About us

Discover the compassionate support offered by our Melbourne Counselling Service team, who are committed to providing an inclusive environment for staff and clients. Our mission is to create a space to value and include people of all backgrounds, genders, sexualities, cultures, beliefs, bodies and abilities.

Our services include Gambler’s Help City and Inner North (offering therapeutic and financial counselling, community education and venue support) and a generalist financial counselling program (providing financial counselling in various locations around Melbourne).

Rest assured, our services are free, confidential and provided by our qualified team. We accept both professional and self-referrals with interpreter services available if required.

Our team is made up of professionals with qualifications in psychology, social work, family therapy, financial counselling, public health, and workplace training and assessment.

We aim to:

Help clients achieve their goals
Be supportive and responsive
Respect cultural differences
Minimise harm associated with potentially damaging behaviours
Work as a team among various disciplines

As a service of The Salvation Army, we value:

Integrity – being honest and accountable in all we do
Compassion – hearing and responding to pain with love
Respect – affirming the worth and capacity of all people
Diversity – embracing difference as a gift
Collaboration – creating partnerships in mission

Frequently asked questions

Our services are offered to people impacted by their own or someone else’s gambling.
A health care card is necessary, we do not require a Mental Health Care Plan.

Call 03 9653 3250

We will contact you to find out more about your situation and determine the best path for you.

You will be contacted every two weeks to let you know how wait times are progressing, alternatively, there are support options to explore in the meantime.

We will contact you via phone or SMS as soon as a counsellor is available at the time you have nominated.

Yes, every Tuesday until 7:00pm, the following phone, online or face to face appointments can be booked:

Therapeutic counselling
Financial counselling

That your thoughts are in a safe, confidential, non-threatening, accepting environment. We offer you the space and time to explore and better understand things you want to work through.

And when you are ready, we can help in setting goals, and explore options to improve your life – as you design with us.

For counselling to be of most benefit to you, it is important that you feel comfortable with both the style the counsellor uses and your relationship with them. You need to feel you can speak your mind. If this is not happening, it is vital that you bring this up with the counsellor and discuss any changes necessary.

50 minutes to an hour. Your first appointment may be up to 90 minutes to allow for to give us a full picture of your situation and for the development of an action plan. If you need to make a shorter appointment or to leave before the scheduled end of the session, let your counsellor know ahead of time.

There is no set number. The amount of counselling sessions is worked out between you and your counsellor.

To ensure that we stay ‘on track’ with your counselling we will regularly review your counselling against your goals.

We treat your personal information according to privacy legislation (the Privacy Act 1988, the Information Privacy Act 2001 (Vic) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic)).

There are some exceptions to keeping information confidential such as medical emergencies, immediate risks of harm to self or others, or as otherwise required by law. Your counsellor will discuss how we treat your personal information in the context of your service before your counselling begins.

We can provide either telephone or face-to-face professional interpreters upon request. This is free of charge to our clients.

We feel it is more helpful for our clients to use an objective interpreter with whom they do not have a relationship.

Yes. We have some counsellors who speak multiple languages.

Yes. This will be determined on a case by case basis by your counsellor.

No. It is not our policy to provide revocation letters.