A counselling space for Helpers

Throughline Counselling provides in-person counselling in Bendigo and online therapy in Australia for helping professionals and others navigating burnout, trauma, grief, anxiety, depression, and life transitions.

Frederikke Jensen, Narrative Therapist and Master’s qualified counsellor, University of Melbourne & Grad. Dip. in Psychology, Charles Sturt University.

Welcome

"Getting work-life balance right is rarely just about boundaries or self-care".

Hi, I'm Frederikke Jensen, a narrative therapist and Master's qualified counsellor based in Bendigo. Some of the people I work with have already tried setting boundaries, taking leave, or prioritising self-care, yet still find themselves feeling overwhelmed, emotionally exhausted, or disconnected from their work and relationships.

Therapy for helpers and helping professionals who feel overwhelmed or emotionally stretched

Based in Bendigo, I provide in-person counselling for people across Bendigo and surrounding areas of Central Victoria, as well as online therapy throughout Australia. My consulting room in Kangaroo Flat, a suburb South West of Bendigo, is a quiet, thoughtfully arranged space that provides a frame for therapeutic conversations to unfold.

To be held in mind by someone else is vital to eventually holding ourselves and others in mind. Over time, therapeutic conversations makes us feel more connected outside the therapy hour to other people and to our work.

When helping others begins to take a toll

Work stress, burnout, moral injury, vicarious trauma or emotional exhaustion is often inherent in helping work. Therapists, teachers, social workers, nurses and doctors are human and experience grief, loss and trauma like everyone else and sometimes need their own therapy even if understanding cognitively what mental health difficulties look like.

Needing support for burnout and feeling you have to carry it all might look like:

Sunday night and I'm dreading work tomorrow.
Pushing through, ignoring emotional and physical exhaustion.
Difficulty saying no to unreasonable workloads.
Feeling emotionally responsible.
Anxiety about making mistakes.
Feeling guilt or shame about feeling stressed when others have it worse.
Flashbacks from stressful events at work (psycho-social hazards), such as a suicide.

A reflective, trauma-sensitive approach to counselling helpers

Symptoms such as not sleeping, feeling anxious, or not wanting to go to work tell us something is wrong. But symptoms like burnout and work stress do not tell the full story of what is happening.

If you have tried taking time off work, self-help courses, coaching or low-intensity interventions and nothing works, exploratory talk therapy with a psychodynamic lens offer to understand more about the past and present experiences, relationships and circumstances contributing to your psychological distress.

You can read more about my background and experience here.

Therapeutic approach

I use trauma-sensitive ways of working, which means considering how you cope when feeling overwhelmed.
I help people address the root cause of emotional and psychological suffering, inviting reflection upon the stories and emotional experiences you carry with you.
An intention of curiosity in our work together invites understanding of yourself and others, making it possible for you to relate to work, interpersonal difficulties and life challenges differently.
I offer a refuge to explore from, but also a place to do deep work—therapy is committed work that both client and therapist do together.
Therapy is weekly to create the foundation for lasting change.

If this resonates, you’re welcome to get in touch to explore how counselling might support you or read more about my approach and fees on the therapy page.

Throughline Journal

Finding throughlines of resilience, hope, and understanding in the midst of change

Journal

What are my options and rights regarding psychosocial hazards in the workplace?

I wrote this article because exposure to trauma, crisis, and high emotional demand is often normalised within helping professions. Many workers quietly carry significant strain while feeling unsure about what support they should reasonably expect from their workplace — or when they may need support beyond supervision and debriefing.

Do helping professionals need their own therapy?

Yes. Helping professionals are shaped by relational wounds, losses, and hardships just like everyone else. Regardless of our academic studies and professional training, our feelings are stirred in professional and personal relationships, just like anyone else’s.

How often should you go to therapy?

This article answers common questions such as: Is weekly therapy more effective than fortnightly sessions? How often should therapy be for lasting change?

Lasting change rarely comes from occasional counselling sessions, especially when your struggles have been present for a long time. Consistent, weekly therapy creates the conditions for deeper and more sustained change.

Next steps