Frequently Asked Questions

Before your first session, we will email you some paperwork to save more of your session time, so it is all ready when you arrive. This will include general information about yourself and regular consent forms for therapy. 

The consent forms also provide the opportunity for you to provide your preferred payment details as well, which would then be safely saved (securely coded and unable to be viewed by us). If you do not feel comfortable to provide them, please feel welcome to wait to give it to the Psychologists at your first session.

The first session generally involves a clinical introduction, basic assessment and therapy indications that help you to connect with your Psychologist, express your concerns and wishes, and decide “where from now”. While therapeutic by itself, the first session will not directly initiate therapy strategies. Your Psychologist would need to know and understand you better in order to be able to engage with you together in designing or what we call “tailoring” the path and therapeutic process that would be specific to you and thus suit your needs best.

We need to tune in to understanding you for who you are and what might be the best for you. We need to understand your life, as to what might be contributing to your difficulties, and map out how we can work together to inspire you and empower you to actively engage in developing strategies that will help you to achieve your positive goals, improve coping skills, perform better, have better relationship with yourself and with others, and achieve a desired and better quality of life.

We will inspire you by respecting you, by sharing knowledge and trust and by working with you together to empower you through supportive and dynamic therapeutic relationship.

APS estimate of a standard session is: 45-60 minutes. Our standard sessions are commonly lasting 50-60 min.
Certain treatment modalities might require a longer appointment of 90 minutes or even longer, but this will be discussed with you as soon as this need was identified and certainly, prior to the initial 60-min interval might finish. 

The number of sessions will vary depending on the needs you are attending therapy for. Generally mild difficulties might require a minimum of 6 – 10 sessions. If your needs are more complex or if there are a number of avenues you wish to improve in your life, you might require more sessions. In general, research-based opinion considers 6 – 25 sessions being a therapy process.

After the first few sessions your Psychologist would provide you with feedback as to how long your treatment process might need to be.

All information obtained through psychological counselling and assessment are confidential and access to your personal information is limited to Psychologists and admin staff who manage the practice according to the Australian Psychological Society’s Code of Ethics guidelines. Your session notes are accessible only by your Psychologist and Dr Merima Isakovic (company Director).

All personal information gathered by the Psychologist during the provision of the psychological service will remain confidential. No information will be released without your permission provided in writing on a signed consent form.

• If a referral is received from a Paediatrician, Psychiatrist or GP with a Mental Health Treatment Plan, a letter would commonly be required with a brief summary to the referring Dr after completion of a certain number of sessions. This is why the Consent form will ask for your permission or consent to share the relevant information with the relevant medical practitioners.
• When your consent has been obtained to provide a written report or letter to another professional or agency, or discuss the material with another person. E.g. parent, teacher, lawyer and /or health care provider.
• In the case of insurance or compensation claims, it might be necessary to disclose information and/or collect information that is directly relevant to your, the client’s treatment, which you would be asked and explained about at the initial session.

Exceptions or limits to confidentiality are possible or even obliged, in the following situations:

• If we are required by law to disclose information: when The Court subpoena all medical records.
• When there is a risk of serious danger to you or to another person, the Psychologist is ethically bound to take the necessary steps to prevent such danger by calling the Emergency Services, or Acute Mental Health Team, or Police.

Payment in full is commonly required at the end of your session with your Psychologist. Payments are usually billed through our secure online system where your credit card details can be securely saved (and coded, so we are unable to view them). You can also pay with Cash if preferred. If you experience financial difficulties, you can discuss this with your Psychologist and explore the helpful options for your payments.

Mental Health Plan provides for Medicare Rebate

If you have a Mental Health Care Plan provided by your GP, please give this to your Psychologist or provide to our Practice Administrator, so that we can activate and process your rebate at the end of your session, immediately after your payment. If you have a private health insurance cover we might be able to bill your insurance directly if your Policy allowed for this, or we can send you a receipt to claim from your provider.

Third Party Payments

If a third party is responsible for payment of your account, please provide us with these details upon booking your initial appointment and we will arrange the account to be set up prior to your appointment, to allow you not to worry about the payments. Prior approval is sought from third party payees for a specific number of sessions, and if the review/renewal was rejected by a third party, then any non-payment by third party becomes the Client’s responsibility to settle the account.

