Individual Therapy & Mentoring

Emotional regulation refers to the ability to effectively manage and respond to emotional experiences in a healthy, adaptive way. It involves identifying emotions, understanding their purpose, and developing strategies to modulate their intensity and expression.

For Geelong teens, emotional regulation skills are particularly crucial because:

• Adolescent Brain Development: The teenage brain is still developing, particularly in areas responsible for impulse control and emotion regulation, making teens more vulnerable to emotional reactivity
• Intense Life Transitions: Adolescence involves numerous significant changes and challenges - academic pressures, identity formation, social dynamics, physical development - all of which can trigger intense emotions
• Foundation for Mental Health: Strong emotional regulation skills serve as a protective factor against depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and other mental health concerns
• Social Success: The ability to manage emotions effectively directly impacts relationship quality, conflict resolution, and social integration
• Academic Performance: Emotional regulation affects concentration, learning capacity, and overall academic success
• Future Well-being: Emotional regulation skills developed during adolescence create patterns that often persist throughout adulthood, influencing long-term mental health and life satisfaction

By developing strong emotional regulation skills during adolescence, Geelong teens build a foundation for lifelong emotional resilience, healthy relationships, and overall well-being.

Shake Counselling's approach to individual therapy for Geelong teens is distinctive in several key ways:

• Activity-Based Engagement: Unlike traditional sit-down therapy, we incorporate movement, physical activities, creative expression, and experiential learning into our sessions. This approach creates a more natural, relaxed environment that helps teens feel comfortable and engaged.
• Integration of Evidence and Innovation: We combine proven therapeutic modalities like DBT and ACT with innovative, teen-friendly approaches, ensuring that our methods are both evidence-based and engaging for adolescents.
• Focus on Emotional Regulation: While many therapists address symptoms, we emphasize developing core emotional regulation skills that serve as a foundation for managing a wide range of challenges, both present and future.
• Flexibility in Session Format: We don't limit therapy to the confines of an office. Sessions might take place walking outdoors, shooting hoops on a basketball court, or engaged in other activities that help teens feel more comfortable opening up.
• Teen-Centered Philosophy: We genuinely value teens' perspectives, preferences, and autonomy, creating a collaborative therapeutic relationship rather than a hierarchical one.
• Strengths-Based Approach: Rather than focusing primarily on problems or deficits, we help teens identify and build upon their existing strengths, fostering a sense of capability and hope.
• Practical Skill Development: We emphasize concrete, applicable skills that teens can use in their everyday lives, ensuring that therapy has real-world relevance and impact.

This unique combination creates an approach that is particularly effective for teens who may have found traditional therapy unengaging or ineffective, or who simply learn better through active, experiential methods.

Individual therapy sessions at Shake Counselling are personalized, engaging, and purposeful. Here's what Geelong teens can typically expect:

• Welcoming Environment: Sessions take place in a comfortable, non-clinical setting that helps teens feel at ease. Depending on preferences and therapeutic goals, this might be in our office, on our basketball court, or in outdoor spaces.
• Collaborative Check-In: Each session begins with a check-in about how the teen is feeling, any significant events since the last session, and what they'd like to focus on that day. This sets the agenda and ensures that sessions address what's most important to them.
• Activity Integration: Therapeutic activities are incorporated based on the teen's interests and goals. These might include shooting hoops while discussing challenging emotions, going for a walk to practice mindfulness, creating art to express feelings, or other engaging approaches.
• Skill Building: Sessions include learning and practicing specific emotional regulation skills, such as identifying emotions, practicing distress tolerance techniques, or developing effective communication strategies.
• Authentic Conversation: Throughout the session, therapists facilitate open, honest conversations about the teen's experiences, challenges, thoughts, and feelings in a non-judgmental, supportive way.
• Real-World Application: Time is dedicated to discussing how new skills and insights can be applied in everyday life, with concrete examples and practice.
• Collaborative Wrap-Up: Sessions conclude with a summary of key takeaways, identification of skills to practice between sessions, and planning for the next appointment.

The exact format and content of sessions evolve over time based on each teen's progress, emerging needs, and feedback. Throughout the process, we maintain a balance of structure (to ensure effective skill development) and flexibility (to respond to what's most relevant for the teen in the moment).

