Ruth Tarrant

~ Providing Mental Health

& Trauma Care Since 1994 

These are the most frequent descriptors of my work, along with 'pragmatic' and 'helpful'. I don't believe in doing therapy forever - life's too valuable, too amazing to be stuck exploring what went wrong for months on end. There are so many tools and approaches that help with the here-and-now of life that we can use to help move things in a positive and forward direction, why keep analysing the past? If analysing the past seems useful to you I'm probably not the therapist for you. If you need to operate in fully functioning ways, or as close to fully functioning as possible, that's where my work is useful.

You might have gone through terrible things, death defying events, lost a limb or two, been totally powerless, overwhelmed and unable to use your strength, your skills. You might discover you're in a spin full of powerful emotion, in a foul state of mind, focused on all the bad stuff. You might also have responsibilities that simply have to be attended day by day and need some help building what's needed to achieve that. These are the situations I generally help with, not sitting back in a closed space pondering what can't be changed. It's always useful to come to terms with what's happened and pondering that is very healing, I agree. I just don't think that's what a session should be focused on, not usually anyway - some time spent pondering helps, getting stuck in that pondering does not.

That's my view anyway - who has years to spend discovering again and again how much it hurt to be in that situation, to be treated that way?

My approach is gentle and honours the pain, for sure. It's also pragmatic - what do you need in order to carry on with life now that's happened? Do you need to cry it out and have a witness for your suffering so you can share the awful truth of it before moving on? Do you need to put it aside in order to do life successfully, healing it as it arises rather than fruitlessly trying to punch the thing in the face or destroy it somehow? Would it be useful to find some tools and techniques for daily living with your current reality? Do you need a new perspective, a way to shift those emotions so you can think more clearly, more beneficially?

In my own life, I hate being idle, I hate being empty or feeling like I didn't achieve anything today (well maybe some days but not mostly) and so I have a preference to help people seeking my help to get realistic and back into life after they've been through disaster. I also love the look on their face, the tone of their voice as they realise their pain is subsiding, that by living now, by living with the truth of their current reality, they can also return to lifefulness, to lovefulness.

I specialise in trauma care; I also specialise in life itself. Just becasue you've been through dreadful stuff doesn't mean you can't also achieve, can't also recover a life worth living. Suffering and living do go hand in hand sometimes; doing both hurts, doing one without the other can get pretty superficial. The fullness of who we are as individuals develops through the tough times, through learning from others' tough times, through embracing life itself. It's in this space our characters develop, the depth of who we really are emerges. Life itself becomes richer, we're forced to live from a bigger space, a bigger platform. We understand others better, we understand ourselves better. That leads to a more discerning lifestyle, an elevated sense of lifefulness.

There's a thing called post traumatic growth - the growth that our psyches, hearts and minds undertake through the natural process of trauma recovery. Usually people focus on PTSD symnptoms and try to erradicate those, ignoring the growth that co-occurs in this space, but if you can embrace both, if you can recover from the trauma, break down the symptoms and grow your self as well, you're developing post-traumatic growth, post trauma. It's pointless to deny the cause, to deny the symptoms, to deny the pain; it's also pointless to deny current living, current reality. In our sessions, we'll attend to both - recover after what happened, explore and grow into who you're becoming. You'll do the work, I'll guide and support you so the work is satisfying and takes you into the future - a future you actually want.

You know your mental health professional is helping because life is getting easier, better. The days get more productive, the nights more restful (or the other way round if you work nights). All healthcare should result in a sense of 'can do, am doing' and moving forward, mental healthcare is the same.

Many mental health professionals use the business model that leans into keeping a client rather than finding a new client because it's cheaper to keep a client than find a new one. In most industries that's a fair business model. I don't believe that's ethical or good business in the healthcare industry. I don't have a deficit of clients. I know as soon as one client finishes up and moves on, no longer needing assistance, another will arrive. There's no shortage of people needing mental health care, seeking mental health care. There is a shortage of practical help. Don't waste your life exploring without progressing.

Some coaches use the rah-rah motivating approach. I don't like that approach - it doesn't fit my personality. I'm a quiet kind of person, I'd prefer to do life proactively, standing up and making some noise where I believe noise is needed, and stepping back where I'm not so inspired. That means I use a seretonin-type approach to coaching rather than an adrenalin-type approach. Gentle. Caring. Proactive. Pragmatic. Useful.

Choose your mental health professional. Choose your way forward. Choose Love. Choose life.

Paid upfront and paid three at a time, $500 per 75/60 session.

Psychotherapy single session $550; sessions 60/60

Coaching single session $550; sessions 60/60

Medicare rebates do not apply.

A GPMHCP is not required.

If you're on medications and would like assistance with those please call your GP or psychiatrist and ask the receptionist for a 'health summary' and bring that to your next session or ask them to email it to me directly.