Psychology
The KCC Psychology team provides a wide range of psychological services and support to young people, their families, and carers across the Western Suburbs of Melbourne. We extend our services to clinic-based sessions, as well as providing support and liaising with schools and kindergartens. Collaboration with families, educators and allied health professions ensures that the child can be best supported in their home, education and community environments.
The KCC psychology team are passionate about improving the mental health and wellbeing of children with diverse needs and abilities. We believe that providing a holistic approach can work toward improving the quality of life of the children and their families. We pride ourselves on using evidence-based practice to address individualised goals. In addition to this, we approach each interaction with children, families and care teams with a warm, friendly and supportive approach to build positive relationships and provide a positive environment.
Individual Therapy
We provide child- centred therapy to children based on their individualised abilities and support needs. We work collaboratively with families, carers, educators, and allied-health therapists to set and work toward child-centred goals. Intervention strategies are evidence based, which ensures that all interventions are based on current research, and in line with best practice. We specialise in supporting children with an array of needs such as mental health and wellbeing, emotional regulation, social communication and relationships and executive functioning.
Mental Health and wellbeing:
Through guiding the young person to better understand and explore their emotions and experiences, we can support them to develop individualised strategies to reduce stress and anxiety in potentially triggering situations. We work with the individual and their family and caregivers to increase confidence and self-esteem, by providing positive and affirming home, social and learning environments. Using evidence-based practice, our intervention methods are designed to promote mental health and wellbeing through a holistic approach.
Emotinal Regulation:
The ability to understand our body and how it experiences and responds to emotions and environmental factors is imperative in being able to navigate the demands of daily life. Our intervention is aimed at supporting children and their caregivers to develop this understanding and using this information to develop and implement personalised strategies to better manage both internal and external demands.
Social Communication and Relationships:
Developing fundamental social and communication skills is imperative for navigating social interactions and building healthy relationships with peers and family. These skills are vital for building meaningful connection and thereby enhancing a child’s social and emotional wellbeing. We empower the child and their carers to understand individual needs, explore emotions within the self and others, and develop emotion regulation skills to reduce stress and anxiety in potentially triggering social situations.
Executive functioning:
Executive functioning encompasses a person’s ability to successfully navigate internal and environmental demands, problem solve, regulate, and manage impulses. Using evidence-based and child-centred practice, we support the child and caregivers to understand individual strengths and barriers for executive functioning. We apply a neuroaffirming approach to develop strategies and create an environment that is supportive of the child’s individual needs and abilities.
Parent/ Caregiver/ Family Support:
Behind every young person is a parent, caregiver or family support system that provides daily care and support. Therefore, a large aspect of psychological services at KCC is providing support and coaching for the child’s support system. This ensures that the support system feels confident and empowered to utilise skills and strategies to work collaboratively toward the child’s goals. We take a neuroaffirming approach to support families to better understand the child’s individual needs and abilities and use this information to develop personalised goals and strategies.
School Or kindergarten liaising:
At KCC we provide external visits to schools, childcares, and kindergartens to address the young person’s goals in their social and educational environments. This provides the opportunity to deliver intervention within these settings and support transition and generalisation of skills. It also allowed us to support educators and staff to work collaboratively with the families to achieve the child’s goals. This collaborative approach is aimed at empowering and upskilling educators to build an environment that fosters positive development and is supportive of the child’s individual needs and abilities.
Assessment
We provide both formal and informal assessments for the purpose of investigating diagnosis in line with the DSM-5, school funding applications, NDIS funding applications and general therapy goal setting. We offer assessments in the areas of
- Cognitive functioning
- Depression, anxiety, and stress
- Functional Behaviour
In addition to this, in collaboration with caregivers and allied health therapist, we work to develop a Family Support Plan. This allows us to explore further the family’s needs, and to provide a more effective and holistic approach to the child and family’s support.
Details pertaining both formal and informal assessments can be discussed with your treating therapist or upon referral. A referral for psychological services is not required by a GP or specialist, simply give us a call to make an appointment with our Psychology team. To gain insight into your child’s presentation and needs, the initial session will involve obtaining a detailed history and relevant information, meeting the child and their caregivers, rapport building and goal setting. This initial consultation is just as an imperative part of the service as the therapy sessions themselves.