Somewhere to start, when you're not sure where to start
Holistic counselling in Brisbane and online across Australia, for anyone moving through grief, a relationship ending, or a life that no longer looks the way it used to. Multilingual and culturally mindful. The first conversation is free and nothing has to happen after it.
You don't have to be in crisis to deserve somewhere to put it down.
Where would you like to start
Tell me who this is for
1:1 counselling
For myself
For adults in the middle of a change, whether you chose it or it arrived without asking.
- My relationship has ended and I don't know who I am now
- Someone died and everyone expects me to be further along
- I've built a life here and I still feel like a visitor
- We keep having the same argument in different words
1:1 counselling
For my teenager, or for us
Sessions for young people working out who they are, and for families trying to hear each other again.
- My teenager has stopped talking to us
- They're caught between two cultures and it's wearing them down
- We're all still adjusting to the separation
Workplace wellbeing
For my team or workplace
Workshops, wellbeing assessments and confidential support for staff.
- Our team is stretched and it's showing
- We need something real, not a poster
- We'd like to know where our people are at
How I work
You are more than the thing that brought you here
Most counselling starts and ends with what you think. I work with four threads at once, because the way you hold yourself, the story you tell about yourself and the culture you carry are all in the room whether we name them or not.
Mind
The thoughts that loop, the conclusions you reached about yourself years ago and never revisited.
Body
Grief and change live in the shoulders and the chest long before they reach words. We pay attention to that.
Story
What happened is fixed. How it gets told, and who you are in the telling, is not.
Belonging
Where you are from, where you live now, and the particular tiredness of translating yourself all day.
We can work in your first language
English, Spanish or French. Some things only ever come out in the language you were a child in, and you shouldn't have to translate your own grief.
Culture is in the room, not in the background
Your family's expectations, your faith, your migration, what belonging has cost you. These are not context to get past before the real work. They often are the work.
No script, no homework unless you want it
I don't run a programme. We start where you are, we go at the pace you set, and you're allowed to arrive with nothing prepared.
Take a minute
Not sure which of this is yours?
Six short questions, about a minute, and you'll have a sensible place to begin. It isn't an assessment and it can't tell you what's going on. It just points you at the right first conversation.
Who you'd be talking to
I'm Jen
I'm a counsellor, and the part of this work I love most is watching somebody find their own way through. Not the way I would have taken. Theirs.
Think of it as rebuilding a house you are still living in. I am not here to do the building for you, and I am definitely not here to tell you the whole thing should come down. I am here with the right tools, a steady second pair of hands, and enough experience to know which walls are holding the roof up.
The way I work is holistic. We look at what you are thinking, and at what your body has been carrying while you were busy thinking it, because by the time most people book a first session those two have stopped speaking to each other. Alongside that I use cognitive behavioural therapy for the practical end of things, finding the pattern sitting underneath a reaction and then testing whether it is still true.
I am multilingual, and a good part of my practice is with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. People carrying more than one culture at once. People who move between worlds all day and arrive with a tiredness that is hard to name. Diversity and belonging are not a line at the bottom of this website. They are most of the reason I do the work at all.
Member of PACFA and the Australian Counselling Association, with an Advanced Diploma in Counselling Psychology and a postgraduate qualification in Public Health. My practice has been in Newstead since 2024.
JenWhat happens first
Three steps, and you can stop after any of them
A free 15-minute call
You tell me roughly what's going on. I tell you whether I'm the right person. If I'm not, I'll say so and point you somewhere better.
A first session
Sixty minutes, in Newstead or online. Mostly you talking and me listening. Nothing is expected of you and there's no homework.
We decide together
Some people come twice. Some come for a year. We work out what's useful for you, and you can change your mind at any point.
The practical bits
What you probably want to know before you call
- Where
- Newstead, Brisbane QLD 4006Online across Australia
- Fees
- $150 per 60-minute sessionFirst 15-minute call is free
- Languages
- English, Spanish, FrenchSessions in any of the three
- Who I see
- Adults, teenagers, familiesBlue Card and NDIS Worker Screening Check held
- NDIS
- Self-managed and plan-managedAgency-managed plans can't be used here
- Hours
- Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pmSaturday by arrangement
Common questions
The things people ask me first
Almost everyone asks me some version of this, usually in the first ten minutes, usually apologising. There's no threshold you have to clear. If something is sitting heavily enough that you've read this far down a counsellor's website, that's enough.
Three things, mostly. We can work in Spanish or French if that's where your inner life actually lives. Your culture, your migration and your family's expectations are treated as part of the work rather than background detail. And I pay attention to what your body is doing, not only what you're saying, because change tends to show up there first.
That's common and it isn't a dead end. Sometimes we start with you instead, and often that shifts enough at home that they become curious. If they do come, the first session is theirs to steer, and I'll be clear with both of you upfront about what I will and won't pass on.
No. There's no Medicare rebate — this is a private practice, so the fee you see is the fee you pay. If cost is the thing standing in the way, tell me on the call and we'll talk about it.
Both are common and neither is a problem. There are tissues, there's no time pressure, and silence is allowed. You don't have to arrive with your story organised.