Our First Year at Brisbane Wellbeing Psychologists! | Brisbane Wellbeing Psychologists

Inspiration for Brisbane Wellbeing Psychologist Clinic – University of Queensland Jacarandas

As the jacarandas start to come into their spectacular purple display soon, late September will mark our first year of the clinic. You might have noticed on the feature wall in our beautiful waiting room a large mural of jacaranda trees – this was from a photograph taken at the University of Queensland and we chose it for the clinic not only because it was vibrant and quintessentially Brisbane but for me personally, my undergrad years at UQ (all those years ago!) when I used to sit around the lakes and think about my future life and career. During this period I experienced quite challenging periods of depression – like many students.

Our lovely reception area with our UQ jacaranda mural

I actually started in journalism but quickly decided it wasn’t for me – at the time as was doing Psychology 101 just for interest sake but I found it fascinating to learn more about the human mind and personality. Career takes up such a big proportion of our lives – it can be hard for many of us to

Find the right career niche in the first place and
Reach a place of just the right amount of drive, contribution and satisfaction so that we can feel enough challenge but not so much that work takes over a disproportionate part of your life….!

Many people that we meet with at the clinic can certainly relate to struggling with feeling not good enough or struggling to balance work demands with a happy rich full and meaningful life.

The first few years of my professional career were a challenge to say the least… I worked in a regional area with little support as a child and family Psychologist for clients involved in the child protection or youth justice system so had to try and learn on the job very quickly. Then balancing family and work lead to feeling exhausted and overwhelmed at times. Being a Psychologist took a long time to settle into and there were many times when I thought I had chosen the wrong career. Fast forward about 20 years…. (that went quickly… well in some ways!). I grew to really love my work and now I can’t imagine any other career but it was a long and at times tumultuous pathway to find that place and like everyone who works in similar roles, I still have to monitor my wellbeing carefully to ensure that I have the right balance.

A year ago my husband and I made the rather big decision to start Brisbane Wellbeing. We wanted to find a way to create a business that enhanced people’s lives and would be sustainable for the long term. Our focus is largely to provide support to other professionals using high quality psychology approaches in an environment that is not your typical “mental health” space. Our unique environment is such an inner city haven – a joy to work in and somewhere warm and welcoming for our clients to visit and to benefit from learning new ways of approaching challenges and hurdles.

Something that is also very important to me is creating an environment for our team of clinicians and admin staff to feel supported and at their best. We have had a few hiccups on the way and refined our model and processes and as any business owner knows, start ups are not for the faint hearted! Initially we were going to wait another couple of years until our twins had finished school to start the clinic but once I have an idea in my head….. It has been a very challenging, exciting and rewarding journey.

I am really proud of our wonderful team and most grateful to all of our clients for choosing Brisbane Wellbeing as their “go to” for gaining support during the challenging moments. We are so happy to provide you with a wonderful service in a warm and welcoming environment. We have lots of exciting things ahead planned and it has been a dream come true to create and work in such a special environment. If your life has been improved as a result of your connection to the clinic, it would really make our day if you took a moment to add a google review by typing in Google Review Brisbane Wellbeing Psychologists and there is a box on the right hand side of the screen with review an option.

Enjoy the beautiful Jacaranda season which is about to start towards the end of September!