Psychology Fees

Christine sees clients Privately, through Medicare or a limited number of clietns through the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA).  Clients who are referred by their GP with a current Mental Health Care Plan (MHCP)  in place are eligible for up to 10 Medicare rebated consultations per calendar year. Mental Health Care Plans are available to people with a diagnosed mental disorder. This includes many conditions, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use issues, alcohol use issues, sleep issues and “adjustment disorders”. 

The standard fee is $240 with a medicare rebate of $141.85 with a valid MHCP (gap of $98.15), there is an additional $20 surcharge for appointments after 4:30pm.   

Sessions held outside the normal office are $275, with a medicare rebate of $165.95 (gap of $109.05), this includes sessions held in remote areas as part of outreach work.  

Christine is also qualified to offer sessions under the Medicare “Non Directive Pregnancy Counselling”, where there is a medicare rebate of $70.85.  Provision of a non-directive pregnancy support counselling service is for eligible people who are currently pregnant or who have been pregnant in the preceding 12 months, where the patient is referred to the psychologist by a medical practitioner. Session fees are the same as above and there is a limit of 3 sessions per pregnancy.

Christine welcomes a limited number of DVA clients, DVA Health Cards (Gold and White) are accepted as payment upon a GP referral.

Christine does not see clients under workcover or TAC.

EMDR Therapy Cost

Many people are particularly interested in cost or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing or – the EMDR therapy cost.  General psychology fees and  EMDR therapy cost are the same.  Many  people also want to know how many sessions are required for EMDR, this is difficult to say as people require different levels of preparation before reprocessing can begin and we don’t know how long reprocessing will take.  In general I find that 20 sessions are generally required for good results, however sometimes 12 sessions might be enough, but often more than 20 sessions are required for complex trauma.   You can find out more about the process of EMDR therapy here.  I am passionate about EMDR therapy and provide emdr therapy in Melbourne as well as telehealth EMDR throughout Australia, you can find information about the efficacy of telehealth EMDR here.  

Many people also wonder if the EMDR therapy cost is covered by Medicare the same as other psychology fees.  The good news is that as long as you have a valid referral, EMDR therapy is covered by the Medicare rebate, but please be aware this is not bulk billed, there is an out of pocket fee and you will have to wait for a day or two to get your Medicare rebate.

Please note we do not bulk bill