Social skills support

Often people with neurodivergence and anxiety can struggle to connect with others and socialise. Often, there can be what we call ‘masking’, where a person does not feel they can be or act how they truly are around others due to concerns for being judged or even the fear they may not be liked and could be outcast or rejected. This issue is amplified in conditions such as autism and intellectual barriers, where socialising can genuinely be quite a terrifying experience!

It is important that when learning social skills, however, that we try not to get people to conform to other standards and that therapy is done in such a way that promotes a person to advocate for themselves and be who they are. This affirming (or neuroaffirming approach) has become key. Especially as the NDIS has seen increased media in the last few years.

A lot of this has been around issues with improper practice, trying to get others to conform but also noting that therapists have used improper practices, such may punish and make a person feel dehumanised. This is something we often hear out in the Central West in smaller towns such as Dubbo, West Wyalong or even Hay where there are few, to none, local supports that are affirming and designed to support a person to be who they are whilst making meaningful social connections.

Riverina Counselling aims to offer therapies that are more about helping a person to be themselves and connect with others whilst doing so. However, this can be a major challenge when social difficulties exist. Therefore, we aim to improve a client’s ability to advocate and express themselves in a way that allows them to be themselves yet still connect with peers. We do this by looking at what makes it hard for people to be themselves, their concerns ands fears, whilst also acknowledging and tapping into their innate strengths and what makes them ‘tick’ as person.

Therapy should not be about punitive or condescending practices but connecting with someone who truly wants to support someone to be able to be themselves, when and where they see it. Masking isn’t always bad, as we all do this in different contexts to different extents (think of how you may act around your parents’ vs when out with friends having a joke or laugh).

In this work, it is also important to remember the ‘social battery’ as often those with neurodivergence (including our neurodiverse clinicians!) can quickly deplete this. This is where therapy should consider ways to manage this. Such as, taking breaks between social contact, ensuring you have the skills to excuse yourself for a breather, or even taking things to manage sensory issues such as earphones to help manage noise or glasses for light (Matt uses this himself!)

This is the reason social skills work extends beyond the social skills, as it about learning to manage this in a way that suites you to connect with others and have relationships that you value and where others value you.

Supporting men’s mental health with trauma, depression and anger

Riverina Counselling often supports men and their mental health, and we often get phone calls from concerned or worried family members or spouses being gravely concerned of men’s wellbeing. As explored in another post, men often experience higher rates of mental ill-health, suicide, relationship breakdowns and social isolation in rural and regional parts of Australia. Places such as Cowra and Young often have a cultural within the community, with aspects of intergenerational issues where mental health is not spoke about or may even be considered a sign of weakness.

This can lead to higher rates of depression in males, especially if they have had numerous experiences growing up and through their own parenting with trauma, domestic violence and poor relationships and role modelling growing up. This depression, however, can manifest in different ways and many men may not know they are depressed!

Due to how longstanding these issues can be, we will often aim to work with a male to understand how they came to be and what may have caused things to become the problems they are now facing. Many of these issues can be bother long term and be intergenerational. Taking time to first better understand why we act or say certain things and how our own states can drive and affect these can be useful. Many men can struggle with talking about emotions; however, this does not mean therapy will not be useful.

It can also be important for men if they have or are expecting a child! We often parent based on how we were, and even with all the efforts we make to do things differently can result in us repeating older patterns on how we were raised to be and what was modelled for up by our parents. This is why taking time to understand the reason we act or react certain ways or how something can quickly cause anger or withdrawal is the first road map to shifting things.

The other reason it is so important as it can act the needed circuit breaker to doing something new and different. Over time, we can change the way we have been, have better relationships and communication with our loved ones and children and potentially even be less reactive to the things that may have previously triggered it. This can change the intergenerational footprint moving forward and start new, healthier ways of being for those who are next, and remember this doesn’t just apply to parents. You could be an aunt, uncle or even a mentor or role model to someone who you do not realise who looks up to you.

