This will get you to facebook at least.Type into facebook 'Joan
Spencer & Associates' to get you to the page.
RELATIONSHIP STRESSED?- POSITIVE
SOLUTIONS
MARRIAGE
COUNSELLING AND RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLING CAN BE USEFUL IN
ENHANCING YOUR
OWN STRETCHED PERSONAL RESOURCES :
When Can Marriage Counselling and/or
Relationship Counselling Be Helpful?
"When
life becomes stressful and it seems that you cannot work out a personal
difficulty together or
alone, a qualified counsellor may be able to help you
work through your problems and give you an
opportunity to better understand
yourself, your relationships, values, and beliefs. A counsellor can
help you solve problems realistically so that you can work toward a more
satisfying, productive, and
fulfilling relationship and life."
The Counselling and Marriage Counselling Process Can Help You:
Communicate better with the important people in your life
Deal with addictive behaviours.
Develop a more enriching and holistic spiritual life.
Enhance personal growth/self esteem.
Enrich your marriage or remarriage.
Heal from emotional/physical/sexual/ spiritual abuse.
Make moral/ethical decisions.
Parent more effectively.
Rebuild your life after a significant loss or change.
Resolve causes of depression, anxiety, anger, confusion, and insecurity.
Assess growth and vocational concerns with your future partner.
The Mediation Process can help you
when your marriage has irretrievably broken down:
To find resolution to areas of dispute such as residential rights
under the family law,
property settlement etc. with the minimum of legal and
court fees.
Isolate the matters of dispute between parties through the
assistance of a neutral
third person or persons, thereby assisting you to
develop options and alternatives
to reach consensual and voluntary agreement
that satisfies each participants
(partner's and children's) needs.
Attain acceptable resolution and settlement of issues of dispute
through an impartial
and neutral third party who has no authoritative
decision-making powers.
For more detail go to our mediation page. (see sidebar)
ACCREDITED MENTAL HEALTH SOCIAL WORKER
MEDICARE REGISTERED
PROVIDER
Stressed or Anxious? You may be eligible for a Medicare Rebate.
Talk it over with your
doctor.
(
Medicare funding requires a referral from your doctor under one of the
health care plans
listed in thefollowing paragraph
Joan Spencer is accredited to practice as a mental health social
worker. An accredited
Mental Health Social Worker is a social worker who has
been assessed by the Australian
Association of Social Workers (AASW)
as having specialist mental health expertise.
An accredited Mental Health Social Worker in private practice is
eligible to provide services
through the (Australian)
Commonwealth funded Better Access to Mental health
Care and
Chronic Disease Management (Team
Care Arrangement) programs. Social workers are
also providers in the
Better
Outcomes in Mental Health Initiative.
Mental Health Social Workers have a breadth of experience in assessing
and working
effectively with people experiencing:
Depression and other mood disorders
Anxiety
disorders
Psychosis
Relationship
problems
Adjustment
Issues
Family conflicts
Personality
disorders
Suicidal thoughts
Life crises
Trauma
Like other skilled professionals, such as
psychologists, Mental Health Social Workers use a range of
interventions in helping people with mental disorders, including the
following;
( Extract from AASW Mental Health Social
Worker's pamphlet )
Joan Spencer is qualified to offer all of the
above Mental Health therapies and strategies.
Joan majored in Psychology in her primary degree.
Access to Better Health Care,
Chronic
Disease Management (Team Care Arrangement) and Better
Outcomes in Mental Health Initiative Medicare
funding requires your General Practitioner (doctor)
to formulate a
Mental Health Care Plan.
FAMILY DISPUTE RESOLUTION:
Joan Spencer is a registered family dispute
resolution provider. A registered family dispute
resolution provider is an
individual or organisation who has met the required standards of training,
experience and suitability for inclusion on the Family Dispute Resolution
Register.
(Commonwealth Government, Attorney's General Dept.)
Family dispute resolution is the name in the Family Law Act (1975)
for services such as mediation
and conciliation that help people affected by
separation and divorce to sort out their disputes with
each other. You may have
reached a point where you can't agree on issues concerning your
property,
children, or money. You may not be able to talk to each other at all.
Family dispute resolution can help you sort out these issues without going
to court. If you can resolve
your differences you'll save yourself time, money
and a whole lot of stress.
A family dispute resolution practitioner can help you and the other
person discuss issues, look at
options, and to develop arrangements for your
children. Even if you can't reach agreement, family
dispute resolution may help
you communicate better and better manage areas where you disagree.
