You can see how long the wait is before you ring.
If the wait is too long we will say so and give you two other practices to try, because being told “we’ll put you on the list” when you are struggling is its own kind of harm. Sessions are 50 minutes. $230 standard, or $131.05 out of pocket with a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP.
How this practice runs
Four facts about how appointments here are booked and staffed. None of them is a claim about how your own therapy will go — nobody can promise you that.
Practising from the same rooms on Latrobe Terrace.
Registered psychologists, two with clinical endorsement.
Bulk-billed places held open every single week.
How often the wait times on this page are updated.
Where we can help
Six areas people most often ring about, grouped. The full list — with what approach we use for each — is one page over.
Anxiety & mood
The reason most people ring.
- Anxiety & panic. Generalised worry, panic attacks, social anxiety, health anxiety and the avoidance that grows around all of them.
- Depression & low mood. Including the flat, functional kind that does not look like depression from the outside and has been going on for years.
Trauma & workplace stress
Single incidents and slow-building ones.
- Trauma & PTSD. Single-incident trauma, childhood trauma, and occupational exposure for police, ambulance, fire and health workers.
- Workplace burnout. Exhaustion, cynicism and the sense that you are no good at a job you used to be good at. One of the most common reasons people ring.
Grief & relationships
Losses, and the patterns around them.
- Grief & loss. Bereavement, and the losses that are not deaths — diagnoses, separations, the life you expected to have.
- Relationships & separation. Individual work on patterns in relationships, and support through a separation that is already happening.
What a session actually costs you
Ask your GP for a Mental Health Treatment Plan first. It takes a longer appointment and it entitles you to ten rebated psychology sessions a calendar year — which changes the cost of therapy by more than a thousand dollars. We process the Medicare rebate at the desk, so it lands in your account rather than sitting in a claim queue.
Standard session, 50 minutes
The fee before any rebate. Paid at the desk after the session, by card or HICAPS.
With a Mental Health Treatment Plan
What you actually pay once the $98.95 Medicare rebate is processed at the desk — ten sessions a calendar year, with a GP referral.
Our psychologists
Four of the six are profiled here. Fit matters more than credentials, so reception will steer you rather than book you with whoever is free soonest.
Dr Marcus Feld
PhD · Psychology Board of Australia · clinical endorsement
Elena Sarkis
MProfPsych · Psychology Board of Australia
Dr Ruth Oyelaran
DPsych (Clinical) · Board-approved supervisor
Jess Amberley
MEd & DevPsych · Psychology Board of Australia
If you need someone tonight
We are not a crisis service and cannot respond after hours. These lines are staffed around the clock, they are free, and the people answering them are trained for exactly this.
Emergency
000 — immediate danger to your life or someone else’s.
Lifeline
13 11 14 — crisis support and suicide prevention, 24 hours.
Suicide Call Back Service
1300 659 467 — free phone and online counselling, 24 hours.
13YARN
13 92 76 — Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crisis support.
Kids Helpline
1800 55 1800 — for anyone aged 5 to 25, 24 hours.
1800RESPECT
1800 737 732 — family, domestic and sexual violence support.
Things people ask before booking
The things people ask on the phone before they book.
Do I need a referral?
Not to book. You can see a psychologist privately with no referral at all — you simply pay the full fee. The referral and mental health plan from your GP are what unlock the Medicare rebate, which drops a standard session from $230 to $131.05 and applies to ten sessions a calendar year. For most people it is worth the extra GP appointment.
What is the difference between a psychologist, a psychiatrist and a counsellor?
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can prescribe medication. A psychologist has six years of university training in assessment and therapy and cannot prescribe. “Counsellor” is not a protected title in Australia, which means training varies enormously — some are excellent and some did a short course. Everyone here is registered with the Psychology Board of Australia, which you can verify on the AHPRA register yourself.
Will my employer or insurer find out?
No. Your file is not shared with an employer, an insurer or your family. If you are on a Medicare plan, your GP receives a brief progress letter — not your session notes. The exceptions are a serious and imminent risk to life, a child at risk, or a court subpoena, and those are explained to you in the first ten minutes.
How many sessions will I need?
For a focused problem, often between six and ten — the Medicare allocation is calibrated roughly to that. Long-standing trauma or patterns going back to childhood take longer. You will get an honest read at around session four rather than an open-ended arrangement.
What if I cannot afford it?
Ask about a bulk-billed place — four are held each week for Health Care Card holders, pensioners and people in hardship, and you do not have to justify your finances to get one. If we cannot accommodate you, reception keeps a current list of free and low-cost services in Brisbane that are genuinely good, including headspace for under-25s and the university clinics.
Ready when you are
Reception is staffed 8:30am to 5:00pm weekdays. If it is urgent, please use the crisis lines above rather than this form.