No, Referrals are not necessary to book an appointment. However, if you wish to obtain a partial Medicare rebate then you will need to obtain a referral from your GP or paediatrician/psychiatrist.
Only if you wish to claim a rebate for the session. Please note that Medicare rebates for group therapy are only possible if there are at least 4 people in the groups. Please ask your GP to specify group therapy on the Mental Health Care Plan referral.
No, there are no Medicare rebates towards assessment (unless you have a CND/HCWA referral for under 25's) so all fees are private. However, we do welcome any letters/reports from other professionals to provide additional information about clients if this is an option.
No, we are a private clinic but you may be eligible for a partial Medicare rebate if you have a plan (see below).
Some common referrals are:
No, you need to choose one type of subsidy at a time.
Medicare rebates can range from $92-$136, depending on whether you see a Psychologists or Clinical Psychologist, or even more if you have reached your Medicare safety net threshold (up to 80% of the fee can be recovered). The phone number for Medicare is 13 21 11 should you wish to enquire for more information.
Private health insurance companies vary in their rebates depending on your individual cover so it is best to contact them directly to ask. The item number is 100 for an initial consultation, or 200 for a subsequent consultation.
The following rebates are provided by NDIS. Clients will be expected to fund their gap payments at the time of their appointments.
$214.41 Psychology
$193.99 Speech Pathology
$156.16 Counselling
An initial consultation involves a 1-hour consultation to discuss your presenting concern/s, provide brief relevant background or context, and being pointed in the right direction to answer your concern/s. In this session your clinician will listen to you and provide you with strategies to manage any issues or help you to develop a plan towards meeting your goals in subsequent sessions. This may or may not include a recommendation for ongoing sessions. If your clinician determines that they may not be a suitable fit to support you going forward, they will discuss this with you either in the session or will contact you after the session to explain a better fit going forward. At times there may be a wait to see a clinician for ongoing sessions. If this is expected to be too long you will be informed and referred out to another clinic.
A diagnostic assessment involves a structured interview/s aimed at exploring whether you may be autistic, an ADHD'er, or whether there is another underlying condition that best describes your presentation. An adult assessment is conducted in one 3-hour session, whereas a child/adolescent assessment is separated into three 2-hour sessions.
Reports are lengthy and take time to write. Some organisations like the Department of Education require full reports with detailed background information and test scores/data. This level of detail is required for child clients but not always needed by adult clients, who may want a more concise and tailored report. We have developed the Tailored Summary Report to provide a more cost-effective option for our clients who do not require the level of detail of the Full Report. The Tailored Summary Report still has a detailed formulation and conclusion, focusing on the present issues- without elaborating on too much earlier background history.
For a child/adolescent assessment this will involve:
Session 1: Parent interview
This 2-hour session will typically just for require the parent/s to attend so that the psychologist can obtain background information about the child. Questions will focus on current skills and challenges, school history, social abilities and differences, sensory differences, executive functioning skills, and developmental history. This session can be online or face-to-face. Questionnaires will be given or emailed for parents/teacher to complete.
Session 2: Cognitive assessment
The child/adolescent attends this 2-hour session and their intellectual abilities are assessed with a standardised test (see below).
Session 3: Behavioural Assessment
The child/adolescent’s social communication and behaviour is assessed over 2 hours using our clinical interview, along with other tools that are selected based on the clinician's judgement. For very young children (usually under 5 years) we require a parent to be in the session.
Session 4: Feedback session
In this 1-hour session the psychologist will provide diagnostic conclusions and recommendations to the parents. This session can be online if preferred.
For an adult assessment this will involve:
Session 1: Diagnostic Interview
In this 3-hour session the psychologist will conduct a comprehensive diagnostic assessment. The focus will be on the assessment of Autism, however, other conditions and disorders will be considered. The client will be interviewed about their life and asked about their presenting concerns, social life, emotional regulation skills, work and school history, executive functioning skills, childhood and developmental history. A variety of questionnaires will be provided within the session to complete.
