FAQs

No, you don’t. However, if you have a referral from your GP in the form of a Mental Health Care Plan, you may be eligible for a rebate from Medicare.

Your GP will assess whether you are eligible for a Mental Health Care Plan (and therefore a Medicare rebate).

For individuals who are eligible, up to 10 sessions per calendar year can be accessed with a Medicare rebate. A review with your GP is required after the first six sessions, after which additional sessions can be granted.

To be able to claim the Medicare rebate for your session you will need to bring a copy of your Mental Health Care Plan to your first appointment.

Typically, no. If you’re struggling financially, please contact us to discuss the possibility of a reduced rate or potential referral to other service providers.

Depending on your cover, yes. Your therapist will provide you with a invoice for the session which you can use to process your rebate with your insurer (we’re happy to help you with this process).

During your first session we’ll go through what to expect when seeing a psychologist. We’ll establish some treatment goals, or what you’d like to achieve, and we’ll discuss expectations. We’ll ask you about what is going on for you at the moment, and a variety of questions regarding your past, family, and relationships. This will give us both a firm understanding of how to best tackle your problems, and a plan to do so.

A standard consultation session at Functional Minds is 55 minutes.

It’s really hard to say, some people only need a single session, whilst others require years of therapy. At Functional Minds we’re mindful that time limited therapies are often most helpful, and try to get the best outcomes in the shortest amount of time. Medicare subsidises up to 10 sessions per calendar year and the majority of treatment plans are based on this.

Yes. It’s important that you are able to open up to your therapist, which means keeping your information private and secure is very important. What you discuss with your therapist you’re welcome to talk to others about, however your therapist won’t share that information unless you request it.

There are a few exceptions to this rule: if we’re concerned about the safety of yourself or someone else, or if we’re legally obligated to. Your therapist will discuss this with you during your first session.

Yes, you can bring a support person to your sessions. Sometimes it can be helpful to have your support person attend part of your first session. However, most of the time a support person will wait and not attend your session.

Yes, certainly. Many clients attend to get advice or help for a friend or relative that is suffering in their mental health and they need to know how to process that themselves whilst still being supportive of their loved one.

Yes we do, feel free to discuss this process with your therapist.

Yes, we’re able to provide telehealth over the internet, we use Microsoft Teams as our video conferencing program. Please mention if you wish to utilise this service when booking.

Yes, we do. Feel free to book online to see when our next available appointment time is.