A Safe Place to Untangle What Life Has Left Behind: Bay Road Counselling & Psychology, Cheltenham

Living on Melbourne’s Bayside does not make anyone immune to anxiety, grief, trauma or the slow grind of chronic stress. What it does offer, if you know where to look, is a quiet consulting suite on Bay Road where those experiences can be met with skill rather than slogans.

Bay Road Counselling & Psychology has practised from Suite 16, 296 Bay Road, Cheltenham since 2009. The rooms sit in a modern professional complex in the heart of Cheltenham’s commercial precinct, a short hop from Westfield Southland, Southland station and the arterial roads that stitch Highett, Mentone, Beaumaris and Moorabbin together. The brief is simple and ambitious: a healing, confidential space in which children, adolescents and adults can make sense of what has become stuck — in the mind, and in the body.

A Bayside practice built around trauma and the nervous system

The practice describes itself as specialists in trauma resolution and stress-related disorders. That is not marketing fluff. Principal psychologist Monica Wright came to clinical work through a first career as a Division 1 Registered Nurse. She completed her Bachelor of Nursing in 1993 and spent years on orthopaedic, neurological, road-trauma and cancer wards, as well as in drug-and-alcohol and psychiatric settings. Watching how unresolved trauma and chronic stress settle into the body is what sent her back to study.

In 2007 she completed a Master of Psychology (Counselling) and soon after gained endorsement as a Clinical Psychologist. She has worked in private practice full-time since 2009. She is a member of the Australian Psychological Society and the Australian College of Clinical Psychologists, and she holds additional training that most generalist rooms do not: EMDR Parts 1 and 2, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP), Brainspotting Modules I and II, Ego State Therapy, a Diploma of Family Therapy, a Diploma of Hypnosis, and master-level Neurolinguistic Programming.

That mix matters. Talk alone is often not enough when the nervous system is still running an old emergency. Wright’s published approach is to regulate that system first, then integrate mind and body so a person leaves better resourced — not merely better informed.

 

Who walks through the door

People arrive with the familiar list, and with stories that do not fit a tidy label. The practice routinely works with:

• Depression and low mood
• Anxiety, panic attacks and phobias
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex trauma
• Grief and loss
• Stress, burnout and workplace incidents
• Life transitions
• Abusive or unsafe relationships
• Childhood abuse and neglect
• Physical or sexual assault
• Accidents and falls
• Bullying and school issues
• Self-esteem and difficulty forming close relationships
• Addictions
• Facing illness — for patients and for caregivers
• Behavioural difficulties in children
• Multicultural issues
• Neurodiversity, including ADHD and autism-spectrum assessment and support

Clients include children from about five years old, adolescents, adults and older adults. Telehealth and phone sessions are available for people who cannot easily reach Cheltenham. The suite has wheelchair access.

The practice is explicit about one boundary: it is not a crisis service. If someone is in immediate danger they should call 000 or attend the nearest emergency department. Lifeline (13 11 14) and Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636) remain the right first ports of call after hours.

Treatments that treat the body as well as the story

Wright’s toolkit is broader than standard CBT, although Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), mindfulness and solution-focused work are all used when they fit.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is one of the most researched treatments for PTSD. It uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain finish processing an experience that never quite filed itself away. Importantly, it does not require a person to retell the story in exhaustive detail.

Somatic Experiencing works more quietly still. Trauma lives in the nervous system as much as in memory. By tracking body sensation in a contained way, clients can renegotiate overwhelm rather than talk around it. Many people leave a session with a noticeable drop in internal noise.

Brainspotting, an advanced model related to EMDR, uses eye position to locate and release stored emotional and bodily pain. Like SE, it often ends in a feeling of calm rather than catharsis.

Family-systems thinking sits underneath the individual work. Wright has written that we are designed to be interconnected, and that trauma can leave a person internally disconnected from parts of themselves. Treatment, in that frame, is a kind of reintegration — a return to feeling whole rather than managed.

Evidence-based talking therapies, child and adolescent counselling, hypnosis, psychometric testing, psychological assessments and reports (including court and impairment assessments where appropriate) sit alongside the trauma-specific methods. Genomic wellness support is offered as an adjunct for some clients; it is not a Medicare-funded item.

Why the Bayside location is part of the treatment

Cheltenham is practical. Suite 16 at 296 Bay Road is in a boutique office complex with lift access, on-site parking in the precinct, and a Secure Parking facility at the same address. Bay Road itself is an easy run from the Nepean Highway, and Southland station puts the suite on a public-transport line that serves much of the south-east.

For many clients that geography is not trivial. First appointments are hard enough without a CBD car park or a long train change. Parents bringing a child, shift workers ducking in after 5pm, and older adults who need level access all benefit from a suburban professional address rather than a city tower.

The wider Bayside setting does the quieter work. Mentone and Sandringham beaches are minutes away. A walk along the foreshore after a session is not therapy, but it is not nothing either — a regulated nervous system often wants air and horizon.

What to expect if you book

Bookings are by phone: 0421 171 851. Email is bayroadpsychology@gmail.com. The website is www.bayroadcounsellingandpsychology.com.au. There is no online-only booking portal advertised; the practice prefers a conversation first, which is usually the right instinct in mental health work.

Directory listings put weekday hours around 9.00am to 6.00pm, with some Saturday and after-5pm availability. Confirm the current diary when you call. Payment methods include cash, EFTPOS, Visa and Mastercard.

Fees published on the Australian Psychological Society directory for a 45- to 60-minute session sit in the region of $140 to $160. Those figures change; treat them as a guide and ask for the current rate. Bulk billing is not offered. Monica Wright is listed as a Medicare psychologist provider, so clients with a valid GP Mental Health Treatment Plan can usually claim a Medicare rebate. Private health extras may also contribute, depending on the fund and the item. Out-of-pocket costs should be discussed at the first contact so there are no surprises.

A first session is typically about history, goals and whether the fit feels right. Trauma work is paced. Nobody is pushed to “go there” before the nervous system can hold it. For children and adolescents the work is developmentally adapted; parents are part of the frame without the child being spoken over.

A word on finding the right psychologist

Cheltenham and the wider Bayside strip are not short of counselling rooms. What distinguishes this practice is the depth of trauma-specific training combined with a nursing background that never forgot the body. If your difficulty is a recent adjustment, a short course of CBT or ACT may be enough. If you have been carrying something for years — a car accident that still lives in the shoulders, a childhood that never quite ended, a grief that will not metabolise — methods that include EMDR, Somatic Experiencing and Brainspotting are worth seeking out on purpose.

Wright’s own framing is usefully unsentimental. Trauma, on the practice website, is “any event in one’s life that remains stuck, locked or unresolved, and has a lasting impact on the body and brain.” The job is not to admire that impact. It is to help the system finish what it started.

Contact Bay Road Counselling & Psychology

Bay Road Counselling and Psychology
Suite 16, 296 Bay Road
Cheltenham VIC 3192

Phone: 0421 171 851
Email: bayroadpsychology@gmail.com
Web: www.bayroadcounsellingandpsychology.com.au
ABN: 99 139 893 690

Hours: Monday to Friday (typical consulting hours 9.00am–6.00pm); Saturday and after-hours appointments by arrangement.

Access: Wheelchair access; telehealth available. Parking in the 296 Bay Road precinct.

Principal psychologist: Monica Wright — Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, MAPS; endorsed Clinical Psychologist; Registered Nurse (Div. 1).

If you are in crisis, call 000, attend your nearest hospital emergency department, or contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.