Dr Robert Dawborn specializes in the treatment of severe and longstanding mental health issues. This includes people with longstanding depression, longstanding anxiety or longstanding low self esteem or self confidence, complex post-traumatic-stress-disorders including dissociative disorders and the trauma of sexual abuse, as well as ‘personality disorders’. Other people may have had feelings of ‘emptiness’ or of being ‘lost’ or ‘fragmented’ for much of their lives.
- Psychotherapy for people with severe and longstanding mental health issues – takes time and commitment from both therapist and client. A collaborative effort is needed and it is rare for effective therapy for longstanding conditions to last less than a year. Therapy may be as frequent as once or twice weekly for this period of time.
- As a medical practitioner Dr Dawborn is able to provide longer term therapy under Medicare. Although out-of-pocket-expenses for the first 12 sessions may be significant, after this-the medicare safety net kicks in and out-of pocket costs decrease to approximately $20 per session. So over the period of a year, average weekly out-of-pocket costs for therapy may be as low as $30.
- For most people requiring longer term therapy, the initial period of therapy is about forming a therapeutic relationship, a relationship of collaboration where issues are explored with an attitude of curiosity rather than of shame. The process of forming a therapeutic relationship sometimes takes a long time – but is the major task of therapy – and it is this special type of relationship – that allows the work of therapy to be done.
- Dr Dawborn’s approach to counselling provides tools and perspectives such as epistemology (the theory and philosophy of ‘how we know what we know’) , mindfulness and process meditation, which make it easier to resolve complex emotional issues.