From 1 July 2007, if you want to apply to the court for a parenting order
(and you have not previously
applied], you will need a certificate (601) from a
registered family dispute resolution provider which
confirms that an attempt at
family dispute resolution was made. There are some exceptions to this
requirement, such as cases involving family violence or child abuse. Much of the
above information
has been gleaned from the Commonwealth Attorney's General
Department website. Joan Spencer
is registered with the Attorney's General
Department.
Pre-marriage courses
can
help you learn how to enhance your relationship, and put into
place those relationship
skills that will help to ensure the growth in intimacy so essential for
a happy marriage.
Our pre-marriage course is
available by correspondence.
The correspondence course
consists of six sessions and
builds up to a resource book that
can help you survive married
life's small glitches along the way. For more information click
on
Pre-marriage Courses in the side bar.
The Correspondence Course can be
purchased for $250.00.
Prospective course students living
in Australia can enrol by contacting us on (03) 97 965 965.
or by email:
enquiries@jspencer.com.au.
Payment options will be discussed over the phone
for security reasons.
Overseas prospective course students can
enrol by ringing us on
61 3 9796 5965.
The Couple with Counsellor Course
costs $120 per session for six sessions bringing the total
cost to $600.00
AUD. The advantage of this two to one, face to face course is that you
have
the entire attention and interaction of the experienced counsellor. As
a consequence the value
of the course to you is increased
includes all material,
and certificate on completion, plus the
offer of the counsellor to act
as a relationship coach in the future to help you handle any issues,
problems
or conflicts that may arise in your future marriage or relationship. This
may be a free
short telephone consultation or a paid appointment with the
counsellor at your convenience if
the presenting problem needs more
intensive counselling.
Group session with group leader
is another option. This option depends on the ability to form
a group of at
least five couples. Again this offer includes the interaction of the group
leader.
It is presented over a six hour grouping of six sessions, usually on
the one day. The group leader
will also offer to
act as a relationship coach
in the future to help you handle any issues, problems
or conflicts that may arise in your future marriage or relationship. The group session
with group
leader option costs $250.00 AUD.
What to expect from a Pre-marriage
Course.
Pre-marriage courses should not focus on problems, but help
couples to prepare
to meet challenges ahead. Good pre-marriage courses and
counselling will
nonetheless help you to
become aware of the pitfalls that can catch you when
you least expect them.
Consultation adapting to the new commitment of marriage.
Competent counsellors will help you discover why some successful defacto
relationships run into trouble after the wedding.
Drawing from their experience in helping couples when things go wrong, and
combined with years
of premarital counselling sessions behind them, you can
expect qualified and
experienced pre-marriage counsellors to be in a position
to help you develop a
fulfilling relationship.
You can expect a that a pre-marriage course is designed to assist couples to
learn how
to develop their future marriage relationship and to enrich their love
and
commitment to each other.
Such courses will use of adult learning activities couples are given the
opportunity
to learn such skills as listening to each other, to speak up, to
have their needs
and expectations met. Couples learn to be able to handle
problems and
conflict constructively.
Here at Joan Spencer & Associates we have found most couples prefer to
meet individually with a
course leader/counsellor. In this instance the course
comprises two 2 hourly
sessions. However group sessions can be arranged
if required depending on
demand.
For more detail, session content etc, go to our pre-marriage page. (see sidebar)
Testimonial:
The following couple participated in our
Pre-marriage course during 2003 and have continued
on taking advantage of
our marriage coaching.
Our
experience with Joan Spencer has been enriching. We walk out feeling
positive and
empowered with practical problem solving skills. It is
like having a relationship mentor with
confidentiality guaranteed. We
were able to gain great ideas, tried and proven through
personal experience.
The readings that we received were relevant and gave extra food for
thought.
Each session set the ground work for clearer communication between us.
Dianne
and Ivan
Thank
you very much for giving us the opportunity, we thoroughly enjoyed every bit
of it.
Overall we found the content (of the counselling) very useful and will
definitely recommend this to any of our
friends in the future.
Anon
Our Mission:
To provide a confidential, sensitive, caring,
professional and comprehensive Marriage and Relationship counselling program and
pre-marriage course that covers related counselling areas, in an environment that
encourages growth and self awareness in relationships between our clients,
their partners, and their families.
