Therapy Services

Specialist Therapy Services (STS)

Our Specialist Therapy Service is a free therapeutic service that adapts evidence-based interventions to respond to children and young people that have been impacted by unwanted sexual experiences or those who display harmful sexual behaviours.

Our services are tailored to meet the individual needs of children, young people and their families in Gladstone and Rockhampton.

The program is funded by the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women and takes referrals from families, young people, and services (government and non-government).

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Make a referral

How we help

We help children and young people understand that what happened wasn’t their fault, and work with them on ways that they can reclaim their physical and emotional space and confidence. We also assist children, young people and their caregivers to act protectively.

Our service has family and individual counselling rooms, but we can also meet people at a school or at their home. We meet with children, young people and their families where they feel most comfortable.

We help develop responses to unwanted sexual experiences and help those that display harmful sexual behaviours by:

Providing a safe place to express and process difficult thoughts and feelings
Giving children and young people the opportunity to explore the impact of their experiences
Supporting children and young people to develop skills for managing unpleasant physical sensations
Empowering parents and care givers to help them deal with the complexity of the situation and any challenging behaviours of the child or young person.

Goals may include:

Lessening the negative impacts of their sexual abuse experience
Encouraging open communication within the family
Equipping parents or carers to support the child involved
Improving the child, young person and parent’s ability to create a safe environment
Addressing sexually harmful behaviour

Referrals

The program is available to:

A young person (18 years or under) who has experienced unwanted sexual contact
A young person (10 to 17 years) who displays, harmful sexual behaviours
A parent or carer who requires information about supporting a child impacted by sexual harm

Referrals can be organised by the family, the community or a representing organisation.

Services are generally provided at the Gladstone or Rockhampton centres but outreach may be considered or arranged on suitability.

Our Rockhampton service is available for people living in Rockhampton, Capricorn Coast, Gracemere and Mt Morgan and surrounds. For more information please call 07 4860 8100.

Our Gladstone service is available for people living in the Gladstone region. For more information please call 07 4910 8810.