Julie Twohig

I started the Hartington Centre in 1998 with the vision of creating a dynamic counselling and multi-disciplinary health-services team and centre. “Build it and they will come,” and they did!

Approach to Counselling

My earlier work in the body-focused therapies fostered a strong appreciation of the connection between our physical and emotional well being. Drawing on 2.5 decades of working with clients, I approach each session collaboratively, with warmth, insight and compassion, along with a degree of gentle challenge when necessary. Influences to my approach include Jungian psychology, mythology, psychodynamic counselling, Buddhism and metaphysics.

Having escaped the confines at the end of Melbourne’s first year of gruelling lockdown, I’m now fortunate to live in the gorgeous town of Castlemaine in central Victoria where I continue to see clients online. For information about how successful online counselling is please visit my new website @ https://julietwohigpsychotherapy.com.au/ 

Areas of work

Individual Psychotherapy: 

Sometimes it us difficult to distinguish between our thoughts and our emotional realm of feelings. Is this my heart of my head? This area is of particular interest to me as I enjoy helping clients name and reclaim the banished and sometimes frightening feelings, and those feelings of which we are ashamed.

We often judge our feelings as faulty, or undesirable, or even hateful. But as the saying going, resist and it will persist. It requires an enormous expense of energy to resist our feelings; it’s a bit like constantly running programs in the background of our devices: the battery will quickly drain. But when we top up our emotional intelligence bank in the safe context of counselling, we can hold those discarded feelings to the light while integrating them into consciousness. Feelings are like children. They just want us to know them, name them and validate them. They want us to let them in. They need and long for us to look after them.

Working collaboratively we gently challenge the unhelpful patterns and belief systems that get in the way of maximising well-being, relationships and creativity. By increasing self-awareness in a supportive nurturing environment we move from stuck-ness to an overall improvement in well-being.

Couple’s Counselling:

Relationship counselling is a specialist area and a particular area interest to me. During my academic studies when I was required to do a one-year placement within a counselling organisation, I quickly discovered that I have a natural affinity for working with the dynamics and various perspectives in the room.

Over many years I have developed techniques and strategies designed to enhance communication. Effective communication is the foundation of successful relationships, after all. Sadly, our school curriculum offers next-to-zero in this area of life and we are often left floundering. We may excel at Maths, IT, History etc, but in relationships we might find ourselves upstream without a paddle.

Relationship counselling helps us navigate a way through the rapids and into smoother waters where we can truly see and hear each other. Where we learn to truly dialogue. Disarm and manage defences, while learning how to best be seen and heard, to actively listen. Increased awareness, along with increased empathy and compassion are the ultimate goals of couple’s counselling, and a revitalising of intimacy on all levels.

However, sometimes separation is inevitable, especially if the need for help has been neglected and differences are now irreconcilable. With this in mind it might be best to think of relationship counselling as a process of Exploration, Reconciliation, and sometimes, Separation.

I work in the following areas:

• General Counselling
• Grief & Loss
• Life Transitions
• Identity
• Meaning & Purpose
• Diversity
• Depression and Anxiety
• Trauma

Length of Session

A 60-minute hour

Online Sessions

My sessions are via Zoom which works beautifully for counselling.

Fees

Individuals $130 / Couples $150

As a psychotherapist I’m not part of Medicare’s Better Access Program (BAP). BAP allows GPs to refer patients with mental health conditions to a psychologist for a limited number of rebates.  If cost is an issue (and when isn’t it?), please compare the out-of-pocket difference as there is often little or no difference post the Medicare rebate.

Contact

Call Hartington Reception: (03) 9482 1888 or Email: info@hartington.com.au