Company Profile:
Joan Spencer & Associates are marriage and
relationship counselling practitioners. Our first centre for
counselling was opened in Fairfield on 1st July 1993. This was soon
followed by branch offices being opened in Morwell and Warragul. As a result of
responses to a radio advertising campaign in early 1995, a further centre was
opened in Hallam. May 1998 saw the relocation of our original Fairfield
centre to 1042 Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe. In
June 2006 we closed our Ivanhoe centre so we could concentrate our work in the
south eastern suburbs of Melbourne. About this time we closed our offices at
Morwell and Warragul. As a result we opened an office at 6 Eleanor
Court Pakenham. February 2010 witnessed our move from
Eleanor Court to the corner of Racecourse Rd and Simon Drive Pakenham. (2
Simon Drive) This venuelike Eleanor Court, offers opportunities
to reach former clients in the Warragul
area as well as serving new clients on the south east edge of the rapidly
expanding south eastern suburbs. The Simon Drive venue offers larger rooms and a
large recreation room which offers the possibilities of running groups. Our principal counsellors and associates all have
membership of their appropriate professional bodies. Joan and Bill Spencer have
each over thirty years of counselling experience.
To love and to
cherish:
Romantic Love matures into the
need to cherish.
Romantic love is love
in the company of a stranger. As you get to know the stranger better,
romantic love tends to diminish unless it is replaced by the more mature
love known as cherishing. Many a marriage or relationship flounders because
each lover does not learn or see the need to cherish the other. Cherishing
develops more successfully when there is a commitment to the other that can
survive being in love with someone who is no longer a stranger.
OUR APPROACH TO MARRIAGE COUNSELLING AND
RELATIONSHIP COUNSELLING
Context of family and family of origin
relationships.
Our
approach to Marriage Counselling and Relationship Counselling has a focus on the
family because we have found that marriage problems and relationship problems
need to be addressed in the context of family and family of origin
relationships. We take a similar approach to Premarital Counselling, and in our
Basic Relationship Education Course. However, because issues of self-esteem,
anger management, conflict resolution, career management, control and equity,
emotional, physical and sexual abuse, abusive relationships, child abuse,
sexuality, infertility, parenting etc, often impinge on relationship issues we
have become particularly adept in addressing these issues as well. Our
counsellors are competent to address sexual, emotional and physical abuse,
infertility, anxiety and career management. We also offer help under the rubric
of Marriage Guidance and Relationships Advice. With our relationship help we aim to help you construct healthy
relationships. The
Family Court in Australia is seeking ways to resolve more disputes before they
reach court in an effort to minimise adverse effects of the adversary system. To
this end there is a growing tendency to look to counselling and mediation
or consultancy as a way forward to resolve disputes with regard to parenting
orders etc. In line with the courts emphasis on the interests of the child, we
are exploring the implications and offering counselling and mediation for parents
in post separation and divorce situations.
Our Counsellors:
Qualifications, experience and photo's of our
counsellors can be found on our about us page.
We have moved to
2 Simon Drive Pakenham just around the corner from 6
Eleanor Court Pakenham (Cnr Racecourse Road
& Simon Drive) The counselling centre faces Racecourse Rd
also known as Healesville Koo Wee Rup Road.
Parking is available in
Simon Drive, Racecourse Road and on site.
Questions frequently asked by individuals and couples
seeking counselling.
Question:
What is
counselling?
Answer:Counselling offers you choices. Often counselling is essential
to cope with a crisis or problem. Counselling is needed when the
individual's personal resources are not sufficient to resolve a
problem. It is a helpful aid to reach new goals for personal, couple
or family fulfilment
Question: What does a counsellor do?
Answer: Joan Spencer &
Associates only engage counsellors who have appropriate tertiary qualifications. These
qualifications provide the necessary analytical skills required for good counselling. The
counsellors are caring, sincere people with the ability to listen, to understand, and
with skills to help people make positive life changes for greater fulfilment.
Question: Does a counsellor tell you
what you should do?
Answer: No.
Each person has the right to make decisions in life. The counsellor is non judgemental,
and helps you to find direction and make choices in your life.
Question: What if my partner or family will
not come with me?
Answer: At least come yourself
and discuss the situation before you give up hope of involving your partner or
family.
Question: How confidential are the discussions?
Answer: What is said is held in
strictest confidence.
Question: Who can request counselling?
Answer: Anyone. You do not need a
referral.
Question: Do you have to pay?
Answer: Yes. Joan Spencer &
Associates is a private counselling practice dependent on fee for
service.
This
page was last updated on the 31st February 2012
Are we, (by being busy) merely trying to avoid
the risks, the demands and the joys
of love?
Hugh
Mackay
Paramount
to the sustainability of any relationship is the ability to feel with and
alongside the
other--to dialogue. In other words, that criterion of maturity we
call empathy.
Bill Spencer
This page was last modified on the 31st
February2012