Men who have transitioned to the city from the country can also find this a major challenge, as often the culture changes with the move, as the expectations of how to be. This can leave men feeling even m more lost and displaced, as we ultimately only have the blueprint we know to work from. This is the importance of reaching out and seeking support with anger, depression and trauma and it can be a challenge to do this alone.

What does neuroaffirming therapy look like?

In recent years we have seen large shifts in the treatment of autism and other neurodivergent conditions. A lot of these shifts have been centred around the media coverage in the NDIS noting that some practices under Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA) can either be too extreme or alienating and trying to get neurodivergent people to conform in a neurotypical way. Due to the NDIS and the increased diagnosis and awareness of autism and other neurodivergent conditions, such as ADHD have also helped increase and awareness and advocacy around treatment.

Neuroaffirming therapy changes many aspects of treatment. When we work with a child and adult, the language we use needs to change to be less focussed on deficits and more focussed on a person’s strengths. It is still important to acknowledge the barriers people face, as this drive’s effective treatment but the way we do this can be more powerful when coming from affirmative lens. This also should focus on new ways of doing things, such as teaching a song as a mantra to do a task, such as cleaning our teeth.

This moves away from traditional treatment where the person will be walked through a series of steps and rewarded, or not, depending what aspects of the behaviour they perform. For neurodivergent people living more regional remote such as the Central West, Cowra, Young or even Wagga Wagga supports can be limited face to face or have extensive waitlists, with some places in the ACT having closed books! Remote therapy can be a good support here as it means we can still aim to do neuroaffirming therapy to ensure you can still access treatment, we might just get more creative and change things up a little bit!

It can also be important and useful to call and chat to some prospective therapists and see how they discuss and communicate things with you, as well as asking how they practice. This is important as the sooner you have peace of mind of being comfortable with working with a potential therapist, the therapy relationship can begin to build.

Also taking time to explain your needs and wants is also important! Therapy should be about goals you feel are important to you and where you at in life, hence why we try to meet people where they are at! It is also important you feel heard and that you feel a connection to the therapist of choice, as this has been shown time and again to be the core factor that can make or break therapy success.

What is to come in 2026

As we approach the end of 2025 Riverina Counselling will be bringing some new changes into the year of 2026 that will be useful for out more regional clients. We will be offering the ability to do weekend and after-hours face to-face therapy in Young! This will mean more local therapeutic supports with a male in a regional area.

 We will also be aiming to start providing services under the Medicare Benefits Scheudle (MBS) to provide a rebate to those accessing our services. This provides 10 subsidized sessions per year to support those with mental health difficulties. There will be a gap fee associated with this, but you will be able to apply for a rebate from Medicare once we have this going. This will require a Mental Health Treatment Plan (MHTP) from your GP to be able to claim it.

 As the NDIS begins to shift and change with the announcement of the Threieving Kids program, we will also be expanding the autism support we offer neurodivergent clients. We will be aiming to provide a face to face and telehealth social skills program that is neuroaffirming. This will initially start with adolescents and adults but will likely look to expand into younger children and use play therapy as we go.

 This will aim to provide more support to remote communities via face to face and online therapy to places such as Cowra, Forbes and Cootamundra. It is likely that over the next few years we will see drastic shifts and changes in things such as the NDIS and what is offered in the community regarding seeking disability and mental health-based supports. As these shifts happen, it is important as a social worker that we adapt to these changes and aim to still offer services and support to those who will be affected by these shifts.

 We will be continuing to offer Autism diagnostic support to those who are also seeking assessments to confirm a diagnosis with a psychiatrist or pediatrician. Over the course of 2026 we will also look to expand the hours we have from after hours and weekends to other appointment times to try and suit families and young people around other commitments. We will also continue to support clients with trauma and other conditions as we go.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on news and media in 2026 to monitor how systems change as the Thrieiving Kids program is rolled out in 2026 and what this will mean for children under 9 with autism and developmental delays. Regardless, young people will still need support; thus,we are looking at ways to try to continue doing this despite these changes.

