All our counsellors are experts in applying family systems approaches to working with individuals, couples and families.

Jenny Brown  is the Director of the Institute. All the members of the clinical team have been invited by Jenny based on their skills and solid training and experience as systems counsellors.

Jenny’s current clinical work is primarily focussed on her research projects and assisting previous clients to work through life challenges/dilemmas.  Jenny is a member of the AASW and a registered mental health worker under Medicare.  She has worked as a social worker and family therapist since the early 1980s and has substantial post graduate qualifications from Australia, USA and UK.

Her clinical work has been in alternate care, couple therapy, family therapy, adult mental health, family homelessness, expatriate families and child and family health. She is well regarded in Australia for her training in Murray Bowen's Family Systems Theory and has been dedicated to developing the application of this model in clinical practice and training since the early 1990s. 

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Charmian (Charlie) Ellis is a registered psychologist and Medicare provider with post graduate qualifications in couple counselling.  Prior to joining the FSI, she worked at two of Australia’s leading counselling organizations, including 24 hour crisis counselling alongside work with individuals, couples and families.  Her specialty interests include “Prepare”  pre-marriage counselling, and assisting parents to be a calmer resource for anxious children.  With a country background herself, Charlie is also committed to assisting rural families, either through extended visits or through technology, such as skype or conference calls. 

She has also worked more broadly in organisational and educational settings, including some time abroad in France and the UK. 

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Esther Long is a Registered Clinical Psychologist and Medicare provider, who has a particular interest in working with teenagers, parents and families.  She is experienced in understanding child and adolescent symptoms in their family, social and educational contexts.  Esther is also committed to assisting adults (individuals and couples) in their twenties and thirties to navigate the various life stage adjustments of career and relationships.  She was introduced to Family Systems Theory/therapy a number of years ago, and applies it to working with clients to help them address life's challenges and to better understand themselves, and their position within the family.  Previously, she has had significant experience in positions on inpatient and outpatient adolescent units for New South Wales Health.  Esther is a member of the Australian Psychological Society. 

• Counselling is most effective when clients think through and experiment with new ideas in between their sessions, rather than leaving all the work for their counselling hour.
• Counselling is not about making judgements or taking sides. In couple and family sessions it is important that each person feels heard and has the opportunity to see things from other family member’s perspectives.
• While the counsellor is responsible for conducting a session and keeping a relevant focus, it is important for the client to think about what their priorities are for each appointment and to give the counsellor this feedback.
• Focus on making changes for self rather than on trying to change another person.
• One of the first steps to change is to shift the way we think about the problem and to back this up with a change in behaviour. Changing behaviour and thoughts is in the realm of choice in a way that feelings are not. To make changes takes courage, ownership of choices and a sense of hope that there is a way forward.
• Remember that change is rarely easy or comfortable. People around you are likely (consciously and unconsciously) to want you to return to your familiar, predictable role. Stay alert to "change back" invitations from those close to you.
• It is helpful to use the word "I" to describe concerns and feelings rather than "you". For example, "I feel like I am being ignored." is more open to resolution than "You always ignore me." "I" messages express your experience of things rather than sounding like an unchangeable statement of fact.
• As soon as you begin to defend your position or attack another for theirs it is a warning sign that you have lost your "I" position and will find it hard to be objective.
• Be aware of relationship triangles where problems get detoured to a third party rather than being worked out in the relationship where they belong. It is most productive to communicate person to person about differences in a relationship.
• Use strong emotions such as anger and hurt as signals that important issues are opening up.
• Beware of seeing villains, victims or saints in your family or relationship system. If anyone seems always right or wrong, you are probably not seeing them clearly.
• Don’t be discouraged when you or your relationship seems to backslide. It is normal for setbacks to occur. Under enough stress we all revert to old patterns but are hopefully more able to recognise and address them.

Assisting people to manage themselves better in their family and business relationships.

What is Neurofeedback?

• The use of computer technology to receive feedback from the electrical energy generated by the brain.
• Utilising this feedback assists a person to achieve deeper states of relaxation, focused attention and more flexibility in managing mental and physiological states.
• It can particularly facilitate people to respond more thoughtfully to situations in which they otherwise may react automatically as they adapt to life and relationship challenges.
• This non-invasive technology allows the brain to adjust to patterns of its brain waves to work more efficiently, enabling greater self-regulation of anxiety and other symptoms that interfere with best functioning.

Who benefits from Neurofeedback?

Anyone can benefit from improved balance in their brain's functioning and reduction in their stress reactivity.  Neurofeedback can be particularly useful for an individual experiencing symptoms or discomfort including physical symptoms; emotional and psychological symptoms and behavioural challenges. 

