Joan Spencer: B.A. (Psych.)., B.S.W., M.A.A.S.W. (Accred.)
Mental Health Social Worker
Allied Health
Email:
Enquiries@jspencer.com.au Phone: (03) 9796 5965. Locations in Hallam
and Pakenham, Victoria, Australia. Hallam; 182 Princes
Highway. Pakenham: 6 Eleanor Court. Joan Spencer
& Associates is a fee for service private practice. Established 1993.
Medicare rebates available following
referral by G. P. of a Mental Health Care Plan to Joan Spencer. (see below)
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
(
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;
Cognitive behavioural therapy
Behavioural
interventions
Cognitive interventions
Relaxation Strategies
Skills Training
Problem solving
Anger management
Social skills
Stress management
Parenting Skills
Interpersonal Therapy
Psycho-education
(Including motivational interviewing)
Family therapy
Narrative therapy
( 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 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 Commonweath Attorney's General
Department website. Joan Spencer is registered with the Attorney's General
Department.
Further information can be found at http://www.familyrelationships.gov.au/fdr#q4
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
now 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 AUD (Includes all material, certificate on completion,
GST, plus postage and handling.)
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 uson
61 3 9796 5965.
The Couple with Counsellor Course
costs $100 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 toeach 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
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. As a result we opened an office at 6 Eleanor
Court Pakenham. This venue 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.. 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 Advise. With our relationship help we aim to help you construct healthy
relationships. The number of clients approaching our practice with regard to post separation parenting is increasing. 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.
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 20th August 2008
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.
