All programs are facilitated by a multidisciplinary team of experienced individual and group therapists and designed to support you in exploring your current symptoms and experiences while coaching you to learn new ways to manage them.

Our programs cover a wide range of topics such as aged psychiatry, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, men's mental health and trauma.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Advanced Program

This is a 12-week program building upon your foundational skills developed during the Introductory program. This program encourages individuals to utilise these skills to enrich both their personal and professional relationships.

It provides advanced ACT techniques including mindfulness, values awareness and choice points. It also focuses on building capacity to improve meaningful relationship skills including assertiveness and general communication skills.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Introductory Program

Epworth Clinic offers a 12-week group program in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT is an evidence based therapy which is shown to be effective in treating a wide range of psychiatric presentations and strengthens general mental health.

ACT aims to build psychological coping tools for challenging emotions and to increase valued living through changing behaviours, increasing daily functionality and life satisfaction. By increasing psychological flexibility, the program aims for the individual to live a fuller, richer and more meaningful life.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Epworth Clinic offers a 12-week group program in ACT for OCD in weekly sessions. ACT offers an alternative treatment approach to more traditional therapies, for people who may find it difficult to engage in exposure work.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for anxiety and depression

Epworth Clinic offers a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) program that runs for 12 weeks. CBT is a focused, collaborative treatment that helps individuals to identify unhelpful thoughts and behaviours. The program aims to re-program unhelpful thinking patterns in order to relearn healthier skills and habits.

The CBT program is structured and goal orientated, focusing on present difficulties as well as long-term strategies toward change requiring active involvement and practice by the client. The program will also incorporate elements of mindfulness based education and strategies.

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) Pre Commitment Workshops

DBT is a highly effective researched and internationally recognised treatment for those with significant emotional and relationship difficulties. Our workshops provide an opportunity for day patients who've been accepted and are preparing to enter the DBT+ program to meet the pre-commitment requirements of the DBT model.

This also enables patients to familiarise themselves with some of the core concepts of DBT prior to commencing in DBT+. The individual is allocated a therapist for one-on-one coaching, which aims to help provide individuals with the skills they need to create and maintain positive life change.

The workshops offer an introduction to the following principles of DBT:

  • Behaviourism - learning how our behaviour has developed over time and subsequent ways of breaking old patterns of behaviour
  • Dialectics - helps you to find ways of validating other points of views, avoiding assumptions and self-blaming
  • Mindfulness - enabling you be to be more present in everyday life
  • Validation - learning to validate helps relationships improve, calming intense situations to help you problem solve and let go of pain

Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) program

Epworth Clinic offer an intensive 6-month DBT program for individuals having difficulty managing emotions, tolerating distress and experiencing unstable relationships and identity issues. The program involves supportive DBT phone coaching during business hours from Monday to Friday. The program is skills-based, involving educational classes, handouts, in-session practice exercises and home tasks.

Modules covered include:

  • Distress tolerance - giving you the skills to handle difficult emotions without restoring to desperate measures
  • Emotion regulation - enabling you to make more sense of your emotions and how to manage them more effectively
  • Interpersonal effectiveness - helping you have calmer, more stable and fulfilling relationships

Participants wishing to attend the DBT program must complete the DBT pre commitment workshop first.

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (M.B.C.T)

The Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy program is designed to assist in reducing the risk of relapse for people who have experienced depression.

It aims to help people find new ways to deal with stressful thought patterns and low mood through the teaching of mindfulness-based practices and other skills. 

Transitions

Transitions is a six week introductory program for those new to group psychotherapy or those looking for extra support transitioning home from an admission.

The group is focused on learning new skills and increasing education around symptom management, relapse prevention strategies and activity scheduling. 

Wellness, Interaction, Support and Engagement (WISE) group

Epworth Clinic's day programs offer a WISE (Wellness, Interaction, Support and Engagement) group for individuals aged over 60 years. It is a 12-week program, tailored to meet the needs and goals of individual group members. The group aims to enable individuals to build connections, live in line with their values and enrich their mental health and well-being.

A supportive environment is created where individuals can share and relate to others. The program is informed by a number of evidence-based therapies including ACT, CBT and Narrative Therapy.

Sessions address numerous topics, including the following:

  • Activity scheduling in addition to exploration and acceptance of role and life changes
  • Committed action
  • Exploration of grief and loss
  • Mindfulness practice
  • Psychoeducation on depression and anxiety