FAQS

We require 48 business hours’ notice for all cancellations in order to avoid the late notice fee. Business hours are Monday to Friday 8:30am-5pm. Public holidays are not considered business hours. Late notice for cancelling an appointment requires full payment of the appointment fee. Any unpaid invoices also attract a $25 late payment fee.

We prefer clients call us on 95986178 to cancel an appointment as this ensures that we receive the cancellation and that we can speak with you about alternatives to an appointment, such as converting the appointment to a telehealth session, liaising with other allied health team members involved in your child’s care, or resource building.

If we observe a pattern of late notice cancellations, we may suggest that appointments are paused until such time you/your child can regularly attend appointments. We may also require payment up front in order to secure additional appointments. We put these things in place to ensure clients are appropriately supported, have access to regular and consistent care and that any unattended appointments are made available to other clients on our waitlist.

We require payment on the day of booking the first appointment and for all remaining appointments we require payment on the day. Our payment options are 1.secure storage of credit card on file, 2. payment over the telephone, or 3. payment in clinic on our terminal. We do not accept Bank Transfers, cash, or cheque.

In the event a client has 2 or more unpaid invoices, we will pause all future appointments and reserve the right to cancel any booked appointments. Late payments also attract and additional fee of $25 per invoice. In these circumstances we may request payment 48 business hours in advance to ensure timely payment for services is made. We may also require a valid credit card on file for future payments.

Beyond support for general health and wellbeing, we provide support to those experiencing chronic mental health challenges whether that be mild to severe anxiety, depression or stress or those that are navigating life in a neurotypical world with a neurodivergent brain.

Psychologists with Provisional registration have tertiary level qualifications and are in the process of undertaking a comprehensive program of supervised clinical practice which involves regular reviews of their clinical work and supervision with a senior, AHPRA Board Approved, Psychologist Supervisor. 

Psychologists with Provisional registration are registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and must adhere to strict professional standards an ethical codes of conduct. Medicare does not (yet) provide rebates for sessions attended with a Psychologist with Provisional registration. To ensure equitable access to clinical care, CoolKid Psychology reduces the session fee for sessions booked with a Psychologist with Provisional registration.

The first appointment is the ‘intake’ appointment. This is when you will meet your psychologist at which time you will start a conversation about what brings you to see them. The purpose of this first appointment is for you to share your concerns with your psychologist and together develop goals in areas you would like to focus on. For primary school aged children, the first appointment is with the parent only. The first appointment typically entails lots of questions about your family, your child, developmental history, educational history and many other aspects of your child’s early development and current concerns. Sometimes it can help, prior to the appointment, to make some notes of things you would like to talk to your psychologist about  or that you would like to ask questions about. Writing your questions down and bringing them to the first appointment will make sure you don’t forgot them and please don’t worry about bringing in a notepad and a pen. Your psychologist may also make some notes during the session.

Psychologists are Allied Health Clinicians and as such they are bound by several professional and ethical rules or practice. One of those rules is confidentiality. This means that anything and everything that you share with your clinician stays with your clinician. We can share information about your child with others such as their school teacher, or other support person, however we can only do so with your permission.

We take time when a call is made to the clinic to better understand the reasons you are seeking support. We will ask you questions about what brings you to reaching out for help and we discuss the clinicians we have available. We share with you information about our clinicians and will advise you, should you wish, with some suggestions about finding a clinician that is a good match for you, your family and your child.

Sometimes parents ask how therapy works with children. Typically, we see the child by themselves and ask that parents wait in reception. This decision also depends on the child’s age and the presenting concern. We understand that for some families, particularly those with younger children, it would not be appropriate for the child to attend the session on their own. In these circumstances we work with the parent and the child together. We do find that children behave differently with their parents in the room. We also find that sometimes children are more likely to freely communicate when the person they love and adore the most (i.e., mum and dad) is not present.

A referral from a GP, Paediatrician or Psychiatrist is not needed to make an appointment. However, many clients do first speak with their Doctor in order to assist them in determining a need for additional support and to discuss the type of support. During such conversations your Doctor will advise if a Plan provided by them (a referral) is appropriate. Some CoolKid clinicians are Provisional Psychologists and therefore a Medicare rebate cannot be applied to their session. And in these circumstances, we find that some parents enjoy the additional layer of anonymity when attending without a Medicare subsidised Mental Health Care Plan. We reduce our fees for clients seeing Psychologists with Provisional registration.

Call us on 95986178 or email us on info@coolkidclinic.com.au to speak with our friendly reception staff and client support. Our team will listen to your needs and assist you to make an appointment. Prior to your first appointment we will have some paperwork for you to fill in. This is also a good time for you to collate any relevant paperwork (previous assessments, school reports etc.,) that will be helpful for your clinician to have access to when you do attend for your intake appointment. Sometimes we do also have a waitlist. We would prefer families did not have to wait for services however sometimes a small waitlist is unavoidable. For those that would like to be added to our waitlist, we check in with you regularly to ensure you are still okay to wait or if you would prefer to be referred to someone else. Our priority is that you get the support you need.

We have various fees that are consistent with the various funding that clients access to engage with our services. We also have specific set fees for diagnostic, cognitive, academic and educational assessments. With our Provisional Psychologists, we can also offer reduced costs services for therapy and for cognitive and educational assessments. Please call us on 9598 6178 for our current fees. We process payment for all services on the day of service. We securely store clients credit card details in our tokenised system. When you payment is processed a receipt is automatically emailed to you. We process Medicare rebates on site meaning that if eligible for a Medicare rebate it will be in your account within 24-48 hours from the date of payment.