Neurofeedback and Bowen family systems theory?

Neurofeedback trains and coaches you to become aware of very subtle levels of emotional and physical reaction that normally stay unconscious.  In so doing, you can then learn to change the ways you react, particularly in intimate and broader relationships.

Who provides Neurofeedback?

All clinicians at the Family Systems Institute have been trained in Bowen Family Systems Theory which serves as the foundation for their application of Neurofeedback.  At the FSI, Neurofeedback and self-regulation are integration within family systems theory which considers a broad range of factors that impact health and therefore physical and emotional functioning.

Neurofeedback training, however, may be supervised by a clinician who is not your usual therapist.  This clinician may then give you verbal feedback about her observations of the session that you then take back to your usual therapist for discussion along with your own observations about the effect of the brain training and your ongoing coaching in everyday life and relationships.

How many sessions are necessary?

• The more intense or prolonged the symptom difficulty, the longer the training.
• Typically the sessions are scheduled as often as you may require a standard consultation.

What to expect?

• Initially you may notice you feel more relaxed, sleep better, and be less emotionally reactive.
• Further improvements that have been reported with more training include increased alertness and energy levels, occasional vivid dreaming, increased ability to self-regulate difficult emotional states and improvement in response times.

Priscilla Friesen who is an accredited trainer with the Biofeeback Certification Institute of America;

Priscilla Friesen writes: "Zengar neurofeedback decreases reactivity and increases self-regulation.  This allows individuals to experience and act in less anxious ways and with more flexibility in solving relationship problems.  The neurofeedback allows you to experience your own brain's functioning as it interrupts inefficient patterns that correspond to chronic anxiety in the thinking, emotional, and physical states as described in Bowen theory."

You can find an excellent video from Ms Friesen on the integrations of learning about self, the family and the brain at: http://thelearningspacedc.com/pages/blog/149/priscilla-friesen-talks-about-the-learning-space

What are the Costs?

Please check with our Intake Receptionist for the current Neurofeedback session fee.

 Cancellation Policy:

Please note that a cancellation fee will be charged unless 24 hours notice is given within office hours (apart from unavoidable emergencies on the appointment day). 

Location:

This service is available at our rooms at Neutral Bay, 30 Grosvenor Street.

Enquiries:

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it    Phone:  9904 5600    Fax:  9904 5611

 

Individualised educational or small group sessions for parents wanting to foster improved self-regulation for their anxious child or adolescent.

"Parents themselves are the best coaches for their children ... the parents can take responsibility for some changes in how they interact in the family (and with their child).  If they do that, with a trained, experienced coach, everyone in the family can be expected to do better."  Dr Roberta Gilbert MD

The Family Systems Institute offers an individualised education program for parents who have a child or teenager struggling with anxiety.

This program can be useful for one or both parents to attend.

Questions from Doctors:

How do you treat depression and anxiety?

Depression and anxiety are treated interpersonally.  While some cognitive behavioural ideas around self regulation are used the focus is on strenghtening resilience in relationships with others.

How do you work under Medicare Better Access plans?

Medicare referrals and private health fund rebates are available.  However, some team members do not have the specific training pathway to give this coverage even though they are highly credentialed and experienced.  Even without rebates the patient can be assured that they will receive an economical service in terms of spacing between sessions.

Who should attend the session?

If one family member has serious mental health symptoms and is seeing a mental health specialist, it is valuable to suggest to concerned family members that they can achieve a great deal by getting their own coaching about ways they relate to the symptom bearer (parents and spouses).

Questions from School Counsellors:

Can I just refer the child or adolescent to work on their family system?

Yes.  However, we always ask that a parent be willing to be involved.  A goal will be to engage the parent as a resource for their child and to not allow the child to use the therapist as a substitute parent.

Questions from Church Referrers:

Will it be unhelpful for the client if the therapist does not share the same faith understanding?

A family systems approach does not direct people according to a belief system.  They are encouraged to think, feel and behave for themselves in a responsible manner (using their intellect rather than subjective feelings).  If they have issues about their faith they will be encourages to resolve these in the relationships they belong in (as with any unresolved issues) not in the therapeutic relationship.

Many church workers find the approach helpful for management of the complex pressures of family emotional reactivity in their churches/organisations.  This is consultation/coaching, as distinct from therapy.

"All clergymen and women, irrespective of faith, are simultaneously involved in three distinct families whose emotional forces interlock:  the families within the congregation, our congregations, and our own.  Because the emotional process in all of these is identical, unresolved issues in any one of them can produce symptoms in the others, and increased understanding of any one creates more effective functioning in all three."  (Rabbi Edwin Freidman, p. 1. Generation to generation:  Family process in church and synagogue).