My counselling approach aims to promote self-awareness, self-compassion and personal well-being. My intention is to support your healing, and the health of the relationship you have with yourself and the connections you have with others.
At the core of the work we do is the idea of integration, which involves observing and acknowledging different aspects, or parts, of ourselves, befriending these parts, and connecting these parts of ourselves. The outcome of the work is a greater capacity to access and experience our wise Self. With our wise Self, and an increase in our resources for emotional regulation and new strategies, we have a sense of calm spaciousness and clarity; we have the ability to be creative, responsive and flexible, rather than reactive and rigid; we experience curiosity; we experience confidence and courage; we have self-compassion rather than self-criticism and self-judgement; and we enhance our connectedness to ourselves and others.
Raquel Low
Counselling Psychologist
B.A.; Grad. Dip. Ed. Psych.; M. Psych. (Couns.); Dip. Trans. Couns.; Dip. Clin. Hyp.; C.P.A.T
MAPS, FCCOUNP, AHPRA
I am here to help you recognise and transform some of the limitations that have developed due to past experiences or early attachment relationships; to support you in restoring trust in your self; to help you become more able to regulate and tolerate emotions; to live with self-agency; and to support you in uncovering your unique wants and needs.
My approach supports you in your natural inclination to grow and become the best of who you are, while working within the most appropriate psychological frameworks and strategies that will facilitate your healing and movement toward greater well-being.
Click to read more about therapy types:
Individual Therapy
There are a wide range of issues that can be supported with Counselling Psychology including:
- Adjustment disorder
- Attachment support (secure, insecure and disorganised attachment styles)
- Alcohol and drug use
- Anger management (ie. understanding, and regulating anger)
- Anxiety disorders • Generalised anxiety disorder • Panic disorder • Specific phobia • Social anxiety disorder
- Behavioural support
- Bipolar Disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
- Crises
- Depression
- Disassociative disorders
- Disordered eating or Eating Disorders • Anorexia nervosa • Bulimia nervosa • Binge eating disorder • ED(NOS)
- Grief and loss
- Life changes and transitions (marriage; parenthood; separation/divorce etc.)
- Managing and regulating strong emotions
- Mood disorders
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Parenting support
- Personal development; Meaningfulness;
- Phobias
- Psychosis and Schizophrenia; psycho-spiritual crises
- Relationship support
- Self-esteem and confidence
- Sleeping issues
- Stress Management
- Trauma • Acute • Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) • Complex (C-Ptsd)• Developmental • Interpersonal • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) • abuse and neglect
- Work and Career support
Adolescent Therapy
I work with teenagers in much the same way as I do with adults. My key focus is to support you with managing your current concerns, for example, your relationships, your emotions, your thoughts or your behaviours. My aim is to facilitate your ability to become more self-aware, self-compassionate and self-confident, feel more emotionally calm, and make positive choices and changes in your life.
If you are under 18 years old, I have an initial session with your parent(s)/guardian(s) to get a history of you and their ideas about what they think is going on for you right now. After this session, I meet with you for two – three sessions. Then, while most of what we talk about will remain confidential, I meet again with your parent(s)/guardian(s) to give relevant feedback that will facilitate their ability to best support you.
Seeking support early, even if you are unsure if you need it or you are unsure how helpful it will be, has a demonstrated positive impact on your current well-being, and long-term psychological health.
There are a range of issues that can be supported in counselling including:
- Anxiety and panic
- Being bullied
- Decision making
- Depression
- Difficulty adjusting to changes, such as parents separating or transitions from school or to University
- Disordered eating
- Friendship, parent and relationship support
- Grief and loss
- Lack of motivation, procrastination or a decline in interest/performance at school
- Managing strong emotions or mood changes
- Overcoming negative experiences
- Risk-taking behavior or behavioural issues
- School refusal
- Self esteem and self-confidence
- Self-harm
- Stress Management
Relationship Therapy
My approach is grounded in the interpersonal neurobiolobical framework that demonstrates that secure-functioning, emotionally healthy relationships are a basic human need, and therefore enhance our personal well-being.
Many of us did not receive the adequate amount of unconditional attunement required in childhood to develop secure-functioning in adult relationships, leading to reduced well-being personally and within our relationships.
We will explore the neuropsychobiology of the origins, and current impact in our relationships, of our emotional, cognitive and behavioural response patterns, our beliefs about ourselves and the world, the implicit body sensations and other dynamics that drive us, in order that these discoveries can be honoured for how they helped us, and to make room for updating and resourcing into patterns based on understanding, compaassion and wisdom.
Relationship Therapy can support you in:
- Developing a vision, model and practices for a whole-hearted, successful intimate relationship.
- Navigating difficult and emotional conversations
- Repairing from chronic and repeated personal conflicts
- Transforming unhealthy emotional, cognitive and behavioural habits from your past
- Developing emotional intelligence
- Developing a secure-functining adult relationship from which you can both safely and with more joy, more peace and more love, move within, from and into the world
