Sally-Anne
Connell
Treats age groups:
You are a unique person who should be proud of yourself. Rather than avoid therapy, embrace it as you are choosing to begin a new way forward to achieve positive outcomes.
Life will always deliver stressful events, time-consuming struggles, and seemingly endless challenges, but it’s how we view and manage these twists and turns that matters.
When you feel like emotions and feelings have become overwhelming and you’re unable to manage them, regardless if you’re experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma, or having an addiction, any constant mental health issue can become an unwanted companion. But if you begin to recognise an ‘unwanted companion’ as a sign, a sign that can be or needs to be treated, I can help you to commence your journey of healing.
As a trained professional psychologist, I connect with people from all walks of life. Each one of them may have a different set of experiences, obstacles, and triggers, and you will be no different. Everything I do is designed to provide you with the support you need in a non-judgemental and confidential free space that invites you to connect with me to tell me your own story.
Not only is reaching out to a trained psychologist a brave and courageous act, but it’s also one that will be truly life-changing when you reflect after your treatment has ended.
The first step is always the hardest but please be assured once we have started the journey of rediscovery, your personal situation and circumstances can change quickly.
Let me guide you through how I can help if you are suffering from:
Please refer below for all the other mental health areas I service.
Other Areas Of Interest:
- Adjustment disorders
- Anger management
- Behavioural management
- Borderline personality disorder
- Carer relationships, Illness, Disability & Aged Care
- Careers, Study & Life Direction
- Compulsive acquiring & hoarding
- Drug & Alcohol Addiction
- Expat & repatriation issues
- Gambling problems
- Grief-Loss & bereavement
- Health & Lifestyle issues
- Mood disorders & Bi-polar
- Phobias
- Relationship issues (INDIVIDUAL)
- Self-Esteem & Self-Development
- Sexual assault & Abuse
- Shyness & Social skills
- Stress management & Relaxation
- Victims of Crime
- Workplace issues
You are a unique person who should be proud of how far you have come and become excited about what the future holds. Together, we will find ways to process what you’re going through so that you can experience these positive feelings and inspirational outlooks again.
Commencing therapy means you are choosing to begin a new way forward.
Begin your healing process in three easy steps
Step 1
Book an appointment online or over the phone.
Step 2
Speak with a qualified psychologist or counsellor.
Step 3
Work with me to rediscover the real you!
Sally-Anne's areas of specialty
Over the past 15 years of my career, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing clients who have been through the most difficult events overcome their trauma symptoms and take control of their lives again. I understand that if you have experienced trauma, it is deeply distressing to remember the events and it is natural to want to avoid thinking or talking about what has happened. Regrettably, it is this avoidance that increases symptoms such as nightmares and intrusive memories as your mind is wanting you to process the events that have occurred.
In our sessions, I will first teach you cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques that will help manage any destructive thought patterns or behaviours that have resulted from the trauma. When addressing the trauma itself, I avoid using prolonged exposure techniques and focus instead on using eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR) which uses extremely brief repeated exposures and does not require every detail of the trauma to be explored.
I am passionate about the use of EMDR in trauma as I have witnessed positive emotional changes occurring in clients as shortly as after the completion of one EMDR session. I have found that EMDR works well with 90 – 120-minute sessions that will be scheduled at the appropriate time during your treatment plan.
It would be an unusual person who said that they never feel “depressed” but if you are feeling symptoms of depression over months or longer you will benefit from engaging in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) with a psychologist. My treatment for depression is structured, practical, and effective. We will identify and address the behaviours and thinking patterns that cause and maintain depression. This treatment plan focuses on the present, here-and-now thoughts, and behaviours. I will help you see how actions, or lack of actions, contribute to your feeling bad or good.
After I have discussed with you there are actions and strategies you can begin immediately that will make you feel better. Most importantly, we will find and change any negative or unrealistic ways of thinking that are making you feel depressed. This treatment does require active participation, but we can take it one step at a time – the first step is turning up!
Do you often predict the worst-case scenario even when there is a low probability it will happen?
Frequently predicting that something bad is going to happen in social situations, at work or home may mean you are suffering from anxiety in some form. I use cognitive behavioural therapy to help you identify your beliefs about the costs and benefits of worrying and show you how to recognise the difference between productive and unproductive worrying.
I will help you identify your maladaptive thinking and to learn how to challenge it. We will also use interventions that aim to lower your overall arousal levels. I am passionate about ‘teaching’ in my sessions and will require you to practice what you learn outside of our therapy sessions.
You may have experienced a panic attack and now be worried that you will experience another one. It is natural to want to avoid situations that might trigger a panic attack; however, by doing this anxiety, becomes worse and the world you live in can become very small.
I know how scary this experience can be but please be assured the recovery is much simpler than most people assume. I can teach you how to manage your breathing so that you can avoid hyperventilating (decreasing physical arousal). I will also help you learn to manage any thinking and/ or behaviour that is making your symptoms worse and then through exposure you will discover again that you have nothing to fear.
I have focused on learning how to treat people with OCD for many years as I feel that people with this disorder benefit to have a psychologist who is well trained and confident in the treatment plan.
I understand how unrelenting obsessions can be and how powerful the desire to complete a compulsion is. Starting treatment for OCD can feel overwhelming and it is common to have doubts that it will work.
I have seen firsthand that many people gain control over their obsessions and compulsions once they have learned how to manage their anxiety through cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques. I will teach you how to manage maladaptive thinking and behaviours; how to practice relaxation strategies; how to do safe exposure; and how facing the things you fear most (rather than avoiding them) will make them go away.