Supporting people who have been through trauma

Trauma can affect people in many ways, shapes and sixes and we all often respond differently. We can be more prone to the impacts of trauma if we have already experienced traumatic events in the past. Due to how individually trauma affects people we aim to work with it in a way that is both safe and affirming. 

Some people who have experienced trauma via a crime may be able to access schemes such as New South Wales Victim Services. This can give a number of sessions toward supporting people who have been the victim of a crime, such as domestic violence, assault or even certain motor vehicle issues. Trauma therapy can also vary widely in length of treatment, ranging from a few sessions for some to potentially periods of extended therapy being needed. We will discuss this with you as we go. 

Trauma therapy should not be rushed, it is a process to just get to know the therapist and feel safe enough to open up. This is also a process that will vary for each person and the impact of trauma can directly affect our capacity to do this. Risks of rushing trauma therapy can include being retraumatised, affecting sleep and even our own relationships and mood due to flashbacks.

Being out in the NSW Central West/Riverina region can present further barriers as there are very few of us around. Many towns have limited workers with experience in trauma. Additionally, for those with neurodivergence or adolescents (and children!) We often need to use other approaches, such as play and working with the parent due to the impacts trauma often has across all areas of life. 

This is the reason we recommend calling to discuss any questions and the length of therapy prior to commencing therapy. A big aspect is to also ensure we are the right service and equipped to help you. It can often be useful to do trauma therapy via telehealth the more remote people are, as there tends to be more access to services in cities such as Sydney or Canberra, however the waitlists and fees will often vary depending on location and service. 

We initially use a Mentalization approach to trauma, an approach originally designed for Borderline Personality Disorder but also used for others, such as Antisocial Personality issues. It is a longer term therapy that focuses on helping a person within themselves and their relationships. The ultimate aim is to help people become less stuck than they were, as many report trauma tends to halt and arrest many things. 

With adolescents we will also bring in skills training, as well as working with those who are neurodivergent and have been through traumatic experiences. 

Supervision for counsellors and social workers

With increasing demands on social workers and counsellors, changes in the systems we work within and increased shifts with moves for mandatory registration, supervision has never been more important. Often, we get many last-minute calls from people seeking supervision due to not meeting their hours. Supervision can serve many purposes and functions within counselling and social work.

For those in private practice, this is essential. Supervision can support building your practice from the ground up, looking at managing complex cases, improving business management processes and ensuring notes are done well with implementing self-care between all this. Another important aspect of private practice is also connecting to others and gaining ongoing client referrals.

For those in government or not for profit sector, as well as private practice it is also important to have a supervisor across the different child protection laws, NDIS rules around restrictive practices and improving practice proficiency in the different tools you use with clients. Riverina Counselling is able to provide all the above, having moved 2 private practices over the years and sustained them, as well as having worked across different sites as a clinical lead, being versed in the different aspects of child protection legislation and NDIS domains.

An important aspect of supervision is helping new and seasoned therapists develop reflective practice in their work, as well as ‘praxis’ in brining theory and practice together. For those in more regional Australia such as Cowra, Wagga, Orange or even further west than Dubbo, accessing supervision via remote means has never been easier.

It can also help finding a supervisor based in more regional Australia if you are remotely working, as there are differences in regional and remote Australia compared to cities, such as less services and more difficulties with social inequality. Having this supervisor with experience in managing difficult and ethical situations in remote communities can be a major asset, especially when navigating different child protection issues.

We recommend making contact to do a brief call before we commence, as like the therapy relationship, the supervisor and supervisee should be a good fit for one another. After this, we send a supervision contract out to be completed (this is paperless) which outlines the terms and conditions for ongoing supervision. You also need to consider finances and how often supervision needs to be. Many states the minimum is one month, however, we also get a number of supervisee’s who choose to also do weekly and fortnightly.

