Therapeutic support for children and adults affected by family violence - recovery-focused counselling for children, and practical, safety-aware support for the parent caring for them.
If you or a child is in immediate danger, call 000. For 24/7 support contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, or Safe Steps on 1800 015 188. Our counselling service is not a crisis or after-hours service.
Children who have lived with family violence carry it, whether or not they were ever hurt themselves and whether or not the adults believe they saw anything. It shows up as hypervigilance, as explosive anger, as a child who monitors a parent’s mood constantly, as a child who has become unnaturally good.
Our family violence-informed therapeutic support works with children on recovery, and with the parent or carer who is trying to hold everything together while doing their own recovering.
Delivered through play interventions and developmentally appropriate counselling, for children from around three years of age:
What we are and are not. We are a therapeutic and support service. We are not a crisis service, a refuge, a legal service or a perpetrator intervention program. Where you need those, we will help you connect with them — specialist family violence services can be reached through Safe Steps on 1800 015 188 and 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
We check what safety looks like now — living arrangements, contact, orders, risk — before therapeutic work begins, and we keep checking.
We do not work in ways that hold a protective parent responsible for another adult’s violence, and we do not ask a child to manage an adult’s behaviour.
Children are not interviewed about incidents. The work happens through play, story and relationship, at the pace the child sets.
Family violence sits inside family, community and faith structures that differ enormously. We work with that context rather than around it, including with African and CALD families.
With your consent we work alongside specialist family violence services, child protection, schools and legal supports rather than duplicating them.
What you tell us is confidential, with the limits we explain at the first session: we are required to act where there is a risk of serious harm to a person, and where a child’s safety is involved. We will always tell you what we are required to do rather than doing it quietly.
Often, yes. Living with violence — hearing it, sensing it, watching a parent be frightened — affects children’s development, regulation and relationships whether or not they were ever a direct target.
Yes, and often you should. We will work with what is safe to work with now, focusing on stability and regulation, and go deeper when the situation allows.
We explain our confidentiality limits at the outset. We are required to act where there is risk of serious harm or where child safety is involved, and we will tell you if that applies rather than acting behind you.
No. We are not a men’s behaviour change or perpetrator intervention service. Our work is with children affected by family violence and with the parents and carers supporting them.
Yes. This is one of the services families in the Goulburn Region tell us is hardest to access locally, and it is a deliberate part of why we work there.
Most people we work with combine two or three of these. Mix and match whatever fits your plan.
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Read moreTell us what you need and we will walk you through the options — no obligation, no pressure, and a real person on the other end.