Sex therapy is the practice of exploring your sexual challenges, history or needs – with the application of theories, frameworks and evidence-based knowledge to help you overcome your difficulties. We will talk about your sexual history, relationship history, family history. We also explore you as a person more generally, your life, medical history, values, challenges, past, mental health history. You are welcome to share as much or as little as you want – but know that we’ve heard everything, nothing will shock us, and we welcome your unique experiences for who you are. All consensual, legal sexual experiences are validated at our practice. You can do sex therapy as an individual or as part of couples counselling. There is no touch in a sex therapy session and we don’t ask for demonstrations, photos, or videos – it is purely a talk-based counselling practice.

In the first session for couples therapy we start with ground rules to help you feel safe and productive in the session. We then review your relationship history, which will reveal the difficulties along the way. We explain the role of the therapist – not to take sides, but to support what is in the best interests of the relationship. The therapist won’t side with the person of the same gender, or gang up on anyone. We explore with you what your goals are for couples counselling – these goals will inform the rest of your sessions. Finally, we close out with some key strengths between you to end on a positive note. The next sessions work toward your goals, using tools and techniques to get you to them.

Most clients attend on average between 6-10 sessions. You are welcome to attend as many counselling sessions as you wish, and you can take a break and return to counselling at any point. You can select how frequently you would like to go – we suggest that clients attend every 2 - 4 weeks, or weekly if you are experiencing distress or want to start more intensively for the first few sessions. We like to make sure you get the most out of counselling by identifying your goals early, and working on those goals each session.

We know that you’re busy and that life is very demanding. It is really beneficial though for clients to continue working on their issues in the real world after the session. We get you for only 50 minutes – so you can increase your changes of change, by applying your knowledge through the week. We approach ‘homework’ like this; we will give you homework if you want it and gosh do we have a million resources, tasks, research findings to share with you – but there is no obligation to read them. You won’t get in trouble for not reading the resources. We also know that there’s usually one partner who loves homework, and one who doesn’t – so we make this accessible for you. We usually give you one single thing to practice or explore between the session and the next. If you want to read the resource notes that’s a bonus extra.

Yes absolutely. We know that talking about sex and relationships is incredibly challenging and we strive to maintain your confidentiality. We have a privacy policy established to maintain your privacy. We also use secure video and audio connections with password protection. If you attend counselling alone, we will never share any of your information with your partner, nor will we leave voicemails on any unapproved phone line.

It helps to come into counselling with some idea for what you would like to achieve – some goals that you would like to work on. We can also explore this with you in your session. We also ask you to think about what your role is in your relationship, how you impact the other person or people. In your first session we will go through your history, so there’s nothing to prepare except your memories.

Yes absolutely. You can do sex therapy, family therapy, and relationship therapy alone. We can also give you tools to practice with your partner at home if they aren’t quite ready for counselling and couples therapy. We are also happy to do a quick phone call with your partner to answer any questions they may have about the couples counselling process if that supports their needs.

You have the option to start couples counselling as individuals - with one session first each, or to start together as a pair. If you attend an individual session first this supports the therapist to get a solid understanding of your own individual histories and past relationship and sexual histories that you may not disclose in front of your partner. If you want to start together, that’s completely fine and you will still see the same results.

We work with clients that are 16 years old and above and you can consent to your own therapy sessions without guardian approval. Your sessions will be confidential to you and won’t be disclosed with your parent or guardian, unless at your wish, or unless there are significant concerns for your welfare. If that was the case we would talk with you about it first where possible. As therapists we are obliged to report any abuse against children. If you are over 16 and want to do counselling with your parent around your gender/sexuality - you’re welcome to attend family counselling. You will be treated as an equal to your parent. You are also welcome to attend with a non-participating support person at your discretion. If you’re under 16 and have an questions or are trying to seek support, please feel free reach out and we can make a more specific recommendation for you needs.