Therapy for teens and adolescents in regional NSW

In regional and more remote areas of Australia, many teenagers can struggle with issues due to feeling isolated and a lack of local supports to assist them with things they may be struggling with. This often means many young adults can struggle with their mental health silently due to feeling there is no-one to reach out to for support. This can also leave parents feeling very stuck due to not knowing how to help, as many teens can struggle to open to them.

We work with adolescents and teens across Australia (even cities like Canberra and Sydney) via telehealth and face to face. This is often a challenging time as relationships become more complex, hormonal changes occur and there is an increased pushed to fit in with others and be independent. Often, this is a time of finding out who we are, so things like sexuality and identity all come into the mix around the difficulties adolescents face and how they fit in the world.

Often teens benefit from connecting to someone entirely removed from the situation and family, as they may struggle to be honest and open up to parents about what concerns them. Having worked across numerous headspace sites before, adolescents is an area we have extensive experience in supporting. Even working with more complex issues such as trauma, loss, grief and self-harm is something we are quote experienced with.

Often, we also recommend the parent engage in reflective parenting as a part of this process. This is due to there often being a disconnection with a caregiver. This helps the parent to focus and unpack their experience, as well as finding new ways to better connecting with your loved one. Many parents can often feel very lost and helpless during this time when they don’t know how to help or what to do (this is usually a good indicator to get support!)

We also recommend doing this sooner rather than later, as early intervention tends to produce better outcomes in the long run. However, even if the issue has been happening for years, it is never to late to reach out and start chatting to someone! Therapy can vary in length, with issues such as trauma taking longer time periods. Teens can also experience more ‘episodic’ stress, which are more one of reactions to things happenings such as bulling, upcoming exams ect why may be less long term. Again, reaching out support can be key.

Men’s mental health in the Central West & Riverina

Living in the Central West and Riverina can pose many challenges for males accessing mental health support. Often, men are faced by stigma for reaching out for support around their mental health, making access to treatment a challenge. This often means many men, over time bottle things up and feel they cannot discuss these issues with their mates and even their spouses and loved ones. These matters can be more complicated when we are also managing part or current trauma, grief, loss or other things such as job changes.

This can come from difficulties growing up, where role modelling healthy emotions and how to speak out about these issues may not have been safe, or even create more risk. This can even become intergenerational over time, as we often take aspects of our own parenting, we want to change but may not be quite sure how.

Due to these issues men have much higher rates of death by suicide in regional areas, as well as higher incidents of depression, stress and anxiety that often goes unresolved for many years. It can also be initially quite daunting for men to reach out for support, as this also isn’t something we often see modelled when younger in a healthy way.

Even in cities, there can be long wait times for men accessing support or even the same barriers for those who relocated to a new area but can have those past experiences still haunting them, with difficulties reaching out. One advantage today is, you can access confidential and safe support online via video call or telehealth, which we often connect to other men seeking mental health support through. Some even tell us this can be less daunting due to not feeling the pressure they may experience when face to face.

We support men who have been through trauma, have relationship difficulties, difficulties connecting to their children and managing anger and other difficult emotions. We aim to work with you over time to support better and healthier relationships, managing emotions in better ways and to be better able to communicate. This may include helping process what has happened in the past, looking at where our parenting styles came from and much more.

Often, though, many men tell us the first and hardest part is attending that first appointment and reaching out. This is why we recommend the brief 15-minute phone chat to just get to know one another and ask any questions, as well as see if we will be a fit. There is no issue if you don’t want to proceed from here.

Therapy for teens and adolescents with neurodivergence in regional Australia

Teens with neurodivergent can struggle just as much as other teens when growing up. However, they can often face additional barriers that can be difficult to manage, such as forming relationships, working out their sexual identity and managing difficulties with bullying and trauma that they often experience at a higher rate than neurotypical adolescents.

