Initial Appointments

Appointments

Your initial appointment will be 80 minutes in length. Subsequent appointments will be 50 minutes in length.

• If you are attending with another person (e.g. partner), please advise them of the appointment time.
• If the initial appointment is for a child under the age of 13, the appointment is for the parent or caregiver ONLY.
• If this appointment is for an adolescent between the ages of 13 and 16, the initial appointment is for both the caregiver and adolescent. As every situation is different and privacy is of most importance, we may at times ask for either the caregiver or adolescent to sit in the waiting room to allow the other party to speak openly about any concerns. These arrangements will be negotiated with your psychologist at the time of your appointment. Please contact us if you have any concerns so we can make alternate arrangements.
• If at any stage you would like to change psychologists, please contact our admin team (support@strategicpsychology.com.au) to arrange your clinical handover. Please note that your initial appointment with your new psychologist will be an 80-minute consultation with subsequent appointments returning to 50 minutes thereafter.

What you can expect from your psychologist

1. Confidentiality with regards to your privacy.
2. To be treated with respect, dignity, and understanding at all times.
3. A safe environment to talk openly about any issues.

How many sessions will I need?

Research has shown (Erekson, D. M., Lambert, M. J., & Eggett, D. L. 2015) that there is a strong relationship between the number and frequency of appointments attended and positive therapeutic gains over time.

Studies have suggested that for many clinical presentations, weekly appointments produce better psychological outcomes on average than attending less frequent appointments such as fortnightly or monthly. This finding also applies to the number of appointments attended.

For example, attending 12 therapy sessions has been shown to lead to better mental health outcomes on average when compared to attending 6 therapy sessions. Although this might be true on average, in practice this may not be applicable to you so we suggest speaking with your psychologist following your initial appointment to discuss what might be best for you.

Booking Future Appointments

As we have a high demand for appointments, we encourage you to make multiple subsequent consultations following your initial appointment to ensure you are able to have continuity in your care.

If you would like to book future appointments now, please review your previous emails for an online booking link for your psychologist. Be sure that your subsequent appointments are booked after your initial appointment date. Most clients choose a weekly or fortnightly schedule.