Couples
A range of services including pre-marriage counselling, couples therapy parenting strategies, co-parenting and divorce.
Families
A range of services including families counselling, couples therapy parenting strategies, co-parenting and divorce.
Children & Adolescents
Expert counselling available for children and adolescents, to promote emotional stability and well-being earlier on in life.
Individuals
Counselling and psychotherapy available to individuals looking to improve their lives and develop healthy coping strategies.
Workshops & Training
Workshops for groups are provided periodically and are by invitation. Topics range include behavior management, discipline, night routines/sleeping ...
About Us
Beside Still Waters is a private psychotherapy and counselling practice located at 406 Humffray St, Ballarat. We provide a range of services including individual adult and adolescent counselling, couples and relationship counselling, counselling for blended families, as well as consultations with new parents and those in need of assistance. Our passion is to see your life restored so you can live life to the fullest.
Our Services
Beside Still Waters provides an inclusive range of effective and efficient psychological therapies, strategies and counselling to meet the individual needs of clients.
Our goal is to help our clients achieve the personal outcomes they are looking for. This can range from overcoming depression, anxiety or loss, through to improving self-esteem, confidence, relationships and life choices and direction.
Our Mission:
We recognise the innate dignity of every human being, the value of each person’s unique experiences, the importance of mindfulness, understanding one’s situation and acknowledging support networks. We aim to assist young people and adults challenged by change, life circumstances and loss to confront their issues, build resilience and foster well-being enabling our clients to live life to the fullest.
We aim to:
- Be non-judgmental
- Understand your needs
- Provide personalised therapeutic services
- Assist you with strategies to find solutions to you circumstances using effective, efficient and reliable evidence based therapy
- Deliver a service that we would be happy for our family to attend.
Our approach is:
- Based on your needs
- Centered on enhancing your knowledge and skills
- Postive - using strategies with practical applications
- To provide strategies to enable change
- Tailor made, clear and easy to understand
- Focused on achieving measurable outcomes
TESTIMONIALS
I went to see Gwendolyn because my family said I had a drinking problem. With Gwendolyn's therapy I realised I had been burying issues I had been avoiding by drinking too much, and I did have a drinking problem. With the strategies Gwendolyn gave me I was able to go from drinking 2 bottles of wine a night and more on the weekend to avoid my problems, to 2 glasses of wine, 4 times a week, because I enjoyed it not because I needed it. I would recommend Gwendolyn's gentle nature and her counselling style to anyone who has a problem they need to deal with.
I first saw Gwendolyn because I was suffering panic attacks at work when I had to work with a person who was bullying staff. Gwendolyn helped me gain the confidence to be assertive and confront the person about their behaviour and to report them to Senior Management. This resulted in this person being moved, provided training and brought about a change in the work environment for everyone in the office. I am a lot more confident now in my daily life and decision making.
Thank you Gwendolyn for changing my life.
I highly recommend beside still waters counselling I have been a few times over these past weeks, sharing and understanding our emotions are important when we think that no one understands.. take that step and reach out it will make a difference and help you when you are feeling lost or alone...
Thanks Gwendolyn
I highly recommend Gwendolyn, from Beside Still Waters.
When life overwhelmed me after my relationship ended, I would go in to see her devastated and broken, and come out of the session 'fixed' and feeling ready to deal with whatever life threw at me.
Her strategies helped me overcome my circumstances and have provided me with a tool box that will hold me in good stead for the rest of my life.
Thank you Gwendolyn
Gwendolyn has provided a support to me during various both personal and professional challenges. I appreciated her calm and practical approach to the issues and challenges I have explored.
I found her experience and flexible approach in using a range of skills and techniques helped me to achieve some personal outcomes and make more positive decisions. This has helped improve my confidence and relationships and gain a clearer direction.
I have no hesitation in recommending Gwendolyn and Beside Still Waters if are seeking strategies and support to make better choices and have more positive relationships.
Thank you, Gwendolyn – genuinely.
I went to see Gwendolyn at Beside Still Waters because there were problems in my marriage. My husband refused to go, however Gwendolyn worked through the issues I presented helping me understand my behaviour and how I was contributing to the difficulties we were having. She gave me great strategies that I was able to apply and they made a significant difference in our relationship. My husband saw the benefit to the sessions I was having and agreed to use the strategies Gwendolyn gave us. This saved our marriage.
Although we still have challenges sometimes, we are now in a much better position to work through them.