This can make the world a scary and difficult place to navigate. These matters can often be worsened when in regional areas such as Cowra, Dubbo, Young and other towns with a lack of neuroaffirming support options for teens. This is where accessing support from us can be useful, as we have extensive experience supporting neurodiverse adolescents through a range of issues they often face when growing up.

We also aim to work with the parent when supporting a neurodiverse adolescent due to the need for their ongoing support. This also provides a place to safely unpack their experience and begin to look at things from different perspectives. The overall aim to better engage the relationship between the adolescent and parent.

Neurodiverse young adults can often have increased challenges due to the social barriers and exclusion they face. Often there is a want to connect and have friends, however this can prove difficult in regional areas where there is often more stigma around mental health challenges, as well as less peers on the same level to connect with. We often see difficulty pulling away from tasks such as gaming, as often this is where is a safe space to connect with others without all the additional social challenges. This can also be used as a method to manage difficult emotions and to cope with bullying or difficulties in school or at home.

We often support neurodiverse individuals with related traumatic experiences they have had growing up, as well as supporting them to develop their own sense of identity and finding their place in the world. Helping develops social supports and connects to likeminded peers, as well as managing difficulties with peer groups (such as bullying) can also be useful. We also have experience exploring gender and sexuality, supporting those with suicidal thoughts and self-harm.

It can often take some time to connect with one another and to see if we are a match, so we take the time in the first few sessions to ensure this will work and see what we can support with, as well as being upfront if we are unable to. At times, we might even recommend other treatments, either stand alone or in conjunction with things like family therapy, behavioural support or occupational therapies.

Working with neurodiversity means we also need to consider how to navigate difficulties with sensory overload and the anxiety that can come when there are sudden changes in routine in schedule, as well as meeting new people! This is often best as a longer-term option, and we support many plan and self-managed NDIS participants as a result.

Supporting neurodivergent people

Due to increases in awareness and understanding because of the NDIS and social media, there is increased awareness on neurodivergence such as autism and attentional issues. More and more we get enquires from parents looking for early diagnosis so they can begin support (if support is needed, that is).

Riverina Counselling provides neuro-affirmative therapy to those who are neurodivergent. This has been a barrier identified early on in places such as Young, Cowra and Forbes due to both lack of local services and professionals in these regions. Even in larger cities nearby, such as the ACT, Orange and Wagga Wagga, there can often be long wait times for support.

When working with neurodivergence, we try to do a few things differently. We work out a person needs and where they are at to determine the type of therapy that might be useful. For younger children this could be play therapy to develop play and social support in an interactive format. With adolescents we may use blends of art therapies, talk therapies and other modalities to help a person better express and understand themselves.

One advantage our clients tell is ‘we get it’. Matthew has diverse interests in areas such as fishing, anime, gaming, gardening and more that better support connecting with others. This often acts as a starting point to get to know one another to work out if we are a fit for therapy together. From here we take time to get to know one another and arrive at an area where support may be needed with a focus on a few specific things.

Riverina Counselling also aims to work with the parent to support them as well. This uses a process called ‘reflective parenting’ where we take time to understand the day-to-day barriers parents are concerned about, understanding themselves and their states more and the aim to connect the parent and child more closely. Often, these therapies take time and need multidisciplinary support such as speech and occupational therapy.

It is important when looking for NDIS support in this area that the line items are considered, as if social work or counselling isn’t on the plan, we quickly run into issues! Before we commence, we also recommend a brief and free phone chat for about 15 minutes. This is to ensure our approach and personalities are a match, as well as the chance to ask any questions.

What is psychosocial disability?

I often get a lot of emails around what psychosocial disability is, and I think the confusion is warranted with more awareness around mental health conditions and their impact on daily functioning, our relationships and even our sense of who we are and even our own identity. Psychosocial disability can be several conditions from anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, personality disorder, schizoaffective disorder, post-traumatic stress and more.

