Questions men ask
before booking.

If something has been bothering you for months and hasn't shifted, that's usually the answer. Most men who book have already tried to deal with it on their own — for a long time. The Australian average for men with premature ejaculation is 36.8 months of self-treating before getting help, longer than anywhere else in the Asia-Pacific.¹ You don't need to wait until it's bad enough to justify the call.

No. You can book a session privately without a referral or a diagnosis. A referral and a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP are only required if you want the Medicare rebate. Plenty of men book privately for things that don't fit a clean diagnostic label.

Yes. Most of the work happens with men who aren't in crisis — who are functioning, holding things together, and quietly aware that something isn't right. That's the right time to come in, not after it's gotten worse.

That's part of what the first session is for. You don't need to walk in with a clean explanation. Most men don't. The job of the first couple of sessions is to take what you've got — vague, contradictory, half-formed — and work out what's actually going on.

That's worth saying on the intro call. Therapy not working can mean a lot of things — wrong fit, wrong approach, wrong timing, or the work was useful but didn't go far enough. Knowing what didn't work last time usually makes the next round more focused.

Because Australian men are roughly half as likely as women to seek help for mental health concerns,² and the gap is wider for sexual health — only 17.6% of Australian men with a sexual difficulty seek professional help.³ A practice that's set up specifically for men removes one of the smaller barriers to walking through the door. It's not the only barrier, but it's the one a practice can actually do something about.

Adult men, 18 and over.

The practice is based in Kiama Downs, NSW, and operates by telehealth only across Australia. There's no in-person option.

A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specialises in mental health and can prescribe medication. A psychologist has university training in psychological assessment and therapy and cannot prescribe — the work is talk-based. A counsellor is a broader category with no protected title in Australia and a wide range of training backgrounds. For most of the issues this practice handles, a psychologist is the right fit. If medication is part of what you need, your GP or a psychiatrist is the right pathway, and the two can run in parallel.

Submit the intro-call form on the booking page. It asks for your name, phone number, and a short note on what's bringing you in. You'll get a text back by end of the next business day with two or three times for a free 10-minute phone call.

A short conversation about what's going on, what you've already tried, and whether this practice is the right fit. No assessment, no script. By the end of the call you'll have a sense of whether to book a first session, and if so, what the next steps look like — including whether to see your GP for a Mental Health Care Plan first.

Usually two to three weeks between the intro call and the first session. The gap is partly scheduling and partly to let you sort the GP visit if you're going through Medicare.

Before the session, you'll get an email with a pre-assessment questionnaire, a couple of psychometric measures (typically the DASS-21, the Sexual Distress Scale, and one more specific to what you're bringing in), and the consent and service agreement to read and sign. The session itself is mostly you describing what's going on, with some structured questions to fill in the picture. By the end you should have a clearer formulation of what's happening and a sense of where the work is heading.

Depends on what you're working on. Some men come for a few sessions on a specific issue and that's enough. Others stay longer because the work is more layered. The honest answer is that you'll have a much better sense of it after the first session or two than anyone can give you up front. There's no minimum commitment and no package — you stop when it stops being useful.

Standard fee is $200 for a 50-minute session. Concession fee is $160 for clients receiving DSP, JobSeeker, or Carer Payment.

With a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, Medicare rebates $98.95 per session,⁴ for up to 10 sessions per calendar year. That brings the out-of-pocket cost to roughly $101 standard or $61 concession.

Book a longer GP appointment — a standard 15-minute slot usually isn't enough, because the GP needs time to do a brief mental health assessment and write the plan. Tell them you'd like to see a psychologist and ask for the referral to be addressed to Ben Waters at Hard Conversations, though a referral can be redirected to any eligible psychologist if circumstances change.

