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Seeing a psychologist can feel like a pretty big thing. Well, it is, and it isn't. Lots
of people see psychologist for a whole range of reasons from career counselling, relationship
hassles, school problems, family issues, you name it. But when you're feeling down or stressing
out and you just can't think straight, well that's when a psychologist can really help.
An appointment with a psychologist usually goes for about an hour. This gives you time
to talk about lots of different things and allows the psychologist to get a really good
idea of what's actually going on for you.
Hi Tim.
Hello Alysse.
Nice to see you. Come through.
So what is a psychologist?
A psychologist is somebody who has been studying psychology. Psychology is the study of the
mind and how you think and you feel and how that affects behaviour, and then how behaviour
affects how you think and feel. For example, if you're feeling really depressed or really
anxious, there might be things that you're thinking or feeling or doing that make those
problems worse. They might be interested in helping you think through that.
So why do young people come to see you?
Sometimes people might have been having troubles with school, might have been really feeling
stressed about the workload for example, or they might be having relationship troubles,
maybe with parents or teachers or friends. Or it might be more that the feeling really
sad or overwhelmed or particularly anxious, so it might be more about what's going on
inside for them. So there's a really big range of different things that people might come
to talk to a psychologist about.
What does a psychologist actually do?
Firstly, I think I would start by asking some questions. So it's important to have some
talking going on. So I might ask questions about the problem, might be interested in
understanding things from the young person's point of view, exploring what the young person
has tried already to do to solve the problem, in a way, to open up different ideas and explore
different possibilities. I might also provide the young person with information about different
sorts of problems, and sometimes, we might work on really specific sort of strategies
that might be helpful like, how to to relax or doing breathing exercises or something
like that.
And what are some of the things that young people find most helpful?
It can be a real relief when they come and talk to somebody that's not going to judge
them or tell them what to do, so having a place to explore different ideas, maybe get
to understand what it is that's worrying them better. Young people really want to go away
with some specific kind of skills or tools that they can use. So having a list of things
that you can do that make you feel better or help you manage stress better, those things
are all pretty helpful.
How long would someone need to see a psychologist for?
Well, that depends a lot on the young person as well as the problem and how serious it
is. So, a young person might come and talk once or twice to a psychologist and that might
be enough. They might have felt like they've got enough information to go away and try
things out. For more complex problems though, it might be that you see a psychologist regularly
once a week for a number of months, and that might be more appropriate. It's rare for somebody
to go on seeing a psychologist for a really long time. Mostly, it will be a short period
of time. The sessions are usually about 50 minutes long, and I guess the most common
is that you would see a psychologist once a week.
How much does it cost to see a psychologist?
So if a young person comes to a psychologist who's working at a public service, like a
public mental health service or maybe headspace, it would be most common that the young person
wouldn't pay anything at all; Medicare would cover that. But if the young comes to the
psychologist, and they're private psychologist, then it maybe that the Medicare fee doesn't
cover all of the psychologist fees, so there might be a small fee in addition.
Do you ever have to tell anyone what's discussed in a session?
Mostly what's talked about between a young person and a psychologist is kept private
and confidential, and usually, the psychologist would talk about that with the young person
at the beginning of their work together. There are some limits to that. They're pretty rare,
and it happens if somebody's worried about risk to somebody or someone's safety, either
the young person or someone else's safety. They wouldn't be telling everything about
the young person, really only the minimum amount of information that they needed to
keep everybody safe.
What happens if you have someone who's really nervous when they come to see you?
It's pretty normal to feel nervous when you first come and meet somebody. The young person
shouldn't feel ashamed or shouldn't panic, they'll get used to it, and they'll settle
down. It will feel more comfortable after a little while.
Is there anything else a young person should know?
I think that it's important to know that if you don't feel comfortable with the psychologist
that you've come to see, that it's alright to tell them that and to ask to see somebody else.
Well, thanks Alysse, thanks very much for speaking with me, it's been great.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Cheers... She was really nice, and she was easy to talk to. It's great to know that it
doesn't have to cost to much, plus also knowing that things don't have to stay the same.
They can get better.