Psychosocial disability affects many Australians and often those in more rural areas such as Cowra, Dubbo, Orange, Parkes and Forbes can struggle more due to a lack of local services and the stigma that often still surrounds mental health. This often means people who are in more isolated parts of Australia can be affected due to less face-to-face supports, such as support work, to help manage the debilitating impacts the person with the condition must live with.

It should also be noted that many with Psychosocial disability also often suffer other health issues at the same time. This can be things from Autism to chronic illness such as chronic fatigue or diabetes. This can often further complicate things are more barriers are faced and less support locally to properly address these issues, as many go without care. We also acknowledge there can be limits to what therapy can achieve due to the difficulties with systemic issues and supports in regional Australia.

Due to this I support several rurally isolated (and even those in cities) people who struggle with these conditions. Therapy aims to do several things, such as manage issues with thought of self-harm and suicide ideation, aim to find ways to manage daily functioning, teaching strategies to manage ourselves in tough situations. Even just connecting with someone through telehealth, such as through their NDIS plan, can be a good way to begin accessing support.

Matthew also has lived experience of disability himself with learning and physical health. This can be extremely useful as many clients feel like they are talking to someone ‘who gets it’. An important aspect to that is also being aware of the limitations of therapy, as we cannot always fix everything. However, it can make it easier to manage and cope, as well as exploring new perspectives on things that may help. This can be things like pain management using pain techniques, breaking down and managing the day, coping with transitions and changes as illness progresses, such as multiple sclerosis and much more.

We try ‘to meet people where they are at’. This means we work with you in a way that aims to understand your needs and then approach working together from a shared understanding and starting point.

Social Workers can do Autism Testing for better rural access in the Riverina and Central West

Accessing testing services in Young for Autism and other conditions can be tricky, often people needing to travel to Orange, Canberra, Wagga Wagga or even Sydney. They often usually come with varying fees. Clients have told us they have had quotes form $2400 a test up to $4500 for the entire battery of tests!

Many don’t know, however, that social workers and even occupational therapists can do additional training to be able to test for autism. This is extremely useful in remote communties such as Cowra, Parkes, Yass and Gundagai as often people do not want to have to drive to the city (a day trip can be exhausting for people with neurodivergence!)

We have tried to make autism testing both accessible and affordable in the Riverina and Central West. Inbstead of charging a one of fee for all the tests, or high fee’s for each one, we charge and require payment for each indivual test, as we go. This means, for example, after the first test, if we it doesn’t look like progeressing with be of benefit, we can stop and there is no further unncessary testing nor high fee’s.

Each test come with a compelted report as after you have done the testing (even with a registered psychologist), you will still need a psychaitrist (or peadatrician for a child) to confirm the diagnosis. We therefore charge $800 per test (and report is included) plus any additional travel kilometers and hours. This aims to try and make autism testing more accessible and affordable, whilst providing the gold standard required to diagnose.

What else do I need?

We also recommend getting access to an occupational and speech therapist to assess functional capacity, do a sensory profile (we can also do this on request) nad  assess for further speech issues such as echolalia we often see in autism.

Bringing along school reports noting difficulties others saw during childhood and adolescents can also be incredibly useful for any therpaists or specialists to read. This further strengths and reliability of the assessments and past history, as well as given accounts from teachers that support to help reach a diagnosis.

It can also be useful to get a cognitive and attention assessment, as it is common for cognitive issues with autism and many also have a diagnosis such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity (ADH or with autism, AuDHD). This can also help to understand the impacts of the conditions on one another, if they are present.

 What age do we do?

 We work from ages 4 all the way through to adults. We will soon do the toddler module as well.

Can we do this online?

Yes and no. Aspects need to be done face-to-face but a few of the other tests can be online. We can discuss this further once we progress to a phone call.

