Chronic Illness + Chronic Pain Clients
Sex + Intimacy Counselling
Non Monogamy + Polyamorous Clients
Kink + Fetish Clients
Session Pricing
About Amanda

For people with chronic pain, chronic illness or other health conditions it can affect our relationships, work, mood and mental health. This can then affect our symptoms and create a cycle of struggle. It’s helpful to have someone listen to you without giving ‘advice’. Counselling is a space for you to explore your thoughts, emotions, actions and goals. A counsellor can hold a mirror back to you, so together you can help unravel some of your thoughts and make changes in your life for the better. Talking with a counsellor doesn’t mean you aren’t coping – it can be an important part of your journey

Some things you may work on with a counsellor include:-

• Coping with a new diagnosis
• Grief and Loss
• Preparing for treatment, and making decisions about your treatment
• Pain education, management and strategies
• Impact on relationships, social life and career
• Coping with unsuccessful treatment and continued pain/symptoms
• Effective communication and how to self advocate
• Managing stress
• Develop a plan for flareups
• Talking about how your family, friends and colleagues behave or react
• Specific concerns related to feelings of depression, anxiety, loss of control and fear of the unknown
• Medical Gaslighting
• Medical Trauma


Research shows that clients are often worried to bring up drug-use with their therapist for fear of repercussions or judgement. I do not judge cannabis use whether recreational or medicinal. I have a confidentiality policy that should ease any fear of repercussions (discussed at greater length upon booking).

Sex and Intimacy is a beautiful part of human nature, providing us with a space to experience pleasure, creativity and connection. Sex can be hard to navigate in a relationship particularly after life changes – it can alter the way our bodies work, as well as our emotions and thoughts around sex and intimacy. I particularly enjoy working with couples where one partner has a chronic illness – I can help you navigate how that impacts your sex and intimacy.

Some things you may work on with a counsellor include:-

• Intimacy (differences in your definitions/needs/engaging in intimacy)
• Communication
• Setting and keeping boundaries
• Conflict
• Sex Struggles (difficulty orgasming, difficulty with gaining or maintaining an erection, painful intercourse etc)
• Expanding your understanding and experience of sex and intimacy
• Desire and arousal
• Infidelity or betrayal
• Sexuality related body issues or insecurities

It’s important to note that I am non-judgemental of sex workers and whilst it is not yet a specialty for me, I do have enough knowledge to be able to effectively counsel around specific sex worker issues and experiences.

Keep swiping to see what is my specialty work in the sex and relationship field

I’m passionate about counselling for non-monogamous relationships (polyamory, swinging, open relationship, relationship anarchy etc). I provide a safe space free of judgement and do not believe alternative relationships are to be feared or “fixed”. If you are looking to explore non-monogamy, I can help you explore your thoughts and emotions and work with you to create boundaries and effective communication.

It can be frustrating seeing a therapist who doesn’t know about polyamory and you feel you need to explaining common terms or concepts. Even if you are seeking therapy for a non-related issue (ie a change of job, death in the family, trauma) it may be important to you to see a poly-friendly counsellor so they understand a big part of your life.
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Some things you may work on with a counsellor include:-

• Understanding and navigating NRE (New Relationship Energy)
• Setting and maintaining boundaries
• Emotions such as guilt, jealousy and compersion
• Effective communication
• Scheduling and family dynamics within polyamory
• Navigating social settings, stigmas and family judgmental or disapproval
• Transitioning a relationship from monogamous to non-monogamous
• Fear of loss of control or stability within the relationship
• Loneliness and self doubt when one partner proposes a new relationship model
• Understanding and applying the best fit relationship model (eg don’t ask don’t tell, swinging, polyamory)
• Anxiety and how to approach bringing up desires of non-monogamy within an existing monogamous relationship

I love counselling people in relation to kink, fetish and BDSM. I provide a safe space free of judgement. Whether it be limited context specific or full-time immersion I do not believe alternative relationships are to be feared or “fixed”. I do not pathologize BDSM, kinks or fetishes and can help you integrate these in a safe, sane and consensual way in your life.

It can be frustrating seeing a therapist who doesn’t know about this beautiful world and you feel you need to explain common terms or concepts. No-one is an expert but a kink-friendly counsellor is a great starting place to seek understanding.
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Some things you may work on with a counsellor include:-

• Safe, sane and consensual exploration of kinks and fetishes
• Setting and maintaining boundaries
• Emotions such as guilt or shame
• Effective communication
• Navigating social settings, stigmas and family judgemental or disapproval
• Transitioning a relationship from vanilla to kinky
• Fear of loss of control or stability within the relationship
•Kink discordance (one partner who is vanilla and one kinky, or two kinksters whose likes don’t match)
• Anxiety and how to approach bringing up kink desires within an existing vanilla relationship
• Loneliness and self doubt when one partner proposes a new way of sexually relating

I work 1:1 with clients of any demographic – what my clients have in common is not their age or sex or beliefs, but what they need help with. I also work with couples, support persons of chronic illness and relationship groups.

