My Approach
I work with people navigating anxiety, stress, relationship difficulties, trauma, grief, and patterns they'd like to understand and shift - including the quieter ones like drinking, overspending, or compulsive behaviour.
My approach is integrative and evidence-informed. I draw on attachment theory, parts work, mindfulness, harm reduction, and current neuroscience research on the nervous system. Sessions draw on a range of approaches.
Neuropsychotherapy tells us about how the brain holds experience, how the body stores stress, and why some patterns are so persistent - not because of weakness, but because of how we’re wired. Understanding this can be genuinely releasing.
My practice is informed by the latest neuroscience, which shapes how I understand and work with the nervous system, emotional regulation, and the body’s role in mental health. This approach reflects the emerging integration of brain science and psychotherapy that I believe is transforming how we understand and treat mental health.
The way we work together will depend on you - some people benefit from practical, solutions-focused approaches; others find more value in creative or narrative ways of exploring their experiences. Often it's a blend of both.
More than any single technique, I offer considered, unhurried attention - space where you can think clearly, feel honestly, and make sense of what's actually going on.
Book an Introductory Session
What I Offer
Sound Minds is a private mental health and wellness practice.
Using evidence-based, neuroscience-informed approaches, we work together to untangle the patterns that keep repeating and process the difficult emotions that are hard to shift on your own.
Whether you're in the middle of something acute, or sitting with something that has quietly been there for years, this is a space for that work.
Working Together
Bookings are made online via the website for either a Telehealth video call or an in-person session in Manly or the Sydney CBD.
Or paste booking link into your browser: https://clientportal.zandahealth.com/clientportal/soundmindstherapy
New clients will be required to read and complete a brief intake form and a privacy and consent form.
I offer standard 50-minute sessions to individuals and couples. Sessions are booked as one hour. This allows us a few minutes at the start to settle in, get comfortable, and take care of any administration - before moving into our 50 minutes of therapeutic work together. Payment is processed in advance of your session so we can use that time fully, without any transactional moments at the end.
No GP referral is required.
Fees and charges
I believe in being straightforward about fees so there are no surprises. Session costs reflect the location and format of your appointment. All fees are payable at the time of your session, with a room/cancellation fee taken at time of booking. Secure online payment options include Apple Pay, Stripe and all major credit cards.
Standard Session - $140 + Room Fee
Payment for the standard session fee of $140 is the same for each location and is processed at the start of our session so our time together can be fully focused from the moment we begin.
[A room/cancellation fee applied to each session. The room fee varies by location, and is made at the time of booking. Room fees cover the cost of the room for the session: Sydney CBD room fees - $45, Manly room fees - $35, and Telehealth room fees - $25]
Sydney CBD Rooms at GATHR (Mezzanine, 309 George Street, Sydney, NSW)
$185 — 50-minute session - Individuals (First discounted session $115)
$265 — 50-minute session - Couples (First discounted session $155)
[Please note a $45 room/cancellation fee is taken at time of booking, with the balance paid at the start of the session ; ie.$140 for a 50 minute individual session or $220 for a 50 minute couples session]
A 50% discount is applied to your first session, however this excludes the room-cancellation fee of $45
Manly Rooms at The Village Chiropractic, off the Corso (Suite 1, 12 Sydney Rd, Manly, NSW)
$175 — 50-minute session - Individuals (First discounted session $105)
$255 — 50-minute session - Couples (First discounted session $145)
[Please note a $35 room/cancellation fee is taken at time of booking, with the balance paid at the start of the session; ie.$140 for a 50 minute individual session or $220 for a 50 minute couples session]
A 50% discount is applied to your first session, however this excludes the room-cancellation fee of $35
Telehealth — Zoom, Australia-wide
$165 — 50-minute session - Individuals (First discounted session $95)
$245 — 50-minute session - Couples (First discounted session $135)
[Please note a $25 room/cancellation fee is taken at time of booking, with the balance paid at the start of the session; ie.$140 for a 50 minute individual session or $220 for a 50 minute couples session]
A 50% discount is applied to your first session, however this excludes the room-cancellation fee of $25
Opening Hours
Mondays and Wednesdays: 9:30am to 4:30pm
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 10 am to 4pm
If you would like an earlier or later session, or if your desired session time is unavailable please specify your preferred times and select the waitlist option when booking. Alternatively, send an email or message with your preferred times and I will do my best to accommodate you.
Cancellation policy
I ask for at least 24 hours' notice if you need to cancel or reschedule. A room/cancellation fee is taken at the time of booking and will be taken as a non-refundable payment for late cancellations and missed appointments. I understand that life is sometimes unpredictable — please get in touch as early as you can.
Medicare and private health insurance
My services are not currently covered by Medicare. This means there is no medicare rebate and that your sessions do not enter the public health record system, which may appeal to clients who wish to protect their confidentiality and privacy. Some private health funds offer rebates for counselling or psychotherapy — it's worth checking with your provider, as cover varies significantly between funds and policies.
About Me
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I'm Colleen Carolin, a PACFA- and ACA-registered counsellor and psychotherapist with a Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy. Before entering private practice, I spent more than 25 years across corporate, business ownership, and entrepreneurship – building things from the ground up, navigating cross-continental moves, and living through the kinds of transitions my clients now bring to the room. I came to this work not as a detour, but as a destination.
I have often been the person people come to and I was naturally drawn to deeper conversations. For a long time I understood this as a personal quality - something I simply was, rather than something I could train. Eventually I understood that the instinct needed a proper container. My Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy gave me that - the clinical framework, the neuroscience, the ethics, and unexpectedly, the language for experiences I had been living for years without quite being able to name.
I work integratively, which means I don't bring a fixed approach to every person. I bring curiosity, a well-stocked toolkit, and a genuine belief that you are not broken — you are responding, often very logically, to a life that has asked a great deal of you.
I believe that therapy isn't only for people in crisis. Increasingly, the people who seek it out are functioning well by most measures - and they come because they want to stay that way. To build genuine resilience rather than just manage. To develop the emotional flexibility and mental health fitness that holds up under pressure, not just when life is calm. This is the emerging understanding of mental health - less about treating illness, more about building capacity. The inner equivalent of looking after your physical health before something goes wrong. That said, this practice holds both - the everyday work of building inner strength, and the deeper work of healing what needs to heal.
If any of this resonates - and you feel you're ready for a conversation that goes somewhere other conversations don't get to, held by someone whose only role is to think with you, about your own life - I'd be glad to hear from you.
The first step
is simply
getting in touch.
I offer a discounted introductory session so you can get a sense of how I work and whether it feels like the right fit, with no obligation to proceed.
Book an Introductory Session
Or contact me using the online message form or directly at support@soundmindstherapy.com.au
*50% Discount applied to standard session rate, excludes room-booking fee