Therapy for Teens and Adolescents

One of the most difficult times in our lives is when we enter our teenage and adolescent years. We often see increased issues around social groups, peers, pressure from exams and even a bigger impact from the media on things like body image and self-expectations. In more rural areas like Cowra, Young or even Orange, teens also face increased risk due to the isolation and lack of resources these areas have to fall back on for support. This is also often a time when adolescents are finding out ‘their place in the world," as they develop a deeper sense of self-identity, as well as trying to work out who they are and where they fit in.

This also means they are at increased risk, as adolescents and teens can often struggle with thoughts of self-harm and suicide around these concerns. This risk is further increased if there is bullying or peer difficulties that might cause a sense of rejection from a group. Due to this, getting early and quick support is key to be able to ensure that risks do not go unaddressed nor continue to escalate. Riverina Counselling can even offer this ongoing therapy for teens and adolescents that are more regional and remote, often with less services to fall on.

We also aim to work with the parent briefly as a part of treatment. This isn’t so much your own therapy (though it may identify this as useful) but to also have a place to express concerns and develop ways and strategies to better connect and communicate with your child. This space also aims to let parents better develop their capacity to connect to their child and attempt to better understand what is going on inside, especially around emotions and emotional states.

Riverina Counselling believes that we need to engage the whole family to make change, though we acknowledge there may be other incidents such as sudden loss that may not need a parent to attend the reflective parenting component. We note that by attending, it tends to enhance treatment with your child, as this role modelling displays that it is healthy to have help seeking behaviours and to get support when things might become too difficult to manage.

From here, we aim to spend time developing a focus and how we got to the problem in the first place so we can develop a therapy to begin better understanding what causes us to get into trouble. This also helps develop increased self-awareness and early intervention skills should the issue arise again, as we can better see the early warning signs.

At times, we may even use our animals to support teens with more complex issues and trauma, as we also partner with Terapiya Cattery (www.therapycats.com.au) for animal supported therapies. We should note that some of these therapies may be long term with more complex cases and we recommend calling to discuss this prior to making a booking.

Welcome to our new site!

Recently, Riverina Counselling has begun to undergo some ongoing changes and restructure the way we work and do things. We are currently in the process of revamping the website to provide more information, as well as to be more user-friendly and appealing to visitors wishing to seek therapy services.

Over the coming weeks and months, we will continue to add, update and upgrade the site as we go, so do not be surprised if you notice any changes! Currently, we are predominately offering telehealth (video conferencing) or telephone therapy sessions due to the unique remote nature of where we are based, as well as that of regional Australia. We also continue to offer online Functional Capacity Assessments (FCA’s) to support NDIS applications and plan reviews, this can be within a reasonable distance face-to-face, as well as online via telehealth.

Over time, our aim is to expand our telehealth therapy services as well as increase our support in doing FCA’s as assessment to support the diagnosis of autism. These sessions do have a face-to-face component and are being done on a needs assessment basis, pending how far away someone is and how many people may need assessing. Over time we will aim to also expand our services to include Medicare, as currently we provide private therapy, NDIS funded support in self and plan managed participants, the NSW Victim Services Scheme, as well as certain private health providers that offer a rebate (please check this on an individual basis).

We will still continue to focus supporting those with trauma, psychosocial disability (especially areas such as schizophrenia and personality issues related to trauma) as well as autism and intellectual disability to name a few. We still recommend reaching out if there are further questions around this, especially as we are seeing major shifts in things such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). This is why we recommend making contact prior to commencing with any to ensure that we are able to rpovide support and there are no issues to engagement. An example being the recent shifts with NDIS ‘stated supports’. This means that if a plan does not have the correct catogory stated, we are umlikely to be able to support someone until this includes the needed services, such as social work.

As Riverina Counselling continues to grow, we will also aim to provide more comprehensive support and increased services across the region, though we are some way off achieving this so far, but stay tuned!