Have questions?

In Peregian Springs, on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Swan Counselling offers Individual and Relationship Counselling services. We welcome adults and adolescents for Individual, Loss and Grief, partners, parents and families for Relationship Counselling.

Anita is an Internal Family Systems (IFS) Practitioner and can help you if you think you live with:

• stress and anxiety
• depression
• PTSD, Complex PTSD
• addictions (incl. substance, behavioural)
• life transitions
• loss, grief or bereavement
• difficulties managing relationships (incl. with significant others, children, co-workers etc)

If you are reading this there is a chance that a part of you needs and wants to be supported. Overwhelmed by personal issues, burdened by workplace problems, recurring arguments with your partner, children or parents can all bring people to seek tried and tested ways of psychological support.

A qualified and experienced counsellor or psychotherapist can assist you with improving your mental and physical well-being regardless of your gender, cultural or religious background, education or postcode.

One of Anita’s first questions to you will be “How would you know when you don’t need counselling any longer?”

Deep down you know how you want to feel about and live within yourself and your social environment. When you get there that’s when you don’t need more support.

Difficulty coping with unexpected challenges, experiences of trauma, sudden crisis, loneliness, losses, unexplained changes in your behaviour or thinking can all be signs for you to reach out.

Well, this is the thing. You won’t until you’ve tried it.

Anita is an Internal Family Systems (IFS) Practitioner, trauma-informed counsellor. She uses a range of evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches and will apply them as they best suit you. But like everything in life, there is no magic bullet. You’ll need to actively take part in your own healing process. This is where your own intuition, courage and willingness will play a big part.

You can read more about the foundations of Anita’s counselling principles in the blog posts about Internal Family Systems Therapy, Compassion Focused Therapy, Attachment Theory and the Polyvagal Theory.

It’s your therapy, we progress at your speed and according to your requirements. You may decide to come once a week or a fortnight. If you wish to come more frequently for a period of time, we can work together to find times that suit us both.

Anita at Swan Counselling delivers a client-centred service which means you'll be making such decisions.

The sessions are 60 minutes long. Sometimes an extra 5 or so minutes may be necessary to round it all up. Anita will always make sure that you leave feeling better than how you've arrived.

$100 for Individual Counselling (length varies between 60-75 minutes/session)

$150 for Relational Therapy (length 75 minutes/session)

You can pay in cash at the sessions, or by electronic funds transfer subsequent to each session.

We block off your appointment time each week just for you. If you need to cancel for whatever reason, if you do so more than 24 hours in advance, no cancellation charge will apply. Should you cancel at short notice, or miss a session, you will be charged the full fee, regardless of the circumstances, including holidays, work commitments, and illness.

No. You don't need a doctor’s referral to make an appointment with  me.

Therapists may or may not request GP details in the unlikely event you have a medical emergency while attending therapy. In the case of a psychological or emotional emergency, Anita would seek your permission to contact your nominated emergency contact person.

At this stage we do not offer concession card discounts, medicare. We have taken this into consideration when setting our competitive fees.

Private health funds rebates are available for ARHG members (GMHBA, Teachers Union Health, Westfund, St. Lukes Health, Emergency Services Health, Police health Fund, Phoenix Health, CUA Health)

This will depend on your individual circumstances. Simply reaching out for support in itself makes some people feel better. Counselling requires a few sessions before clients start to gain sustainable improvements. After 6 sessions we will jointly assess whether there is a need for further support.

No. The only thing we ask is that you arrive on time for your appointment out of respect for us, and others. We suggest you plan your first visit carefully to ensure you find your way easily.

By creating a safe, non-judgmental, and trusting therapeutic alliance Anita helps you develop greater self-awareness in the ‘here and now’ of the session. For this to happen your attention may be directed to experience your body, feelings and emotions when they arise or shift. Anita will suggest techniques or strategies to lessen feelings of unease, panic, or fear.

She sees your behaviours, core beliefs, and thoughts as learned mechanisms to cope with situations you were facing. From this perspective Anita will facilitate practices to move you from stressful reactiveness to compassionate connection with yourself and others.

Absolutely, yes. You can view our Information on disclosure and your privacy that your therapist will explain in detail before asking you to sign.

Counsellors and psychotherapists are not able to prescribe medication. Psychotherapy is not necessarily an alternative to medication, rather a complimentary medicine to sustainable healing or recovery. With an analogy: medications are treating symptoms of a dis-ease, psychotherapy and counselling are dealing with the root cause of your un-ease.

In basic terms, a psychiatrist is a registered doctor who can diagnose mental illness and prescribe medication.

Psychologists offer talking therapies to clients across the lifespan. They typically diagnose (although not all the time) and, where necessary, liaise with psychiatrists for medications and other means of support. They may also be involved in research, teaching and supervision, program development and evaluation, public policy and other activities that promote psychological health in individuals, families, groups, and organisations. Some so-called, Counselling Psychologists are trained to interact with clients, much like Counsellors, and specialise in specific modalities like EMDR.

Counsellors and psychotherapists are trained not only to assist with talking therapies but more frequently with very specialised, evidence-based treatments of a range client populations. These include somatic, sensorimotor (or body-based), creative and art therapies (or mind-body therapies), mindfulness informed practices ( e.g. MBSR, ACT, CFT)… the list is long.

A main tenet of the training of Counsellors is the ability to establish and maintain a strong therapeutic relationship with their clients. This is proven to be the single most important predictor of success of supporting mental health and well-being.

• Diploma in Counselling - Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors
• Bachelor of Education
• Bachelor of Arts (Majors in English and Hungarian)
• Member of the Australian Counselling Association (ACA)
• ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training)
• Accredited Telephone Crisis Supporter
• Accredited Community Support Officer

Either by email or phone during office hours between Monday and Friday. You can also send us a message using our contact form. For more information, please refer to our contact page.

Yes, you will be asked to attend all sessions together as a couple. If there is a need for only one partner to see the therapist, these sessions will be carried out as Individual Counselling, preferably after your couples sessions ceased.

Monday to Friday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm. Saturday by appointment.