FAQs

  • Yes, but there are limitations.

    The information you share with the clinical psychologist is kept confidential. This means that information is not shared with any third party without your consent. For example, the clinical psychologist cannot share information with your partner or even your GP, without you agreeing first.

    The only exception is if the clinical psychologist becomes concerned about imminent risk. This typically means risk to you or someone else.

    The clinical psychologist is ethically able to breach confidentiality for the purpose of maintaining safety in this limited context.

    If this does happen, the clinical psychologist should talk to you about any concerns first, and will attempt to advise you that a breach is going to occur before it happens.

    Most of the time, the clinical psychologist will first try to problem solve the safety issue with you, so that the breach is not necessary.

  • No. The client is the client, regardless of who is paying for the session. Information will not be shared with a third party without your consent, unless there is an imminent safety issue that can only be addressed by a breach of confidentiality.

  • Psychology Ahuriri only uses interventions that have been demonstrated as effective in research.

    This does not mean that the methods are 100% effective (nothing is). It means that clinical trials have shown that the interventions meet international standards for effectiveness as compared to no treatment or faux treatment.

    The interventions Psychology Ahuriri uses are grounded in psychological principles that researchers have understood for decades.

    We believe in these methods, and believe that these methods provide you with the best chance of improvement or recovery. We use them with confidence.

  • There are several ways that we use to determine if sessions are effective for you.

    1. You are reaching your goals, which are established at the start.

    2. Subjectively, you feel like you are getting better. You’re less affected or bothered by symptoms.

    3. There is evidence of behaviour change.

    4. You demonstrate improvement on relevant progress monitoring questionnaires. Where relevant, these are administered at the start of therapy and then every few sessions. These take less than five minutes to complete.

    Generally, we want to see improvement in most or all of these areas within a few sessions. Then we can be confident that things are working.

    If we don’t see this, we work to understand what is going on, and adjust plans accordingly.

  • This is a hard question to answer with any great certainty because it depends on the nature of the problem.

    For issues like anxiety, depression, and PTSD we expect that around 10-12 sessions will be required, although you can expect to see improvement within 2-3 sessions. Other issues may only take 2-3 sessions.

    Psychology Ahuriri does not offer long-term therapy (i.e., one year or more). We believe that good therapy achieves good outcomes in relatively short periods of time.

  • No.

    There is a lot of talking, but our view is that good therapy is active.

    Whether this activity occurs in the therapy room or outside of it depends on the nature of your challenges and your goals.

  • In short, no.

    Good therapy will result in noticeable improvement and measurable change.

    But mental health issues exist on a spectrum and for better or worse, we all experience anxiety, stress, low mood, weird or erratic thoughts, at different times in our lives. This is normal.

    Psychological therapy should result in a reduction in the intensity of your problem. It should mean that that problem is not interfering with your life in the same way that it was. It should equip you to be your own psychologist, so that when therapy is over, you feel empowered to manage the next stressor that comes your way.

    A good analogy is fitness. You don’t go to the gym, get fit, and then never exercise again with the expectation that you will stay fit because of the work you did at the gym. You need to keep working to maintain your fitness for the rest of your life.

  • The short answer is yes.

    Good psychological therapy is difficult in the sense that it asks you to introspect, explore, and express your vulnerability in ways that can be quite daunting and difficult.

    Good psychological therapy also asks you to sit with, rather than push away or resist, difficult emotions, thoughts, and memories.

    Good psychological therapy will also ask you to consider doing challenging or difficult behaviours between sessions.

    It’s important to know that there is nothing “magical” to therapy. There is no special piece of insight or understanding that will see your problems disappear.

    Good psychological therapy is about the hard work of looking inwards in an honest way, and then setting about working towards meaningful and sustainable behavioural change.

    Many clients report feeling exhausted or tired after a session. This is often a reflection of the emotional labour that occurs within the session.

  • There are many medications that can help with mental health issues, and there are medications that can help with acute or short-term pain, but psychologists cannot prescribe medications in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is generally the responsibility of your GP.

    If you work with us, we will sometimes recommend that you talk to your GP about certain types of medications or we may suggest that you talk to your GP about changing your medication regime.

    With your permission we will sometimes write a letter to your GP discussing this. Our experience is that many psychological issues can be treated without medication, but that medication can often help.

    Mental health issues are very distressing and impactful so our recommended approach is that you consider all tools that are available to you, including medication, if that is considered appropriate by you and your GP.

  • Good on you for thinking about reaching out.

    Psychologists often work with people who are engaging in, or have engaged in illegal behavior.

    Under Aotearoa New Zealand law, the information you provide to a clinical psychologist, for the purpose of seeking help with an illegal behaviour cannot be used against you by the police or the courts. This is referred to as legal privilege.

    This means you are free to talk about whatever might be concerning you without fear of legal repercussions. Legal privilege does not apply to counsellors in New Zealand.

  • We can help with many kinds of sexual issues.

    People sometimes need help to manage or reduce their use of pornography, or sometimes people become concerned about the types of pornography they are accessing.

    People sometimes struggle with sexual compulsivity. That is, their sex drive can become intense and difficult to manage to the point that it becomes a concern.

    People can also develop concerns about some of their sexual behaviors, urges, or fantasies, and we can help with this too.

    We provide a safe, confidential, and non-judgmental space where people are free to work through sexual concerns that they may have.

  • If you are serious about understanding why you offended, and if you are committed towards living an offence-free life, we can help.

    We provide psychological assessment and treatment to people who are presently serving sentences in the community or are awaiting sentencing. We do not offer treatment within prisons as treatment within prisons is best managed by Correctional Services and their internal processes.

    Please get in touch for a confidential discussion.