About Chronically Heard

About me

Hi, my name is Rochelle, thank you for visiting my page, I’d like to tell you a little about me…

I am a qualified counsellor registered with the Australian Counselling Association, and I qualified as a Youth Worker 20 years ago. With over 10 years of experience working in community services and education. My background includes supporting young people, including young offenders, individuals experiencing homelessness, drug and alcohol misuse, mental health, domestic violence, refugees and people seeking asylum.

After contracting a virus and experiencing complications from it, I became chronically ill and was diagnosed with Long Covid, MECFS, POTS, Fibromyalgia and HSD. As a result, I lost my career and, along with it, my sense of purpose, my identity, and connections with people I once thought were friends. Consequently, I had to slowly rebuild both my health and my identity over many years. Through this experience, I came to understand the grief associated with life transitions that we didn’t choose, the loss of freedom and independence when you no longer have a stable income, and the often degrading processes involved in applying for access to public support.

I believe mental health support should be available to everyone, especially those who feel isolated due to chronic pain or energy-limiting conditions. This belief led to the creation of Chronically Heard and underpins my sliding scale fees.

During my own struggles, I found it difficult to locate an affordable therapist who truly understood my experiences, resulting in paying for sessions I couldn’t afford and being told to “try yoga” etc. This motivated me to begin studying counselling so I could help fill that gap and provide therapy that was affordable, accessible and sensitive. I offer inclusive, deeply person-centered talking therapy and aim to provide a safe and understanding space for adults and young people living with chronic illness.

My approach is to meet you where you are. This includes acknowledging when things are genuinely difficult and helping you process your experiences, rather than recommending inaccessible strategies.

Additionally, we can work on pacing and adopting somatic techniques to help regulate your symptoms, and hopefully, by extension, your physical symptoms and emotional destress. Both of these can be difficult to implement into your lifestyle, so if it is helpful to use some of our sessions time to build a lifestyle that supports your well-being, I am equipped to help you with this. This can also include support and guidance with boundary setting, saying “no” and putting your health first and vocalizing your needs to others without guilt and shame.

Other areas of interest include support with drug and alcohol misuse, with a focus on risk management and principles from SMART Recovery, although I am familiar and can provide complementary support to 12- step programs focusing on abstinence. I have additional training in this area and significant experience through my work in community services.

I also support people experiencing:

– Anxiety

– Depression

– Stress and burnout

– Life transitions (such as moving countries)

– Grief and loss, including the loss of a pet

– Issues around control and managing anger

– Boundary setting

– Self-worth and identity challenges