This section will be updated as new enquires arise, so please reach out if you think there is something important that should be on this page. More specific FAQs are also available on our Assessment and Therapy Services pages.
Diversity-affirming psychological care is an approach that recognises, respects, and validates your unique identity, experiences, and perspectives. It tailors therapeutic approaches to ensure your care is respectful, inclusive, and reduced from bias or discrimination, encompassing cultural, sexual, gender, neurodivergent or other identities.
What does affirming psychological care for CALD clients look like?
If you come from a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) background, affirming psychological care at Eccentric Minds involves:
What does affirming psychological care look like for LGBTQ+ clients?
For LGBTQ+ clients, affirming care at Eccentric Minds includes:
What does affirming psychological care look like for Neurodivergent clients?
If you're neurodivergent, affirming psychological care at Eccentric Minds includes:
Regardless of whether you are seeking assessment or therapy, the first session will consist of a discussion about confidentiality, confirming your understanding and consent for services, then a bit of a chat about your experiences, concerns and your recent life circumstances.
After that we generally dive into your history a bit more, identify your goals for assessment or therapy, talk about approaches or tools that might be helpful for those goals, then create an action plan for future sessions.
Yes. We are a primarily online practice, however have some capacity to offer in-person assessment and therapy in a privately booked clinic room in West Ryde 2114 at Hall Psychology and Coaching. Please be aware that these rooms are not mobility accessible as you would need to confidently walk up approximately 10 stairs to access the rooms
In-person booking are not only dependant on our availability, but also the room availability as shared resource with other clinicians. This means there may be times where it is easier and more accessible to book online telehealth appointments.
Eccentric Minds is currently operating on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays with availability for regular morning appointments. Business hours in the afternoon are typically allocated for one-off bookings, report writing, responding to enquiries and liaison with other health practitioners.
Currently, Eccentric Minds – Psychology is primarily providing services through video conferencing, and it is important you are aware of the potential benefits and limitations of psychological therapy and assessment provided this way.
Benefits may include:
Limitations may include:
Your psychologist will take necessary precautions to manage these limitations by:
Short answer is yes! As a result of COVID-19 many health services were forced to operate via telehealth for public health reasons and lots of research came out this pandemic response, including:
Overall, the evidence supports telehealth therapy as a viable and effective alternative to traditional in-person therapy. If you are looking for more specific research about telehealth therapy, please feel free to conduct your own review of the literature using evidence-based sources through Google Scholar. Here is just one of many papers to get your started :)
Eccentric Minds has a 48-hour, 100% cancellation fee policy, which means that you are welcome to reschedule your appointment with more than 48-hours notice at no penalty. However if you forget to attend or cancel within 48-hours of your appointment, you will need to pay 100% of the session fee.
While nobody wants to actually pay cancellation fees, they are implemented for the following reasons:
To reschedule any appointments, please reach out on info@eccentricminds.com.au
As part of providing psychological services, relevant personal information about the current situation and your history will be collected and stored securely. The information will assist in providing an appropriate and thorough service. Information will be stored in a secure location as psychologists are required to keep adult files for a minimum of 7 years, and child files until they are 25 years of age, as outlined in the Psychologist Code of Ethics. You may access the information in your file on request, subject to the exceptions in the National Privacy Principles and NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act (2002).
Confidentiality and Privacy
All personal information gathered by the psychologist during the provision of psychological service will remain confidential and secure except when:
If you choose to engage in services with Eccentric Minds, you will be asked to provide an emergency contact person and their details, you home address, phone number, email address and possibly the address where you will be regularly having telehealth sessions if not at home.
If your psychologist becomes aware of a risk to someone’s life, health, or well-being, the psychologist is required to report the matter to the appropriate agencies for additional support. Please see the Australian Psychological Society Code of Ethics (2007) for further information.
Typically, unless you are under 18, have a legal guardian or representative, then you will need to provide consent for services and book your own appointment.
Once you have commenced sessions, if you would like to nominate a contact person to assist with coordinating appointments or payments for accessibility reasons, this can be discussed and a separate consent form can be completed to authorise this arrangement.
Just like in-person services, fees are paid at the time of the appointment via PayID or bank transfer (details provided on the consent form).
For Medicare sessions, after the full payment has been received, Eccentric Minds will request that Medicare pay the rebate directly to your bank account as nominated in your MyGov account. This usually takes 24-48 hours to be paid into your account. Alternatively, you can request a copy of the paid receipt to make your own Medicare claim, though this can often take 7-21 days to receive your rebate.
For third-party payers, insurers or NDIS-plan managers, an invoice will be sent to them directly for payment unless otherwise stated. Likewise, the Northern Sydney PHN will be billed directly for sessions under the Access+ program.
Unfortunately no, we cannot offer regular bulk-billing as a payment option currently due to business sustainability and cost of living reasons. You may consider asking your GP about your local Primary Health Network as they often offer a certain number of sessions free if you meet eligibility criteria.