Session 2: Feedback session
In this 1-hour session the psychologist will provide diagnostic conclusions and recommendations.
We use our own clinical interview template along with a standardised battery of measures that are selected by clinicians to suit their client’s referral question. These may include:
This is an intellectual assessment and usually take 2 hours to administer. It is a component in our child and adolescent diagnostic assessments (not in adult assessments), unless it has been administered within the last 2 years. We use any of these tests to assess cognitive skills: The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children -5th edition (WISC-V)/Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-4th edition (WAIS-IV)/Stanford Binet -5th edition (SB5). Please note that if you require a cognitive assessment separate to a diagnostic assessment you will also need an initial consultation to provide relevant background information for the assessment, and a feedback session to be provided with the results.
Yes we do! If you are new to the clinic this will be booked as a Diagnostic Assessment (4 hours in total for an adult and 7 hours for children/adolescents) and the psychologist will assess for ADHD as well as other conditions/disorders. This is important to do so that the whole picture is examined and so that we are not just looking for one condition. For existing autistic clients of the clinic (who have already had a thorough history taken at Unique U), we can provide a straight ADHD assessment, which would generally involve 1-2 hrs of time to administer ADHD questionnaires and consult with the school (for children) or a relative/friend (for adults).
We are proud to be able to offer the gold standard approach to assessing a learning disorder/giftedness. This is the cross-battery approach and involves up to 8 hours of educational testing, including:
Danuta is the Clinic Director and regularly supervises all clinicians at Unique U Psychology. Danuta’s books have closed for new referrals.
You can call us on (03) 9134 8744 or email us at reception@uniqueupsychology.com.au to enquire about the availability for ongoing sessions. There may be a waitlist for sessions and at times we need to close the books for some time until sessions open up.
You may be able to book a session through a cancellation. Each clinician has a cancellation list and when we have a cancellation the clients on this list receive an email advising them of the available appointment. This appointment is filled with the first response received back. Please note: Not all clients will be suitable for this list. If you are high risk, in crisis, or need urgent ongoing sessions you will be referred out to another clinic if we have no availability to see you.
We try to keep a short waiting list per clinician but close the waiting list when we feel it has become too long to be able to guarantee sessions (within approximately 6 months). Our reception staff can advise you if we have space on the waiting list.
If you are eligible for NDIS you will need to call 1800 800 110 and ask to make an Access Request. You will then need to complete the Access Request form and email it back to NAT@NDIS.gov.au.
If you need help filling in the form or with making the call you can contact your Local Area Coordinator, Early Childhood Early Intervention partner or contact your local NDIA office by clicking here: https://www.ndis.gov.au/contact/locations.
We welcome our gender diverse clients! Autistic people experience higher rates of gender diversity and we are LGBTQIA+ allies. Whilst gender diversity is acknowledged and supported in our sessions with our clients, for specific support around assessment of gender diversity and transitioning we recommend seeking the support of a gender clinic. Please see the following links for further gender-specific support:
https://www.rch.org.au/adolescent-medicine/gender-service/
https://monashhealth.org/services/gender-clinic/
https://northsideclinic.net.au/health-services/trans-gender-diverse-non-binary-health/
If your child has had a cognitive (IQ) assessment within the last 2 years an additional cognitive assessment will not be necessary, unless you feel the assessment was not a valid representation of your child’s abilities on the day. In this case we would repeat the cognitive assessment using an alternative valid IQ measure of intellectual assessment to prevent practice effects.
Often family members can provide good information about your earlier life to aid the assessment process. However, this is not always the case or possible. In these instances we will ask if someone else can provide collateral information (a relative, spouse, friend, or family friend).
Yes! We can provide the complete adult diagnostic assessments over Telehealth for clients who cannot access the clinic easily. For child assessments, we can provide half of the sessions online (parent information gathering/feedback) but do require the child to attend their 2 sessions in person.
To confirm a diagnostic assessment booking we require a deposit of 1/3 of the fee to be paid at the booking. We then require the remainder of the balance to be paid 1 week prior to the scheduled appointment.
