My Aged Care Counselling in Melbourne and Online

Honour Your Loss. Rebuild Your Life. Find Your Place.®

Counselling for Older Adults and Their Families

I provide grief-informed, trauma-aware and neurodiversity-affirming counselling for older adults in Melbourne and online across Australia.

Later life can bring significant change. You may be adjusting to the death of someone important, changes in health or mobility, the loss of independence, caregiving responsibilities, downsizing or moving away from a long-term home.

Counselling offers a place to make sense of these changes, work with grief and overwhelm, and consider what support would help you maintain wellbeing, dignity and independence.

What Counselling Can Support

I work with older adults and family members experiencing:

  • grief following the death of a partner, family member, friend or companion animal
  • anticipatory grief and caregiving strain
  • changes in health, mobility, capacity or independence
  • ageing-related changes in identity and roles
  • loneliness, isolation or loss of community
  • anxiety or overwhelm during later-life transitions
  • downsizing, relocation or moving into residential care
  • emotional distress connected with clutter or chronic disorganisation
  • hoarding behaviours and difficulty making decisions about possessions
  • family strain arising from care needs, belongings or changing circumstances

My approach is relational and grounded in autonomy, dignity and respect for the person’s choices.

Accessing Counselling Through Support at Home

Support at Home replaced the former Home Care Packages Program in November 2025.

Counselling, psychotherapy and psychology are included within the allied health and therapy services that may be available through government-funded aged care.

Access depends on:

  • the person’s aged-care assessment
  • the services approved in their support plan
  • their available Support at Home funding
  • whether their registered provider agrees to arrange the service
  • the proposed counselling being connected with assessed needs, wellbeing and independence

Funding is not automatic. The person’s Support at Home provider or care partner must approve and arrange the service before funded counselling begins.

Contact me - Julie Jensen

My Aged Care

How the Process Works

1. Book a Brief Enquiry Call

We discuss what is happening, what support you are seeking and whether my counselling service appears suitable.

2. Contact Your Support at Home Provider

You, a family member or your care partner asks whether counselling is included in the person’s approved services and whether the provider can arrange sessions with me.

3. Provider Approval and Service Arrangements

If the provider agrees, I can supply information about my service, qualifications, fees and availability.

The registered Support at Home provider will advise what agreements, documentation or onboarding steps are required before counselling begins.

4. Begin Counselling

Sessions can begin once the service, funding, fees and invoicing arrangements have been confirmed.

When Support at Home funding is not available, you may still choose to access counselling as a private, self-funded client.

Service Options

Counselling is available through:

Telehealth by phone or video: Available across Australia, including regional and rural areas

Home visits: Available in selected areas of Melbourne’s north and northeast

Walk-and-talk counselling: Available by arrangement in accessible outdoor locations

Home visits and walk-and-talk sessions depend on suitability, location and availability.

Counselling for Clutter, Downsizing and Hoarding

Later-life changes can make decisions about possessions especially difficult.

Belongings may be connected with identity, memories, relationships, grief and a sense of home. Downsizing or preparing to move can therefore involve much more than deciding what to keep and what to discard.

Counselling may help you:

  • understand emotional attachment to possessions
  • work with grief connected with letting go
  • reduce shame and conflict about clutter
  • make decisions at a manageable pace
  • adjust to changes in home, capacity or independence
  • communicate with family members about belongings and care needs

I do not provide hands-on decluttering, cleaning, removal services, case management or aged-care brokerage.

You can read more about Chronic Disorganisation Counselling in Melbourne and Online andHoarding and Severe Clutter Support

Working Alongside Other Health Services

Counselling funded through Support at Home must not duplicate a service already funded through another government program.

Some people may work with both a psychologist and a counsellor when the purposes are clearly different and the services do not overlap.

For example, a psychologist may provide clinical mental-health treatment through Medicare, while counselling through Support at Home may focus on grief, adjustment, ageing-related change, emotional wellbeing and maintaining independence.

Your Support at Home provider determines whether the proposed counselling can be included in your approved services.

My Approach and Qualifications

I am a PACFA Registered Clinical Counsellor, Registered Clinical Psychotherapist and PACFA Mental Health Practitioner.

My work is informed by relational Gestalt psychotherapy and specialist training in grief, trauma, neurodiversity, ageing, chronic disorganisation and hoarding.

Counselling is collaborative. You decide what matters, what we focus on and the pace of the work.

Start With a Brief Enquiry Call

The best place to start is with a free 15-minute enquiry call.

We will briefly discuss what is happening, whether my counselling service appears appropriate and what information your Support at Home provider may require.

Book your free enquiry call

Family members or care partners may book with the older person’s knowledge and consent.

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