talk, feel, heal
Charles.MentalHealth is a solo psychotherapy practice based in Naarm (Melbourne).
I work mainly with trauma survivors and neurodiverse adults.
Using EMDR, somatic and neuro-affirmative approaches
I aim to help you settle your Central Nervous System so life feels more calm.
How can I help you?
My clients are mostly trauma survivors – survivors of childhood, military, family or sexual trauma. I also see adults who live with neurodiversity, chiefly autism traits. Indeed, many clients present with both neurodiversity and a history of trauma.
Trauma survivors and people with autistic traits typically display at least some of a similar range of behaviours. Consequently, most people I see have a few difficulties at the same time, which might include problems such as:
- anxiety
- anger management
- avoidance
- catastrophising
- hypervigilance
- intrusive thoughts
- panic attacks
- poor sleep
- procrastination
- relationships
- substance use
These symptoms are liable to keep happening until the underlying emotional response to the trauma – usually fear, anger or anxiety in some form – is named and processed. Until then, it’s hard to feel safe in an uncertain world.
How I work
Unhealed trauma lives below language, so I work with the feelings inside and under your story. I use EMDR – Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing – and Internal Family Systems-informed work with emotional parts to treat PTSD and CPTSD wounds.
From my clinical observations, people living with autism all share the same core challenge: low tolerance of uncertainty. Their intuitive response to that neurological discomfort is to develop particular routines, habits, social strategies – even belief systems – intended to minimise anxiety generated by an uncertain world. EMDR somatic principles are often helpful with these clients, for whom cognitive reframing can also be a powerful tool.
No matter whether you want help with trauma symptoms or neurodiverse traits, my long-term focus is the same: helping you regulate your Central Nervous System so life feels calmer.
Getting started
50-minute sessions from 10am most days, with the latest appointment at 6pm Tuesday–Thursday. The fee is currently $190 per session, and Medicare rebates are available with a current mental health care plan from your GP. I also offer intensive treatment for deep attachment trauma and treatment-resistant CPTSD – from 2 hours to 4 days.