Welcome
to counselling & psychotherapy you really can feel better.
Together, let's find out how.
Who We Are
Alex Lightfoot M.A Counselling Psychotherapist
Alex is a master’s-trained counsellor who works with adults experiencing acute stress, anxiety, persistent low mood, and the impact of unresolved or developmental trauma. Her work is particularly informed by an understanding of how early relational experiences shape emotional life, identity, and patterns in relationships.
Alex’s primary therapeutic framework is the Conversational Model of Psychotherapy, a relational and psychodynamic approach that focuses on the lived emotional experience between therapist and client.
Her approach is strongly informed by attachment theory and relational dynamics.
Alex offers a compassionate, non-judgemental, and emotionally present therapeutic space. She works with authenticity and care, supporting clients to explore their inner world, relationships, and patterns with curiosity and respect, and to develop a more secure and flexible sense of self over time.
Stu Jamieson-Pate - Registered Counsellor (ACA)
Stu has an empathetic, warm, and person-centered approach. He aims to provide his clients with a safe and collaborative space to understand their current difficulties, make positive changes, and mindfully focus on their individual goals. He provides treatment for both youth and adults for a range of mental health difficulties and has a particular interest in substance use and the underlying paths to addiction.
Stu, uses a range of therapeutic tools in his work, including Trauma-Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (TFACT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), to assist the individual needs of each client.
When not at the practice, Stuart is also working with clients, veterans and families who are suffering with substance use issues at the Sothern Highlands Addiction Retreat.
Stu's career has also encompassed roles at Mission Australia, WHOS, and Lifeline.
Our Focus
Our lives and relationships are shaped by our experiences with others over time. Sometimes these experiences leave us feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure of how to make sense of what we’re feeling.
Therapy offers a space to slow things down and gently explore what is happening in the here and now, within a safe and supportive relationship.
By paying attention to emotional experience as it unfolds, new understanding and movement can emerge naturally.
Over time, this can support a greater sense of emotional ease, connection, and freedom in how you relate to yourself and others.
What is long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy?
I offer long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy. Rather than focusing only on reducing immediate symptoms, we will also try to understand the emotional conflicts, relationship experiences and patterns that may sit beneath them. The work is collaborative and relational, with our therapeutic relationship forming an important part of how we understand what is happening for you.
Over time, feelings and expectations shaped by earlier relationships may emerge between us. By noticing and thinking about these experiences together, we can begin to understand how the past continues to influence your present relationships and sense of yourself.
We may also explore the ways you have learned to protect yourself from feelings that were once difficult or overwhelming. I will approach these responses with compassion and curiosity, considering how they developed and whether they are still serving you.
Through greater insight and the experience of a relationship in which difficult feelings can be recognised and understood, I hope our work supports greater emotional flexibility, freedom and choice.
I will explain more about this type of therapy when we meet, and you are welcome to ask me any questions you may have.