At Shake Counselling, Geelong teens learn a comprehensive set of emotional regulation skills drawn from evidence-based approaches like Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). These skills include:

• Emotional Awareness and Identification:
  • Recognizing and naming different emotions
  • Understanding the function and purpose of emotions
  • Identifying physical sensations associated with emotions
  • Recognizing emotional triggers and patterns
• Mindfulness Skills:
  • Present-moment awareness techniques
  • Non-judgmental observation of thoughts and feelings
  • Grounding exercises for managing overwhelm
  • Mindful breathing and body scan practices
• Distress Tolerance:
  • Crisis survival strategies
  • Healthy self-soothing techniques
  • Radical acceptance practices
  • Distraction and refocusing methods
• Emotion Modulation:
  • Techniques to reduce the intensity of overwhelming emotions
  • Cognitive reframing and perspective-taking
  • Opposite action skills (acting contrary to emotional urges)
  • Problem-solving approaches to emotional situations
• Interpersonal Effectiveness:
  • Assertive communication strategies
  • Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries
  • Effective conflict resolution
  • Building and maintaining supportive relationships
• Values Clarification and Committed Action:
  • Identifying personal values
  • Setting values-based goals
  • Building psychological flexibility
  • Taking meaningful action despite difficult emotions

These skills are taught through a combination of discussion, demonstration, practice exercises, role-playing, and real-world application. We tailor the skill focus to each teen's specific needs and developmental stage, ensuring they develop the most relevant tools for their unique challenges.

Individual therapy at Shake Counselling offers numerous benefits for Geelong teens, addressing both immediate challenges and long-term development:

• Improved Emotional Regulation: Teens develop the ability to identify, understand, and manage their emotions, reducing emotional reactivity and increasing their sense of control and choice in how they respond to situations.
• Enhanced Resilience: By building effective coping strategies, teens become better equipped to navigate stressors, setbacks, and life transitions with greater confidence and adaptability.
• Increased Self-Awareness: Therapy helps teens develop a deeper understanding of their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and values, fostering greater insight and self-knowledge.
• Better Relationship Skills: Improved communication, boundary-setting, and conflict resolution skills lead to healthier, more satisfying relationships with family, friends, and peers.
• Reduced Symptom Distress: For teens struggling with anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns, therapy can significantly reduce symptoms and improve overall functioning.
• Academic Improvement: As emotional regulation improves, many teens experience enhanced concentration, motivation, and academic performance.
• Healthier Coping Mechanisms: Teens learn alternatives to unhealthy coping strategies like substance use, self-harm, or avoidance, developing more effective ways to manage distress.
• Increased Confidence: Success in therapy builds self-efficacy and confidence in teens' ability to handle challenges and pursue their goals.
• Identity Development: Therapy supports healthy identity exploration and formation, helping teens develop a stronger sense of who they are and what they value.
• Foundation for Lifelong Mental Health: The skills learned in therapy create patterns and resources that serve teens well into adulthood, providing a foundation for ongoing mental wellness.

Our activity-based approach enhances these benefits by creating an engaging, stigma-free environment where teens feel comfortable opening up and actively participating in their growth process. For many teens, this approach makes therapy feel more relevant, accessible, and effective than traditional methods.

Getting started with individual therapy at Shake Counselling is a straightforward process designed to be welcoming and stress-free:

1. Initial Contact: Reach out to us by phone at 0422 868 258, by email at [email protected], or through the contact form on our website. Let us know you're interested in individual therapy services for yourself or your teen.
2. Brief Intake Discussion: We'll have a brief phone conversation to gather some basic information about your situation, concerns, and goals. This helps us understand your needs and determine the best therapist match.
3. Scheduling: We'll schedule an initial consultation at a time that works for you. We offer flexible appointment times, including after-school and weekend options to accommodate busy schedules.
4. Initial Consultation: During this first session, you'll meet with one of our therapists to discuss your specific challenges, interests, and goals in more depth. For teens, this might include both individual time and some parent/caregiver involvement, depending on the situation.
5. Treatment Planning: If you decide to proceed with therapy, we'll collaborate to develop a personalized treatment plan that outlines goals, approaches, and the general direction of therapy.
6. Regular Sessions: Typically, we recommend weekly 50-minute sessions, especially at the beginning of therapy. As progress is made, session frequency might adjust based on needs and goals.

Additional information about getting started:

• NDIS Funding: We are a registered NDIS provider and can work with you to determine if your NDIS plan can cover therapy services.
• Medicare: Some services may be eligible for Medicare rebates with a Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP.
• Private Health Insurance: Some private health insurance plans provide coverage for psychology services. We can provide the necessary documentation for claiming.
• Paperwork: We keep initial paperwork minimal and straightforward. Required forms can be completed online before your first appointment or in person when you arrive.

We strive to make the process of starting therapy as smooth and accessible as possible. If you have any questions or concerns about getting started, please don't hesitate to reach out - we're here to help!