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Therapist/clinical psychologist

TranquillitySenior Contributor09 Aug 2024, 6:52 pm AEST

Therapist/clinical psychologist

Hi All,

I'm interested if anyone knows of a good clinical psychologist in the Sydney NW region.

I have a schizophrenia diagnosis and hear incessant horrific and tormenting messages about rape, murder, suicide, cancer, future nuclear war, the devil/satan, demons, along with accusations of being in some way guilty of these horrific things or prognostications about such horrors in the future, along with predictions about going to eternal hell and theological pronouncements about the nature of justice and ultimate justice, from voices in my head, 24/7. God knows how all this nasty horrifying rubbish got into my head! But it's certainly not my normal stream of conscious thought, which is usually about very mundane things like going to the shops or what my next work task is or what I'll do on the weekend etc...

I get some relief from music and social situations. For the first two to three years I was very scared and was medicated for lengthy periods. But I don't wish to live on antipsychotics because of the side effects and long term health risks.

Anyway, I'm trying to see what other things I could do to improve my situation without going back on medication. I thought I might see a clinical psychologist and see what kinds of suggested actions, if any, could help. I don't particularly want to see a psychiatrist, unless there were to be a new therapy that did not involve medication, long term medication. They do tend to only deal in medication.

Anyway, in spite of the horrific messages and personal accusations, I'm fairing pretty well these days. I'm no longer scared, which was the main trouble for a long while.

But I'm willing to try other approaches to try to beat this horrid illness. So, I'm interested to know what's out there and if other voice sufferers have had good success with anything? In this regard, I'm interested to know if there are any good clinical psychologists or therapists with a lot of experience in this area?

Anyway, thanks for any suggestions and I wish everyone in a similar situation relief and healing.

3 replies

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In response to: Therapist/clinical psychologist

rav3nSenior Contributor09 Aug 2024, 7:17 pm AEST

Re: Therapist/clinical psychologist

Hey @Tranquillity thanks for your post. I'm so sorry you've had to deal with a lot with minimal support in the past, glad to hear you're doing better now and it's lovely to see you reach out to our forums community. 😊

Whilst members cannot share the details of practitioners to ensure anonymity and safety for everyone, we encourage you to utilise the APS website to find a psych in your area: https://psychology.org.au/find-a-psychologist

Everyone is different so it may be a bit of trial and error process, but once you find the 'one' that you click with, it's an amazing feeling! Hope your healing journey goes well 💗

In response to: Re: Therapist/clinical psychologist

TranquillitySenior Contributor09 Aug 2024, 7:35 pm AEST

Re: Therapist/clinical psychologist

Dear @rav3n , thank you for your prompt reply. I did do some google searching but didn't come up with much without spending more time searching a bit more thoroughly. So, I am grateful to you for posting that link. I've used the search facility and it's already produced some useful results.

I can well understand the need to protect the identity of patients and clinicians alike by not posting details publicly.

By the way, I've had some pretty good support in the past, which is why I'm not in an emotional and terrified heap now, in spite of the horrific and shocking messages persisting. But I think it might be good to reconnect with a professional psychologist for a while, just to see if they might have any kinds of CBT techniques, for example, that could prove helpful. As mentioned, I'm not really enthused about seeing a psychiatrist, with all respect to their profession, as they only deal in long term medication that comes with unpleasant side effects and long term health risks. Then there's the stigma issue I have never overcome with respect to being on "that" type of medication for my condition.

Anyway, thank you again for your support.

Kind regards

[sign off removed by moderator]

In response to: Re: Therapist/clinical psychologist

rav3nSenior Contributor09 Aug 2024, 8:30 pm AEST

Re: Therapist/clinical psychologist

glad to hear the links been useful @Tranquillity 😊

oh i see, that's great that you've had some good experiences with supports! totally fair if medications is an area you're not too comfortable with, i understand that those side effects impact people in different ways - reconnecting with a psychologist sounds like a great idea, good on you for taking the step to try find one!

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