At Inspire Mindful Psychology we respect the individual strengths and preferences of our Psychologists. We therefore understand the need to have a range of specific skills and strengths that our Psychologists can employ to provide therapeutic treatment for our Clients. Like in a symphony orchestra, we all play in a nice synchronicity to inspire and help our Clients but we all use slightly different, specific to us styles, like a valuable instrument, to contribute to such our goal and a privilege of helping others. Moreover, to suit differing client needs we integrate therapy modalities differently. Please see below for a brief explanation of each title. 

Clinical Neuropsychologist

• Clinical Neuropsychologist assess and treat people who experienced brain injury for a variety of reasons, from emotional to physical trauma, where their cognitive and emotional functioning might be affected due to impacted memory, learning, attention, language, reading, problem-solving and decision-making.
• Clinical Neuropsychologist have advanced skills in the clinical & neuropsychological assessment, diagnosis and treatment planning of disorders and contexts across the lifespan.
• Clinical Neuropsychologist understand brain structure, differentiate functional from dysfunctional abilities, and can identify the effects and contribution of multiple factors on cognitive, behavioural and emotional functioning.

Clinical Psychologist

• Clinical Psychologists provide a wide range of psychological services to individuals across the lifespan and for mental health conditions that range from mild to severe and complex.
• Clinical Psychologists are trained in the clinical & neuropsychological assessment and, when necessary, use the neuropsychological assessment to gain information necessary to complement their clinical assessment findings in order to make best informed treatment decisions.
• Clinical Psychologists are legally eligible to establish and provide the clinical diagnosis of mental illnesses and psychological problems, based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder / DSM-5 (R) and are qualified to provide recommendations and referrals in clinical and compensation areas.
• Clinical Psychologists use a range of therapeutic approaches, strategies and techniques to help client’s treatment of mental health issues and disorders. They hold particular skills to help Clients solve complex clinical psychology problems requiring individually-tailored treatment.
  In addition to professional practice,
• Clinical Psychologists might be involved in research, teaching and supervision, program development and evaluation, public policy and other activities that promote psychological health.
• Clinical Psychologists are able to provide Medicare rebates when an appropriate Mental Health Care Plan was provided by the Client’s Doctor.

Generally Registered Psychologist enrolled in Clinical Psychology Endorsement (Registrar Program)

• An ‘Endorsement’ indicates that a Registered Psychologist has qualifications in a particular area of practice (such as clinical psychology, health psychology or sport and exercise psychology), which involved additional two years or more of supervised experience in that area.
• A Psychologist with an area of practice endorsement usually has a minimum of eight years of university training and supervised experience in that area of practice endorsement.
  This type of Psychologist will have the title of a Clinical Psychologist after their registrar hours and requirements have been completed.

Generally Registered Psychologist

• Psychologists with general registration have a minimum of six years of university training and supervised experience, and build on that every year with ongoing education to keep their skills and knowledge up to date.
• Psychologists with general registration are able to provide Medicare rebates when an appropriate Mental Health Care Plan was provided by the Client’s Doctor.

Provisional Psychologist

• A Provisional Psychologist is someone who has completed their years of tertiary qualifications and is eligible to undertake a program of supervision (internship) in order to develop their applied skills during the supervised work. Typically this involves a minimum of two years of weekly supervision with an AHPRA Board Approved Clinical Supervisor.
• Provisional Psychologists are not eligible to offer Medicare rebates, therefore the Inspire Mindful Psychology practice charges a lower rate that is equivalent to the ‘out of pocket’ amount only.
• They are not limited in the number of sessions they can provide per year either.
• When working with Clients, provisional Psychologists are still providing safe and helpful treatment, well supervised by the Primary Clinical Supervisor (Dr Merima Isakovic) who is also available for them to call at any time if they need to urgently check in and make sure they are effectively supporting Clients.

The Psychology Board of Australia stipulates a very high standard in terms of education, training, supervised practice and continuous learning and development. It is a requirement for all of our Psychologists to be registered with the Psychology Board of Australia. The title of “Psychologist” is a protected title, which comes with rigorous training and demonstration of skills and knowledge. So you should always expect and receive a high level of psychological care, standards of practice and ethical behaviour.