Family Counselling

Raising a child with autism presents a unique set of obstacles that may be especially difficult to overcome for parents, carers, and siblings alike.
Our family counselling program aims to educate and support parents in managing stress, frustration, anxiety, and relationship difficulties that may arise from these challenges. The goal is to provide families with effective skills and coping mechanisms that lead to stress reduction, better communication, and an increase in health and wellbeing for both caregiver and child.

Our program structure is flexible and tailored specifically to the goals of each family, including
both session frequency and the number of sessions. We have different approaches to counselling to suit your specific situation:

  • Individual counselling
    Individual counselling addresses the individual responsibilities, needs, and general wellbeing of the caregiver, touching upon areas such as the additional stresses of caring for a child with autism, coping mechanisms, and time management.
  • Couples counselling
    Couples counselling is centered on the caregivers as a couple and maintaining a healthy relationship through empathy, perspective-taking, and effective communication. In caring for a child with autism, particular emphasis is placed on understanding the stressors and responsibilities of each individual parent and how that may affect the partnership.
  • Family counselling
    Family counselling is focused on the entire family unit – including siblings and all other members of the household – and understanding how the additional needs of caring for a child with autism may affect each family member differently. Sessions will likely examine the roles of each family member and how these individual responsibilities may impact the family dynamic as a whole.

Meet Michelle, Irabina’s Family Counsellor

(BPsychSc, M.Couns)
Michelle is a strong advocate for autism awareness and inclusion, with a distinct passion for parental & caregiver support.

After her experience of raising two boys with ASD, Michelle decided to change direction in her career. She went on to complete a Bachelor of Psychological Science and a Master of Counselling with the intent to support parents & caregivers of children with autism of which she saw a community need for.

In 2020 Michelle started working in the Specialist Services branch at Irabina, supporting parents of children in the Severe Behaviour Day Treatment Program and Feeding Programs. Michelle is now spreading her scope by offering counselling services with a specific focus on the impact that autism has on individuals, couples and within a family.

Our Family Counselling Program is available face-to-face at our Irabina Bayswater site or via Telehealth. Call us on 03 9720 1118

Call today to enquire, we are available Monday to Friday, 8:30AM to 5:00PM. Outside of these hours, please use the form below. Counselling sessions consist of 50 minutes with frequency determined by clients and counsellor at $100 per session.

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Other family services

Parent-Child Play Based Group

Good play skills are so important in the development of Autistic young people who can often have limited interest in interacting with others

View

Multilingual Parent-Child Group

Designed for families where English is a second language and who have autistic children up to 5 years of age with.

View

Archie’s Club

Designed to be fun and engaging, our sibling support program provides opportunities for open discussions about the good and the challenging.

View

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