Children’s Counselling

Children’s Counselling is a program for children who have experienced domestic and family violence, abuse and/or coercive control.

Through play, we listen to children’s problems, help them find solutions and support them through tough times.  

We work with your whole family to strengthen your relationship with your child, increase their ability to self-regulate, increase their sense of safety and trust, strengthen attachment and increase your capacity to respond to their needs.

We will support you and your child to identify your needs, establish goals and make a plan to achieve those goals.

We respond to you within five business days of your contact or referral. At our initial appointment, we assess whether our program is right for you or if another service might be more appropriate.

After we’ve confirmed your participation, a counsellor will have a one-on-one session with you, the mother or caregiver, to talk through the counselling process and gather additional information. Following this meeting, the counsellor will start work with you and your child.

During our sessions, your child plays! Our children’s counselling room is stocked with toys for a variety of ages.  We focus on play because that’s how children communicate best.

Every few sessions, we contact you outside of our counselling sessions to talk about general themes, games and topics that have come up.

When you and the counsellor witness improved self-esteem, elevated mood, decreased anger and sadness, better school performance, age-appropriate behaviour, better social skills and similar developments we will start making considered plans to end counselling.

The Children’s Counselling service accepts referrals from community‑based professionals and services, government departments, and other YFS programs.

To refer someone to Children’s Counselling please contact the YFS Office on 07 3826 1500 or contact us via email on [email protected].

Once you have spoken with our team and confirmed suitability, please complete the Children’s Counselling Referral Form below.