Couples therapy Australia, relationship therapy and family therapy is never offered via Medicare and is not bulk billed by any therapist in Australia. We do not offer bulk-billing or private rebates for counselling services. If you are struggling financially, experiencing financial family violence - please contact us as we may adjust your fee to make it more affordable. Decisions to adjust the fee will be made on a case-by-case basis with your therapist.

Yes if you are both aligned in what you want. We can support you to explore healthy separation, co-parenting and amicable splits. If you are unsure whether you want to stay or leave your relationship - we recommend individual counselling first, before any joint sessions. You can do that with us or with another therapist just for yourself. We are unable to offer you both individual and couples therapy with the same therapist as this would create bias.

Clients have the option to start with a few weekly sessions, so that you can keep the momentum going, feel well supported and focus and refine the work. You can book sessions in advance with your therapist to ensure that you get the time that works best for you. Once you're comfortable, we usually recommend you space your sessions between 2-4 weeks apart. Behaviour change doesn't happen over night, and we want you to allow yourself time to adjust, learn, reflect and apply the skills. That said, your pace is up to you and you are welcome to attend weekly ongoing if that suits your needs and the availability of your therapist.

Through the counselling process you will start to understand yourself better, you will be able to identify behaviours that are contributing to your challenges, and to clearly see the dynamics between yourself and your challenges, or your partner. You may see small shifts in how you see love, relationships and sex, you may see big changes and have an 'a-ha' moment when you make a realisation as to why you're experiencing what you're experiencing. You may re-connect with your reasons for loving your partner, for why you are investing in the relationship, and new-found desire to want to work on things. Counselling requires reflection and often behaviour change - and these things don't happen over night. The process can also at times feel challenging, or you may experience a re-lapse, this is all part of learning. Not every therapy session or week will feel great, that's part of the learning process. Often couples will have a massive fight, and that is the moment that things start to change for the better. Couples can also find that once they start attending counselling, and investing that time in their relationship, but nature of that shift in mindset, the relationship starts to improve. Each person and relationship is different. At Love Therapy Australia we like to focus on your goals, and will regularly check in to see how you are progressing against them, this helps us all to focus on change and outcomes.

Yes! We are trained to support generalist counselling requirements so we can definitely, and frequently do, support clients with other mental health issues as they arise. We can support you with; anxiety, depression, grief, trauma, life transitions, work challenges, finding yourself/values exploration, life decisions, abortion decisions, miscarriage, parenting, fertility issues, self-confidence, body image, ADHD diagnosis, autism and ASD, and more. We do not work with a Mental Health Care Plan - and if you have received a recent diagnosis for a mental health condition and require treatment specific for that condition - we will refer you to one of our network of specialist psychologists in that space. If you're unsure - please reach out and we will let you know what areas we are trained to work with.

To keep our services affordable, we offer only online counselling sessions. We can offer counselling services Australia-wide. We can not offer counselling to people living outside of Australia. Online counselling feels just like you're in a room with the therapist, but you don't have to find parking and fight traffic to get there. You are welcome to attend from the same or different locations via secure video link. ​You can go for a walk during your session, cook dinner, grab a coffee, sit in a park on your lunch break, whatever makes you feel comfortable. Couple counselling from the comfort of your own home cuts travel time, saves costs and saves on babysitters. We offer evening sessions and after hours options at the same rate. Lunch time sessions available.

A psychologist will usually work with a mental health diagnosis like depression, anxiety, PTSD or ADHD. A psychologist will often work with a mental health care plan set out by a doctor and works individually with a client on their mental health treatment. A couples counsellor is a registered counsellor with additional training in relationship theory. Our couples counsellors all have Masters degree qualifications. A couples counsellor doesn't treat an individual mental health diagnosis, they work with couples or polycules to support relationships, with the main focus being relationship skills, exploration and repair. A sex therapist is a registered counsellor or psychologist with additional training in sexual health psychosexual therapy through a Masters qualification from the two recognised sexology training universities in Australia. Sex therapy is a specialisation.