Adult Services

Adult Counselling services provided by Hine Psychology cover a broad range of issues.

Counselling Process

Counselling is a highly structured communication process designed to enable people to understand why they think, feel and behave the way they do.

The primary purpose is to influence positive changes in attitudes, emotions and behaviours and to support individuals in more effectively meeting their needs and wants.

Adult Counselling services provided by Hine Psychology cover a broad range of issues. Common areas tend to include:

• Understanding and Managing difficult and challenging emotions (e.g. Anxiety, Anger, Depression). Indeed, many of our clients are referred by doctors under GP Mental Health Care Plans in order to assist them with their emotional needs
• Being supported during a difficult time of need (e.g. as result of family conflicts /difficult family dynamics /managing blended families; difficulties at work; difficulties with a partner)
• Grief and loss
• Trauma
• Managing Behavioural Difficulties (Aggressive/Antisocial Behaviours, Impulsivity as well as issues involving law infringements)
• Career planning and exploration of learning avenues (for both young and middle-aged adults). Often our clients may be faced with the need to review their current course of adult learning due to poor motivation, failure, initially making the wrong choice of study or as a result of other impinging factors. We can help point you in the right direction whilst providing an advocacy and liaison role with your educational provider in an effort for you to achieve the best outcome for yourself.
• Parenting Support Strategies. For more information please click on our link to Family Services
• Supporting parents / caregivers with children who have developmental conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

Assessment:

Should it be agreed or determined that some form of assessment is required, it is helpful to know what is likely to be involved.

Any psychological assessment / psychometric assessment requires contact time with the person being assessed and a significant amount of time behind the scenes, scoring, analysing and interpreting the data and subsequently compiling a personally meaningful and relevant report.

At all times, we endeavour only to seek information from assessments that will be practical in helping to determine a pathway of improvement for you.

With your consent, we will only ever conduct an assessment if we have a clear purpose in mind for doing so. We, like you, want to see action and improved outcomes in your life.

Adult focused Assessments typically conducted by this service include Personality Assessments, Cognitive Assessments and Vocational Assessments.

Personality Assessment:

The Personality Assessments we utilise are empirically researched and validated tools designed to help you develop a stronger insight into understanding yourself, your behaviours, motivations, attitudes and choices in life. Equipping yourself with this objective knowledge can be a very powerful exercise in influencing your personal relationships with your partner and friends, work relationships and helping you with your career and general life direction.

The personality tools we utilise can also help explore your emotional state; issues of confidence; assertiveness; focus of thinking and more.

Becoming in tune with your personality style is a vital step in the process of establishing a clearer sense of what learning and work options may be well suited to your personality strengths.

Typically, the assessment is conducted over a 1 hour period. There is also 1 hour of behind the scenes scoring and analysis, followed by a 1 hour follow-up appointment to review the results with you. A summary only of the key results is provided for your records. A comprehensive report is not provided for this assessment, unless specifically arranged with the psychologist conducting the assessment. You will need to budget $825 for this type of assessment (or effectively 3 hours of practitioner time).

Cognitive Assessment

• Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale –Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV)

Often an individual who is performing poorly may have an unusual way of using information. Alternatively, the person may have more ability and potential than they are in fact aware of. To help an individual improve their learning, career and life outcomes, an exploration of these issues is often essential.

Conducting an Abilities / Intelligence assessment takes the guess work and mystery out of what is happening with an adult’s learning.

It will also help determine the style of learning to which the individual is best suited.

An abilities assessment will also give a clear profile of the individual’s learning strengths and weaknesses and provide solid information for making practical recommendations to help improve the learning outcomes for the individual.

The assessment can also help with planning for post school learning options and career planning.

A standardised, individual intelligence assessment is used to obtain information about a number of factors critical to an individual’s learning style.

It is well worth noting that the information gained from an Abilities /Intelligence assessment such as the WAIS-IV will be relevant for approximately 3 to 4 years.

The process is as follows:

• Assessment.

We allow 2 hours for administering an abilities assessment.

• Behind the scenes.

There is a further 3.5 hours behind the scenes for scoring, data analysis, interpretation and report writing. The results are examined against other available and relevant information about the individual e.g. audiology or optometry reports, developmental issues etc. A written report is prepared for your records and is provided at the Follow-up consultation.

• Follow-up consultation.

A 1 hour consultation is provided in order to thoroughly review and discuss the assessment results. Conclusions and recommendations are discussed at this stage.

As you would expect, the specific recommendations will depend of the context of the individual’s circumstances and the results of the assessment.

You will need to budget $1787.50 for this type of assessment which includes the process outlined above. Please note this budget does not include your initial consultation or any psychology consultations that occur after the 1 hour Follow-up consultation.

Career Planning Assessments and Guidance:

Vocational Assessments help an individual gain a clearer understanding of the areas, themes and types of work activities that appear to be capturing their interest and imagination.

Whilst Vocational Assessments are good tools designed to assist individuals develop their self-awareness, typically, this practice does not encourage individuals to rely on vocational assessment information alone when making important decisions about career path planning. This is because an individual’s vocational interests may not be necessarily consistent with their learning strengths (abilities) and personality style.

Therefore, most often, vocational assessments conducted by this practice will be done in conjunction with a personality assessment and / or cognitive assessment in an effort to provide you with the most relevant and meaningful career planning information. Please refer to the personality assessment section for budgeting purposes.

Comprehensive Vocational Guidance Assessment:

It is our experience that when exploring potential career options and pathways, it is crucial to have access to reliable, concrete and insightful information to help accurately guide and accelerate the process.

A comprehensive vocational guidance assessment provides a deep level of insight into the following 3 areas:

• The individual’s Cognitive Abilities / Learning Style,
• Personality and
• Vocational Interests.

Please note each of these 3 respective services is outlined on this website and are included in this form of assessment.

The key benefits of this assessment include:

• Helping the individual develop a clear understanding of their learning potential – Answers the questions: Do I have a learning profile that would suit University style learning, TAFE, Traineeship style learning?
• Helps the individual establish a clear profile of relative strengths and weaknesses with learning and personality style.
• Takes the guesswork out of the career planning maze potentially saving significant amounts of time and money invested in the wrong area for the individual.
• Provides an insight into the emotional needs of the individual.
• Helps provide clarity on vocational pathways that embrace the individual’s strengths and abilities.
• Gives a solid framework for the next steps in the career planning and exploration process.

The process is as follows:

1. Assessment process.

We allow 4 to 5 hours for administering the 3 component assessments.

2. Behind the scenes.

There is a further 5 hours behind the scenes for scoring, data analysis, interpretation and report writing. The results are examined against other relevant information about the person e.g. Previous employment roles, education, training, developmental history etc. A comprehensive written report is prepared for your records and is provided at the Follow-up Consultation.

3. Follow-up consultation.

A 1.5 hour consultation is provided in order to thoroughly review and discuss the assessment results. Conclusions and recommendations are discussed at this stage. As you would expect, given the complexity of this type of assessment the specific recommendations will depend of the context of the individual’s circumstances and the results of the assessment.

You will need to budget $3025 for this type of assessment which includes the process outlined above. Please note this budget does not include your initial consultation or any psychology consultations that occur after the 1.5 hour Follow-up consultation.