Thank you so much Gwendolyn
My partner and I went to see Gwendolyn because we were having disagreements about parenting issues. At that time we were having very volatile arguments and had several in the sessions. Gwendolyn was able to calm the situation and gave us strategies that helped us to learn to talk understand, take responsibility for and monitor our own behaviour which helped us to work through issues calmly. She also gave us great parenting strategies that have change our family. Her experience as a parent herself made the work very real for us.
We are very grateful for what we learned and know it has changed all our lives.
Thank you so much Gwendolyn
My husband and I went to see Gwendolyn after my husband retired and became unmotivated and grumpy and would not talk to me. He was very difficult to live with and spent all his time in his office.
Gwendolyn helped him to acknowledge how much he felt upset and sad about the loss of his work life and he was able to talk about his sadness with me instead of shutting me out.
She helped us work out interests in common we had forgotten about as well as some new ones and a new way forward that is fulfilling for both of us
We now have a happy life together.
I went to see Gwendolyn because I was unhappy in my relationship. After some sessions on my own my partner decided to go. She introduced us to the Love Languages and when we understood that and changed our behaviour we saw a huge change in our relationship. Gwendolyn gave us different strategies that improved our communication and how we behaved with each other. Although we still have challenges, we go back to the strategies we learned and are able to get things back on track. We now have a great relationship.
O.C and G.R. November 2019
My wife and I went to see Gwendolyn and tried to work through our issues for over 2 months to repair our marriage. Unfortunately we were not able to save our marriage and we decided to split. Gwendolyn helped us to negotiate our way through the separation process. I did not want to end the marriage so Gwendolyn continued to help me deal with the sadness and anger I was feeling. The grief and loss were overwhelming and affected my work and other relationships. Gwendolyn helped me to get a better perspective and to get through it. I am now stable and loving life again.
My partner and I saw Gwendolyn for four months because we were at the point of ending our relationship as we were arguing all the time.
She talked to us about Love Languages and also helped us see how often we were criticising each other and how defensive we were. When we followed her suggestions for changing our behaviour and trying to do things differently our relationship changed. Now we can respect that we are different and that is ok. We still have arguments but we don't destroy each other anymore.
Gwendolyn's recommendation to keep a journal with all the strategies in it has been very helpful when we slip back. Thank you for the help.
Sarah and AdamFebruary 2020
Gwendolyn has been very helpful in helping me with anxiety. Her strategies have helped me and work. Although I still get anxious about things I now have strategies to put in place and I control those feelings instead of them controlling me.
My relationship nearly ended because I cheated on my partner. Gwendolyn helped us both take responsibility for the circumstances in our relationship that contributed to this situation. She helped us forgive each other for our behaviours and gave us ideas and strategies to change our behaviour and learn to communicate with each other better. My partner started talking about his emotions and now we can talk about anything. Gwendolyn saved our relationship.
Phil and HollySeptember 2019
When we got remarried everything was going great, well at least for a few months, that is when we could see our old marriage habits coming back, It didn't take us long to realize we needed help before we ended in a divorce again.
With the help of Gwendolyn we learnt how to listen, talk and understand each other.
As we spoke openly with Gwendolyn she could tell that it just wasn't our marriage but things from our past also.
With much patience and care from Gwendolyn we were able to overcome these issues.
I want to thank Gwendolyn for her help after I lost my job due to Covid19 and could not afford to come to sessions. She has stayed in contact with regular calls and has talked me through a couple of situations after I called her when I was really upset. She has made my situation much easier to cope with and the strategies she gave me really helped. Thank you very much Gwendolyn.
Gwendolyn has been amazing in supporting us through Covid19 when we couldn't afford to come to sessions. She has called each week to check in to make sure we were ok and that we were still putting in place the boundaries and consequences we created during our sessions, and that we were consistent with our kids while we were all home. Our family is in a much better place because of Gwendolyn's commitment to us.
We are very grateful and thank Gwendolyn from the bottom of our hearts for her help and we are looking forward to resuming our sessions.
I went to see Gwendolyn after my car was stolen from outside of my home. I had several personal family items that were precious to me in the car and I felt their loss very strongly.
Although my car was found trashed in the bush, my personal items were either not found or burnt in a fire nearby.
I felt very unsafe, anxious and angry and needed guidance and strategies to help me deal with my feelings.
Gwendolyn worked through my experience and emotions with me, giving me very practical strategies that have helped me understand how my body and mind work together to create anxiety and now I can manage my anxiety so I'm not overwhelmed by my emotions,