MELBOURNE PREGNANCY COUNSELLORS
Providing counselling for pregnancy options & abortion support, antenatal & postnatal depression and anxiety, infertility & IVF, birth preparation and debriefing.
ABOUT US
At Melbourne Pregnancy Counsellors, we offer high quality, ethical and evidence-based counselling to help you through your pregnancy-related challenges. We specialise in pregnancy options decision making, post abortion counselling, as well as perinatal mental health and well being. We are a network of independently practicing counsellors and social workers, working in various locations around Melbourne.
Areas of Practice
Our counsellors have had extensive experience offering pregnancy support for women facing an unplanned or potentially unwanted pregnancy in hospital settings, private clinics and private practice. We have expertise in supporting women and their families through the perinatal period of facing mental illness at the very time they are expected to be full of joy. We have knowledge and expertise in the following areas of practice:
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Intimate partner violence
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Reproductive coercion
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Sexual assault
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Perinatal mental health (anxiety and depression)
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Trauma recovery
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Grief and Loss
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Group work
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Infertility and IVF Support
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LGBTIQ
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Women considering sole parenting
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Clinical supervision
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Presentations to Health Professionals
MEET THE TEAM
Here to support your emotional and mental well being
TRISH HAYES
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker
Patricia Hayes is an accredited mental health social worker and counsellor who has worked in the areas of pregnancy options and abortion counselling, maternal mental health, sexual assault counselling as well in as generalist university counselling for over a
decade. She has also worked in research, teaching and academia in the areas of social work, the prevention of violence against women and women’s reproductive health as well as in sexual and reproductive health promotion. She has also done further counselling training in the area of mindfulness-based core process therapies, trauma-informed practice and self-compassion therapy.
CHANEL KEANE
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker
In the fifteen years that Chanel has worked as a counsellor and social worker, she has developed experience and skills in working with people whose lives have been affected by childhood and adult trauma, mental illness, drug and alcohol dependence, sexual abuse, and family violence. It is Chanel’s hope that through therapy a client develops greater self-awareness of their emotions, thoughts, their strengths and supports, and in so doing feels an improvement in their over-all well-being and connection with others
Chanel likes to encourage the use of diverse mediums such as creative writing or journal writing and other creative forms of expression to explore and communicate one’s experiences. She has a personal interest in dance, body work and creative writing.
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SUZANNE HURLEY
Psychotherapist and Perinatal Mental Health Counsellor
Suzanne is a passionate and dedicated counsellor. She has an impressive level of expertise from working with varying degrees of reproductive loss, including pregnancy options counselling, abortion counselling, infertility and IVF support and in perinatal mental health. She has provided her clients with counselling, group support and presented to health professionals in various perinatal settings. Her expertise and understanding of the issues women, couples and families face when immersed in the perinatal period is highly specialised.
CINDY BRIDGE
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker, Creative Arts Therapist
Cindy is a caring and compassionate therapist and social worker, with 20 years experience, and over 10 years working as a pregnancy options counsellor at the Pregnancy Advisory Service (RWH) in Melbourne. Cindy is also a trained creative arts therapist, using different modalities to explore and expand on awareness of hopes, beliefs, and emotions in relation to self and others. She has a particular interest in working with attachment, loss and interpersonal trauma, and how this may intersect with pregnancy decision making and adjustment to parenting. She passionately believes in the power of quality evidenced-based practice, with information, rights and a strengths-based framework to support you on your journey. She has worked in a variety of settings, using both individual counselling, casework, and therapeutic group interventions.
CONTACT AND LOCATIONS
Carlton, Eltham, Essendon, Fairfield, North Fitzroy, Preston, Coburg, Sunbury
Various hours: contact individual counsellors via email
ERICA PRINGLE
Creative Arts Therapist
Erica has worked as a counsellor at RWH and Marie Stopes over the last 8 years, specialising in pregnancy options and decision making counselling. She works from a strengths based, feminist structural approach and is currently undergoing further training as a creative arts therapist. She is also a qualified teacher who is a gifted musician, and has run numerous music based support groups for parents and young children. She has a particular interest in working with the LGBTIQ community to foster strong and healthy parenting relationships.