All sessions are conducted via secure online video conference.

FIRST SESSION
60 minutes $120 Individual
90 minutes $195 Couple

FOLLOW UP
50 minutes $120 Individual
70 minutes $195 Couple

Relationship group pricing is available upon request – please email or follow the link below

If you click BOOK WITH ME below, you can also schedule a free 15 minute consultation. This is the best way to see if we are a good fit and you like my style, as well as discuss your needs from counselling.

Hi, I’m Amanda and I specializes in health counselling for chronic illness, chronic pain and invisible illness. I’m passionate about helping women navigate illness diagnosis, develop coping skills and the link between mind and body for pain management. I am empathetic, kind and understanding – I pride myself on being non-judgmental and come from a place of curiosity instead.

I have lived experience with endometriosis which makes me uniquely qualified to work with the chronic illness community. I have been a volunteer with QENDO for several years and am their resident counsellor – helping their volunteer teams with counselling content and understanding as well as providing 1:1 counselling to their members.

I have lived experience with non-monogamy and kink which has contributed to my passion to provide counselling in this area, as so frequently in my personal life I found health practitioners and therapists did not understand this lifestyle.

I live on the Gold Coast and love that it is less then an hour from rainforest to beach! I enjoy reading and learning, if I am not working on my counselling business you will generally find me doing one of these two things.

ACCESSIBILITY
I am LGBTIQ+ friendly (and a member of the community myself). Whilst I do not specialise in counselling community issues and experiences (eg coming out, transitioning) I can offer understanding of these experiences. It may be more suitable to see a counsellor who specialises in this. You can always reach out to me
at amandagrogancounsellingservices@outlook.com to see if we are a suitable match.

I currently only offer services online – which means disability access is greater for some and more difficult for others. At this stage, I do not have access to work with an interpreter – however if you have an interpreter you use, I can certainly discuss how this could work in a counselling context. I would love to discuss with you how I can provide accessible services for you – please reach out to me via email or visit my Psychology Today profile to call me https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/792206

I have limited formal training for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Part of my ongoing professional development is to do work around anti-racism and understanding the impacts of colonialism – I am by no means a specialist in these areas. If your primary issue is one of my specialties (chronic illness, chronic pain, non-monogamy, kink and fetish) we can have a discussion about what other cultural understanding you may need from me to be able to work effectively together.

QUALIFICATIONS
I am a member of the ACA (Australian Counselling Association) and follow their ethical guidelines. You can see my membership details on the link on my first page.

I have a Diploma in Counselling as my formal training, and am continuing study as per ACA guidelines, with independent providers. In 2020 some of the ongoing development I engaged in were:
• Biopsychosocial Impact of Pain and Strategies for Prevention and Intervention
• Non-pharmacological Pain Management and CBT
• Building Positive Self Talk
• Menstruation after Spinal Cord Injury
• Neural Bases of Genital and non genital elicited orgasms
• Sessions live with Esther Perel: Taboos of Death, Sex, Money

THERAPY BELIEFS

I chose counselling over psychology, as I believe counselling is more of a wellness model and psychology can often be a medical model. Scientific research is important and can provide great understanding of mental health conditions – I don’t think this always translates into client work. Labelling or pathologizing clients is not always helpful, and for me I prefer to look at how we can manage issues in your life regardless of what they are called. For example labelling an attachment disorder is less important to me as a counsellor, what is more important is talking about your experiences with attachment and working on coping skills to overcome areas you struggle with.

I think it is particularly important not to pathologize in the specialties I work in. My Chronic illness and pain clients already work within medical models for physical symptom treatments, surgeries, etc – which is why I believe a wellness model can be more healing.

For my non-monogamous and kink clients, these traits have a history of being pathologized in DSMs (diagnostic and statistical manual) which has done considerable damage on a societal and at times personal level – again, a wellness model can be more healing in this area.

What is a wellness model? I like the definition long by Brian Hettler one of the original founders of the more modern day wellness movement "[Wellness is] an active process through which people become aware of, and make choices toward a more successful existence.” This doesn’t mean that I don’t take science and the medical model into consideration – there are times that is an important part of becoming more aware and making choices.