interventions use meditation, relaxation, and awareness exercises in order to achieve this, with an outlook of non-judgment. The goal is to reduce automatic responses to life events or stressors, teaching you the ability to sit in the now without becoming overwhelmed or overly reactive.
CBT
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy works to help you to become aware of, challenge, and modify unhelpful thinking patterns, and to develop more adaptive behavioural strategies. CBT can lead to significant improvements in overall functioning and quality of life. Research has found that CBT is an effective treatment approach for a range of problems including depression, anxiety, alcohol & drug use problems, marital problems, and eating disorders.
DBT
Dialectical Behavioural Therapy combines CBT with Mindfulness practices to establish a ‘dialectic’ between acceptance and change. DBT works to help you develop four core skills including mindfulness, acceptance and distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. DBT can be effective for a range of problems or diagnoses.
Our psychologists are trained in a wide range of evidence-based psychological therapies and will create from these, a tailored program designed to address your particular therapeutic goals and needs. They will work in close collaboration with you to achieve this.
All psychologists at South Melbourne Psychology are trained in providing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), and Mindfulness-based interventions. Certain psychologists also utilize additional therapy modalities in their practice, as described below.
Below are the additional therapy modalities certain psychologists at the clinic specialise in.
Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)
As its name suggests, EFT is a therapeutic approach that focuses on emotions. This approach views primary emotions (like sadness, anger, and fear) as foundational to our behaviours and decisions. EFT works on the premise that we feel before we think, and that these feelings can have a deep effect on how we perceive the world around us. EFT is beneficial in supporting individuals to process and experience the emotional residue left behind by difficult and traumatic experiences that may have previously felt hard to do due to defenses or overwhelm. EFT can be used in both individual and couples therapy, and has been shown to be effective for depression, anxiety, interpersonal issues, personality disorders, and eating disorders.
Our clinical psychologist, Dr Rebecca Dredge, utilizes EFT in her practice.
Gottman Method Couples Therapy
The Gottman Method is an approach to couples therapy that utilizes over 40 years of research into healthy relationships. Beginning with an analysis of your relationship, your psychologist will focus on supporting the couple to understand healthy conflict management, communication, friendship development, and identification of shared goals and meaning. The relationship assessment involves the psychologist seeing the couple together and each person individually.
Our Clinical Psychologist, Rebecca Dredge, utilizes The Gottman Method in her practice.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT works to help you better align your behavior with your personal values, and to teach you how to mindfully respond to uncontrollable life situations. This approach focuses on acceptance rather than avoidance or denial, of discomfort, thereby increasing your psychological flexibility around difficult, though inevitable life experiences like pain, grief, anxiety, disappointment, and illness. ACT has been associated with improvements in depressive symptoms, OCD, PTSD, and has been shown to reduce feelings of overwhelming stress and anxiety.
Our General Psychologist, Victoria Veldhuizen, utilizes ACT in her practice.
For more information about each of our psychologists and the work they do, please see Our Psychologists.
