Croydon South

  • Wendy

    Relationship Counsellor Melbourne

    B.A. degree in Psych & History, Voc Grad Dip in Family Relationship Counselling

    Hart Centre Certified

    100% Trust and Satisfaction Guarantee In Relationship
    LOCATIONS
    • Croydon South, VIC
    About Wendy

    A family relationship counsellor with 18 years’ experience in relationship counselling and coaching, Wendy is described by her clients and colleagues alike as warm, genuine, non-judgemental and easy to talk to. Patient and with a capacity to hold hope, she brings to her work a deep-felt desire to support couples, families or individuals achieve stronger, happier, connected and respectful relationships.

    Her easy collaborative style and patience helps create a safe and comfortable environment in which relationship issues or challenges can be explored. 

    Wendy has worked in many areas of counselling over the years and topics regularly explored in sessions include: 

    • Managing conflict and dealing with communication problems (whether it’s the communication style or the issues themselves that are problematic)  
    • Managing the impacts of different parenting styles on a relationship  
    • Re-partnering and navigating the complex issues arising when living in a blended- or step- family 
    • Painful separation and divorce issues – regrouping and navigating the way forward including the needs of children 
    • Processing trust and betrayal issues 
    • Dealing with the relationship challenges when a partner is very ill (physical health or mental health e.g. anxiety or depression) or has experienced trauma 
    • Processing Grief and Loss 
    • Dealing with intimacy or desire differences 
    • Processing trust and betrayal issues 
    • Extended family issues impacting the relationship e.g. cultural, health, aging 
    • Transitioning to retirement issues e.g. differences in readiness for retirement, revitalising a long term relationship, differences in dealing with adult children who don’t want to flee the nest etc. 

    Wendy is well-acquainted with the work of a broad range of relationship specialists however her approach is strongly influenced by her extensive training in the evidence-based Emotionally Focussed Therapy (Dr Susan Johnson), and also in the Gottman method with Drs John and Julie Gottman.  These models both provide ‘relationship roadmaps’ which clients regularly report are very helpful in sustaining the positive changes they have been looking to achieve or had not thought were possible.  

    Whilst face to face consults are a preference, Wendy has experience in telephone and Zoom/Skype counselling and is open to provide this service should this be appropriate. 

    Wendy is well known and committed to the relationship counselling industry.  She is active member of MCEFT (Melbourne Community for Emotionally Focussed Therapy), a member (and past executive member) of MAREAA (Marriage and Relationship Education Association of Australia), a member of ICEEFT (International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focussed Therapy) and a member of the ACA (Australian Counselling Association).  She was on the editorial advisory board of the Threshold Magazine (previous national journal for relationship educators) and has been broadcast on TV, Channel 31, as a panel member on The Exchange. 

    How many years counselling experience do you have?

    18 years experience in a blend of relationship counselling and coaching; mainly counselling in the last 8 years.

    What are three strengths you have as a Psychologist/Counsellor?
    1. The ability to engage, connect and get to the heart of the matter.  Clients’ often tell me ‘yes, that’s it…, you’ve got us… we couldn’t see it before’.
    2. Heaps of empathy & compassion: I can tolerate or ‘sit with’ others in their emotional pain and yet at the same time also be very practical and down to earth where necessary.
    3. I am active in the relationship industry which helps keep me fresh and relevant, and my clients benefit from my additional learnings and inspiration.
    What is the most satisfying and fulfilling part of the work you do?

    Transformation:  working alongside clients as they move from painful, stuck, disappointing or seemingly hopeless places into one of safety, connection and happiness.

    What’s an example of a couple you have helped the most?

    busy couple with toddlers reported increasingly toxic verbal fights that had worn them out and that they were on the brink of separation. Together we got to explore what was beneath the various “fights about anything” that plagued their lives.  We became increasingly aware of the repetitive fear driven pattern/cycle of their fights and through some brief psycho-education supported them understand the impact past trauma had on the escalation of their fights.  The couple learned to notice, pause and exit their toxic cycles and gradually each partner found a different way to deal with difficult feelings in a way that kept their relationship bond safe.  The couple are still very much together, doing well, and the children are no longer toddlers… 

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    Or to book an appointment, please call 1300 830 552