The Road to Recovery

AB Counselling & Community Services Pty Ltd goal is to support clients on their road to psychological recovery. The Road to Recovery is a journey with many stages and each stage requires different counselling techniques to keep clients on their right track. Each stage on the road to recovery demonstrates encouraging psychological progress and provides clients with a reachable & achievable goal.

The Road to Recovery varies from person to person and the time it takes to fully recover is not certain, however many clients take between 1.5 – 2.5 years to complete their journey of recovery. 

Find out more below.

Beginning stage

This stage focuses on building a rapport with clients and attempting to construct a professional therapeutic relationship. This involves reviewing how the clients week has been, how they have been progressing, their current goals, daily activities and their social networking.


Working partnership stage

The working partnership stage shifts the focus of clinical session from rapport building to psychological healing. In this stage, there is a greater focus on the client's psychological condition and the client begins psychological condition and the client begins psychoeducation, resilience building exercises, cognitive reframing and strength identification to help improve their chances of recovery.

The frequency of sessions are examined and redefined, and the service delivery method can now change. Clients are able to schedule sessions delivered via telephone, face-to-face or via ZOOM; allowing you to select a delivery method which suits your lifestyle and commitments.

In this stage, we provide clients with links into social networks/outlets and vocational rehabilitation, to help with the healing process and allow clients to move on in life.


Pre-discharge period

The third stage is the Pre-discharge period which focuses on preventing relapses, observing and renewing goals, crisis identification and providing links to other services. An important part of this stage is relapse prevention. An increase in social networking or re-entering the workforce can sometimes be a little overwhelming for clients and there is the ever present danger of relapsing. Relapse prevention involves educating the client on how to cope with change. The client learns how to prevent a relapse of their condition and how to identify symptoms of a relapse in their condition.

Within this stage, the clients goals are reviewed to see how far they have progressed. Clients are also taught crisis identification skills and other management strategies.


Discharge stage

The discharge stage is the final stage of our service. It focuses on wrapping up loose ends, bringing closure and providing links to other services. The discharge stage is the last few steps on the road to recovery.