Services
Adults
Romney has experience working in adult mental health within the health department (Outpatient Community Mental Health), working with parents and carers within the child protection system, and in private practice. He works with adults treating a range of mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, addiction, and personality disorders. Treatment typically involves a combination of psychological education, behaviour change strategies, relaxation strategies, learning new skills to manage thought processes, and building self-awareness. Sometimes treatment may also involve working through past traumatic experiences. To read more about our trauma focused services please read the section called "Intensive EMDR", further down this page. Addressing issues such as anxiety, depression,and past trauma can help individuals move forward to live happier, more fulfilling lives.
Couples
Understanding relationship dynamics and changing long standing patterns of relating to each other can make a big difference in relationship satisfaction. Couples therapy is a valuable process in getting relationships back on track and building stronger more intimate connections. Romney is experienced in working with couples and helping them to navigate complex interpersonal challenges. Romney’s approach typically involves understanding the differences in each person’s assumptions, building awareness of how conflict is managed, and developing new ways of relating and communicating.
It is no secret that divorce rates are high in our society. Current research suggests that around 30% of Australian marriages end in divorce, with around half of these involving children**. Considering the high prevalence of relationship breakdown in our society it is wise to get professional help to improve this vitally important aspect of life.
** Source : Australian Bureau of Statistics, Marriages and Divorces, Australia, 2016
Families & Children
Romney’s approach to working with families and children involves a combination of gaining an understanding the child’s inner world, understanding the family system and dynamics, and strengthening the attachment relationship between the child and parents. Work with children often involves developing emotion regulation skills, anger management, strategies to manage anxiety, and social skills development. A typical session would include some time with the parent and child together, and then some time with both the child and the parent individually. Romney is trained in delivering Circle of Security Parent Training (an attachment-based model of parenting). He has several years’ experience working with very complex family dynamics within the child protection system.
Young People
Young people face a unique array of challenges that are often not well understood by the adults in their lives. Beneath this complexity is often a common core that revolves around the need for meaningful connection with others. Therapy with young people tends to work best when it is sensitive to and respectful of the complexities and social challenges that that they are facing. Romney’s approach to working with young people is based upon developing an understanding of the complex issues that each individual young person is facing and building trust to work through these issues together.
Intervention for Trauma
Resolution of unprocessed traumatic memories is often an important aspect of psychological treatment. Trauma processing typically involves a three phase approach that includes stabilisation and skills building, trauma processing, and integration.
The first phase, stabilisation and skills building, includes creating a stable base and ensuring that the client has the skills to manage the negative emotions that typically arises during trauma processing work. For complex clients with extensive trauma histories, stabilisation and skills building work is often very important, but for less complex clients it is clinically more effective to proceed into the trauma processing phase in a shorter time frame.
The second phase, trauma processing, typically involves Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is an evidence-based therapy that is endorsed by the World Health Organisation as a leading treatment for trauma. The trauma processing phase involves working through the emotional, cognitive, and physiological aspects of the traumatic memory. This typically involves experiencing emotions that were dissociated at the time of the traumatic event, correcting cognitive distortions, and re-establishing a connection with the body. The trauma processing phase is often relatively brief but is therapeutically the most effective phase.
The final phase, integration, involves assisting the client to assimilate their traumatic experiences into their overall life narrative, and to move forward in life with new skills and without the baggage of unprocessed emotions and cognitive distortions. The length of time required for the integration phase is dependent upon a number of factors including personal resilience, and the intensity and chronicity of the traumatic experiences.
Romney is experienced in working with complex trauma in both adults and children.
Intensive EMDR
Intensive EMDR program
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) Therapy is an evidence-based intervention that is particularly effective in treating trauma and is also effective for a range of other conditions including anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, addictions, and complex grief. EMDR is endorsed by key mental health organisations including the World Health Organisation, the Australian Psychological Society, and the American Psychological Association. It is quite different from traditional talk therapies and involves holding particular memories in mind while your therapist guides you through an eye movement process. Our nervous system has an inbuilt reflex whereby when we scan the environment for cues of danger (i.e. horizontal eye movements) the fear center of the brain is temporarily deactivated. EMDR uses this natural mechanism to assist in the processing of traumatic memories and integrating neural networks.
Intensive EMDR involves doing multiple EMDR sessions in a short period of time. Traditional models often involve a lengthy stabilisation period, before commencing trauma processing, however, in the Intensive EMDR model, we progress into trauma processing work much more quickly. Although this model progresses into trauma processing more quickly, it does this by starting with very low doses of exposure to the memories and gradually building the exposure level up.
Intensive EMDR protocols are largely based on the success of the Psytrec facility in the Netherlands which is a world-leading facility for the treatment of trauma. Our Intensive EMDR program is based on 6 hours of EMDR therapy in a single week. This is obviously much faster paced that traditional therapy which typically involves weekly or fortnightly sessions.
Will Intensive EMDR fix everything?
While EMDR is a very effective treatment for trauma and a range of other conditions, it is important to have realistic and balanced expectations. Intensive EMDR is intended to focus on only one or two key issues, for each intensive block of treatment. While it is likely that you will achieve pleasing gains for the specific issue that you are working on, the extent of the benefit will vary depending on a number of factors. For anyone who has experienced multiple traumas, or has several issues to focus on, we will need to refine your treatment goals for what is achievable in one week. Your therapist will guide you through this at the start of the process.
Intensive vs Regular Therapy
Before commencing the Intensive EMDR program it is important to consider if the Intensive structure of 6 hours of therapy in single week is the best option for you. If you are motivated to do an in-depth process on one or two key areas then this is likely to be a good fit. On the other hand, if you feel like you need ongoing support and regular check-ins, then a more traditional therapy model of weekly or fortnightly sessions might be better suited for you. If you are uncertain about this, please give us a call to discuss it.