The plan covers up to 10 individual sessions per calendar year, usually issued as an initial referral for up to 6 sessions. After those, you go back to the GP for a brief review and a re-referral for up to 4 more, capping at 10 for the year. The plan itself doesn't expire annually — only the referral runs out at 6 sessions.⁵

A few practical notes. Some GPs bulk-bill the planning appointment; others charge a gap. Worth asking when you book. You don't need a formal "diagnosis" to qualify — the threshold is whether a mental health condition is affecting your life. From 1 November 2025, reviews and re-referrals need to happen with your usual GP or at your MyMedicare-registered practice, so it's worth using the same GP each time rather than a different bulk-bill clinic.⁶

Yes — $160 per session for clients receiving DSP, JobSeeker, or Carer Payment. Mention it on the intro call.

Some extras policies cover psychology. The practice doesn't claim directly, so you'll pay the full fee and submit the receipt to your insurer to claim back. You can't claim through both Medicare and private health for the same session — you have to pick one.

48 hours' notice is needed to avoid a cancellation fee. For cancellations under 48 hours and no-shows, the full session fee is charged at the rate you normally pay. Payment is via card on file through Halaxy by default; invoiced bank transfer is available on request.

For most of what comes through this practice, yes. The research on telehealth psychology consistently shows comparable outcomes to in-person therapy, including for sexual and relationship concerns delivered direct-to-consumer.⁷ ⁸ ⁹ For some men telehealth is actually easier — less travel, no waiting room, and conversations about sex, anxiety, or shame can be easier to have from your own space.

Sessions run on Zoom Workplace with a clinical configuration — passcodes, waiting rooms, end-to-end encryption, and no cloud recording. You can join in your browser; the app is optional on phone or tablet. You'll get a unique link in your appointment confirmation.

Yes, with your consent, for note-taking only. The platform is called Heidi Health. It listens during the session, generates a structured set of clinical notes that the psychologist edits and finalises, and then the audio is discarded — sessions aren't recorded for replay. Consent is sought at intake and you can withdraw it at any point.

The reason it's used is practical: clinical note-writing is one of the largest hidden costs in private practice, and reducing that load is part of how the fee stays where it is. If you'd rather not have AI involved, that's fine — say so and notes will be written manually.

It happens. The first time it disrupts a session, there's no charge. After that, the standard cancellation policy applies. If you've got a poor connection at home, the intro call is a good time to flag it so we can plan around it.

Somewhere private, where you can talk freely without being overheard. Most men join from home; some from a parked car. The session is a conversation about things you probably haven't said out loud before, so the location matters more than the technology.

Sessions are confidential. The exceptions are narrow and standard across all psychology practice — risk of serious harm to yourself or someone else, mandatory reporting obligations, or a court order.

If you're using a Mental Health Care Plan, Medicare requires the psychologist to send your referring GP a brief progress letter after the initial set of sessions and again at the end of the referral. The content of those letters can be discussed with you — most men prefer a high-level summary that doesn't go into specifics.

Your partner won't know what's discussed unless you choose to tell them.

The work draws on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), EMDR, and systemic therapy, as well as evidence-based protocols from psychosexual therapy. Approach is matched to the problem rather than applied as a default. Postgraduate study in sexology is ongoing.

The default is practical and active — identifying what's keeping the problem stuck, building skills, working on specific changes between sessions. Research on what helps men engage in therapy points consistently toward this kind of structured, problem-focused work. That said, some men want something less directive — more space to talk things through, less structure, more reflection. That's a legitimate way to use therapy and the approach adjusts to what's useful for you.

It happens. It's not the goal of the session and it's not avoided either. If something is hard to talk about, you can say so and we'll work around it or come back to it later. There's no quota for what has to be covered in any one session.

Yes. The two often overlap — anxiety affects sex, sexual problems affect mood, relationship strain shows up in both. The practice covers psychological and psychosexual work in one place specifically because separating them is artificial.

Say so. Not every therapist is right for every client, and noticing it early is useful. If the fit isn't right, the conversation is about what you need that's not happening here, and whether that's something to adjust or a reason to refer you on. Ending therapy or switching therapists is a normal part of the process.

This practice is not a crisis service and isn't staffed for after-hours support. If you're in crisis, call 000 in an emergency, Lifeline on 13 11 14, the Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467, or MensLine on 1300 78 99 78. The /resources page has a fuller list.