Psychology Clinic

Group therapy programs

Insomnia clinic – An online group for those struggling with sleep

Who is the Insomnia Clinic for?

The Insomnia Clinic is designed for individuals who have had trouble sleeping for many months or more and their poor sleep interferes with their daytime functioning.  People may have problems falling asleep, staying asleep and/or waking up too early with trouble falling back to sleep. It is a Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) based program specifically adapted for insomnia. Referrals are accepted from a wide range of sources, including self-referrals. 

Those wishing to undertake the program will be contacted by phone prior to the clinic commencing. Part of this phone conversation with a clinician will involve an initial screening interview for possible untreated sleep apnea or another sleep disorder that would require different treatment. We do not exclude people who may be experiencing some mental health issues such as depression or anxiety, who may be taking sleeping tablets on an ad hoc basis or who are using a CPAP machine. 

How will it run?

The Insomnia Clinic is a six week program, undertaken entirely online using Zoom. It involves two contact periods each week and these are arranged at a time that is convenient to the participants, often in the late afternoon or early evening.  The first is a 45-60 minute educational session on a Monday or Tuesday each week which discusses a wide variety of issues related to sleep and how it can be improved, run by two clinicians with 2-6 participants. This is immediately followed by a 30-minute relaxation and stress reduction session, which introduces a new technique each week.  Each participant will also have a weekly one-to-one session with their assigned clinician to follow up on issues raised in the educational session and discuss treatment strategies most relevant to their particular circumstances and sleep problems.  This one hour session is arranged to be at a mutually agreeable time.

Participants will be asked to keep a daily sleep diary on which they record aspects of each night’s sleep.  Questionnaires are also completed at the beginning and end of the six-week program.  This clinic is pioneering in the sense that, while the effectiveness of CBT for insomnia programs in improving sleep quality and quantity is very well-established, there is no published data on its effectiveness using an entirely on-line format with weekly educational and one-on-one sessions.  Each participant will be given the option of having their self-report data included in a research study assessing the effectiveness of the six week online program (after giving signed informed consent).  Opting out of the research study component does not affect participation in the clinic in any way. 

Clinicians are all post-graduate provisional psychologists undertaking their training in clinical, community or general psychology and all are closely supervised by a psychologist with over 30 years of academic, research and clinical experience with sleep disorders (Emeritus Professor Dorothy Bruck).

This program has been running at Victoria University since 2018 and we have a proud record of our participants reporting significant improvements in their sleep as a result of their engagement with the behavioural and cognitive treatment strategies that this program includes. 

The program is free of charge but we do ask everyone to commit to weekly participation for the six weeks.

When are the programs run?

Victoria University offer two intakes of the Insomnia Clinic.  The first six week program will commence in late June and the second one will begin in late October.  We recommend submitting your registration form at least two weeks before each program begins as there is a screening process (for non-insomnia sleep disorders) as well as some sleep diaries to be completed prior to starting. 

We will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the program in your first phone contact with one of our clinicians. 

Please complete the Victoria University Psychology Clinic registration form if you are interested in taking a positive step towards better sleep.

Parenting group – 5-week program for parents of primary school children

The Parenting group is a free 5-week online or face-to-face program for parents of children aged 5-12 years old, run by provisional psychologists from Victoria University.

Program outline

The Parenting group aims to increase understanding of:

• child behaviour and increasing desirable behaviour
• giving effective instructions and managing sibling conflict
• responding to misbehaviour
• managing strong emotions
• parent self-care.

For further information please contact the Clinic on (03) 9919 2353 or by filling in the registration form.

 

 

Kids' social skills group – For children aged 5–14 years

The VU Psychology Clinic is a well-established provider of Social Skills Groups for children with challenging behaviours and ASD diagnoses. We run groups for children aged 5-14 years old. The groups are based on a manualised program and are tailored toward the specific needs of each group’s participants. Each client has an intake assessment with a Provisional Psychologist before the program starts, to allow for the family to discuss some learning goals of the group.

Program outline

The groups are facilitated by our provisional psychologists and are run in groups of 4-8 children. 

Group aims are often to teach foundation skills required for everyday relationships. Some of the skills taught include:

• social interactions, greetings, farewells, non-verbal language
• sharing and cooperative, collaborative play, “joining in”
• understanding and responding to bullying or mean jokes
• emotional regulation and frustration tolerance
• relaxation or mindfulness training.

While the children attend a 2-hour session, parents are also involved in a separate group at the Clinic which focuses on assisting to implement some of the social skills strategies at home, and allows parents a supportive peer environment to explore the adjustment to parenting challenging children.

Some topics that may be covered include:

• adjustment to parenting, the role transition to being a parent
• self-care skills for high-demand jobs (such as parenting!)
• practical mindfulness activities for your care and your parent-child relationship
• implementing “social skills training” at home and school
• parent behaviour management strategies.

Parents can refer their children directly by contacting the Clinic on (03) 9919 2353 or by filling in the registration form.

Stress management group – A free weekly program

The Stress Management Program has incorporated Distress tolerance Crisis Survival Skills from Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). DBT applies a broad range of cognitive and behavior therapy strategies to the problems of emotion dysregulation.

The program aims to provide participants who feel overwhelming emotions, experience uncontrollable emotions and not knowing what to do in certain situations. The program is skills based with the aim of teaching participants practical skills in tolerating intense emotions and emotional crises effectively. This group program is free of charge.

Program length

The program is 5 weeks in length and includes 5 weekly group and individual sessions.

Program structure

Participants attend one hour of group skills training plus one hour individual session per week throughout the 5 weeks.

Our program consists of the following:

• mindfulness skills training
• distress tolerance (DT) skills focusing on Crisis Survival skills.

Disctress tolerance training focusing on Crisis Survival skills teaches participants to cope with situations without making them worse.

The DT skills introduced are:

• Exploration of Pros and Cons
• STOP skill
• TIP skills
• WISE MIND Distract
• Self-soothing using 5 senses
• IMPROVE the moment

For further information please contact the Clinic on (03) 9919 2353 or by filling in the registration form.

Mindfulness group – A free weekly program

The mindfulness group is a free 8-week online or face-to-face program for anyone, and is run by provisional psychologists from Victoria University.

Program outline

The mindfulness group aims to provide an understanding of mindfulness:

• features and benefits of mindfulness
• mindfulness of the senses
• mindfulness of emotion
• mindfulness of thoughts
• mindfulness and compassion
• integrated mindfulness.

For further information please contact the Clinic on (03) 9919 2353 or by filling in the registration form.