choice safety connection

Making Space gives you psychotherapy, psychology and counselling services committed to Choice, Safety and Connection. Meetings are held in a place where you feel most comfortable and at ease. Your therapist is a Clinical Psychologist with the added passion for integrating the natural world into their practice.

Choice

We believe that you know how your therapy will work best for you. You choose where we meet, how often and for how long. Making these small decisions is the start of Making Space for the change in direction that you want.

Safety

We believe you need to feel safe to be able to trust your therapist to hear your story. With trust and safety  you begin to feel confident that you can connect with your therapist and do your therapy.

Connection

We believe that all psychological distress creates disconnection. That might be not feeling like your usual self, or being separated from family and community. Seeing a therapist begins a process of re-connection.

So, let’s meet, talk and do the work in a flexible way that suits you. This might be sitting indoors, or pottering outside in the garden, or we could walk and talk. It could be with my dog or yours. It could be in a different place each time, including in the consulting room and online.

Our Practice

Making Space Psychology draws on the teachings of the psychodynamic, behavioural and cognitive sciences. We use evidence-based therapies such as Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy,  Interpersonal Psychotherapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. All our work is client centred, strength-based, trauma informed and solution focused.

You are invited to say hello to Stephanie by phone or video-conference at no cost. The next step would be to book a 90 minute assessment. We use this time to understand better why you are seeking therapy and what may be your best therapy options. After that we can book in regular therapy sessions.

Whatever problems you present with and whichever approach we take, often mindfulness, self-compassion and acceptance are key drivers for good therapeutic outcomes.

Central to our service is the offer of meeting outside the consulting room – this is optional and there are matters to consider in undertaking therapy in this way.  Read more…

We work with individuals from late adolescence and onwards across the lifespan.  Our therapies are not usually suitable for children, family or couples.

  • Trauma, abuse and family violence
  • Existential crisis / climate crisis
  • Physical and medical diagnoses
  • Personality challenges and changes
  • Addictions and other unwanted behaviours
  • Grief, loss, bereavement and adjustment difficulties
  • Low self-worth and poor self-esteem
  • Stress, worry, anxiety and phobias
  • Sadness, depression and anger
Meeting outside in the bush
A view of a path in a peaceful park with native trees and a grassed area in the background
Two adirondack chairs in a peaceful, outdoor setting

What’s it like meeting outside?

At Making Space Psychology we offer you the option to get out of the traditional consulting room and meet outside. Our first meeting will be online or in our rooms and then after this we can meet in a public place mutually convenient and comfortable to both of us.

The benefits to offsite meetings are different for everyone. What we do know is that these sessions vary in a number of ways to a consulting room session.

In meeting outside we are likely to walk or sit side by side as we talk. This means that the eye contact between us is likely to be less. People report that this enables them to talk more freely. Have you ever noticed how sitting side by side in a car can lead to deep and meaningful conversations?

Another difference is that the outside meeting space belongs neither to the therapist or the client. There is equality of access in a social/public space. This can promote a greater sense of ownership of the therapy than when the client comes to ‘my rooms’.

Meeting outdoors gives us a wide perspective. We may have a horizon, we may touch the bark of trees around us, we may feel the sand between our toes and we may smell the eucalypts giving us their scent. Clients have commented on how this environment stimulates thoughts and feelings which are useful for therapy.

Another reason to meet offsite is the opportunity for movement and exercise. The benefits of exercise for mental health are well known but often we struggle to get enough. if you have been desk-bound or home-bound this is an opportunity to walk and talk.

Finally, the benefit of fresh air. Breath is your life-force and breathing well is beneficial to your mood. Having your therapy sessions outdoors offers the option for social distancing, providing another meeting option during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Find out more about how we manage various situations which might arise whilst offsite …

My Story

My vision is to Make a Space for clients to talk in settings which feel comfortable, equitable and stimulating, but where safety and professionalism is not compromised. I bring 30 years of work and ongoing clinical and professional development to my private psychology service.

I qualified as a clinical psychologist in 1993 in London. I specialised in Clinical Health Psychology with people who had both mental and physical illness. Much of my early work was with clients with eating disorders, neuropsychological presentations, chronic pain and fatigue, phobias, psychosomatic disorders and general medical illness such as cancer.

Later in my career I managed and supervised multi-disciplinary teams in hospitals and community mental health. I’ve worked in government, not-for-profit and private organisations and I’ve seen the best of what works.

In the past few years I’ve taken an active interest and role in my local community. I have come to appreciate the benefits of working with imagination and being in nature and this led me to explore what we call eco-psychology. Now, as well as my clinical psychology skills, my practice incorporates my interests in community, creativity and nature conservation.

Stephanie C Jones BA MSc MAPS FCCLP

Stephanie Jones - head and shoulders in the garden

Services

Please use the client booking link to book your appointment. Alternatively you can ring or email Stephanie for further information. You may be eligible for a Mental Health Treatment Plan from your GP which will entitle you to a Medicare rebate; see Billings, Medicare and Payments.

The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking a pipe.
“Why aren’t you fishing?” asked the industrialist.
“Because I’ve caught enough fish for the day.”
“Why don’t you catch some more?”
“What would I do with them?”
“Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats, even a fleet of boats, then you could be rich like me.”
“What would I do then?”
“Then you could sit back and enjoy life.”
“What do you think I’m doing now?”


An excerpt from “Timeless Simplicity” by John Lane

Acknowledgement of Country

We acknowledge a common humanity with the Whadjuk Noongar people on whose land we meet to walk and talk, as they have done for 60,000 years. We respect the Uluru Statement from the Heart and support the First Nations Voice to become enshrined in the Constitution.