For Your Information:
Group Services
Time to Shine Therapy aims to offer high quality and value groups for children, adolescents and parents. This is a way of supplementing support avenues, lowering the cost of useful and evidence-based information and targeting skills that are more challenging to achieve through individual sessions (e.g. social skills). Below is a list of what is on offer now, with a breakdown on what the groups core aims are in each session:
Social Hangouts:
Course Host: Erin Ghazi - Psychologist.
What is this group about?
We wanted to avoid the traditional “social skills groups” as we feel these can push certain social skills onto people that lead to masking behaviours, which only serves to threaten a person’s sense of self awareness and identity leading to low confidence and self-esteem. Instead, we are running groups to allow peers to come together to socialise and learn as they go in a simulated “social hangout”.
What does a simulated hangout mean?
We do our best to create a situation that is more “real world” for the person. We really wanted to give the group a feeling of “you’ve just been invited to a group hangout, and you’re nervous as heck as you might not know many people” kind of vibe, so that we can build confidence in that setting to alleviate the fear. So many children and adolescents we see through the clinic would just say “no I am not going”, despite really wanting to take part. Their anxiety gets the better of them and the hard task is too overwhelming and stressful. It leaves them feeling defeated, deflated, low on confidence and paralysed by their challenges. Enter our group! We try to make the hangout something of a similar situation they may encounter at a catchup like this - but with facilitation from a registered psychologist. We provide party foods, drinks, entertainment, games, and we converse on anything and everything in a non-judgemental environment with peers. We use the time to educate the group on social nuances, any missed cues, boundaries, social landscapes, and build relationships that the person can go away and sustain on their own. This is a naturalistic way of building confidence, esteem and skill, while allowing the person to be their true authentic self.
Who can attend these groups?
We currently have three groups running, with the same goals listed above:
10-12 year olds
12-14 year olds
15-18 year olds
We have had such positive feedback from the group participants that this is now a permanent feature of the clinic!
F.A.Q.:
Are the groups covered by NDIS/ Medicare?
NDIS:
NDIA uses the criteria to determine if appropriate:
- Is it related to client goals?
- Is it reasonable and necessary?
- Is it available as a free community support? This is the individual and unique question parents must ask of their situation. Other social groups are available in the community however may not be specific enough to target what this group will. If you feel these are not specific enough or as specific to your needs as the content of this group, then it may be argued that the group is appropriate to use NDIS funding for.
- For children under 7, the funding may be more flexible.
- If you are concerned, you can contact your Local Area Coordinator (LAC) or plan management agency to ask!
Medicare: There is a Medicare item number that a GP can activate for you (Item 80120) through a Mental Health Treatment Plan (MHTP) for provision of focussed psychological services by a psychologist, specifically for groups. This can be claimed where the group has 4-10 people, and is available for 10 sessions per calendar year. The rebate for the item per group session is $23.80. It will mean there are out of pocket costs, however this will take away some of these through the rebate.
What are the costs of the group?
This can depend on the size of the group. We try to keep the group affordable and realistic for families using either NDIS funds or paying privately. Enquire to find out. A rough estimate is $600.00 for a term.
How often do these groups run?
We begin a new group each school term with the ages we have listed. The groups occur on the same afternoon of the week each fortnight and so means a term lasts for 6 sessions in total across 12 weeks.
What if we are not sure about it?
We do ask that each person commits to at least 3 of the sessions to review if they like it or will get something out of it. We know this can take time with some and so we want to encourage giving it a fair go. We have a high retention rate of people who continue beyond that point so we are confident many get a lot out of it and make some great friendships along the way. We are happy to bill for just 3 sessions at first, and invoice for the remaining 3 at the mid point after your decision has been made.
When can we start?
Call the clinic today on 9436 9446 to place your young person on a wait list for groups. We do often need to ensure your young person has the capacity required to join a group like this so may have further questions to ask to work through this. In an instance where we determine that someone is unable to attend the group, we assure you that this is in the best interest of protecting your young person from a group that may not actually be suitable or helpful for them.
We look forward to hearing from you!