About Bernadette
Bernadette Welham brings five years of professional practice in Australia to her counselling work. She is an AASW social worker and focuses on everyday problems like stress, anxiety and depression. Bernadette believes people are experts in their own lives and draws on their strengths to help them move forward.
She helps with family conflict, parenting strain and the lasting effects of trauma and abuse. She also supports people dealing with addictions, grief, intimacy concerns and relationship challenges.
How Bernadette works
Practical coping strategies are part of sessions when they suit the person’s needs. Bernadette uses a mix of approaches to match the issue at hand. Sessions can include exploring patterns that come from attachment, using cognitive tools to manage thoughts and practising mindfulness to ease intense feelings.
The emphasis is on straightforward, usable skills rather than jargon. Her work also covers a wide range of additional concerns such as body image, chronic illness, caregiver stress, ADHD, and issues related to adoption and foster care. She is comfortable discussing sexual preferences and kink without judgement.
This breadth means she can respond to complex or overlapping problems. People who come to Bernadette can expect a calm, respectful space to talk and plan next steps. She aims to work collaboratively, setting goals that feel achievable.
Taking the first step can be hard and she acknowledges that effort from the outset.
Bernadette lists 11 ways of working on the entry:
What Bernadette works with
The areas below are the ones Bernadette selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Fertility issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hoarding
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Relationship issues
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Traumatic brain injury
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | AASW |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 5 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Australia |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How therapeutic approaches work online
Attachment-based work looks at how early relationships shape current patterns and emotional reactions; it helps when people want to understand why they form certain bonds or repeat difficult relationship dynamics. Client-centred therapy focuses on listening and reflecting back what matters to the person, helping them find their own solutions and make choices that fit their values. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) teaches practical strategies to recognise and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours, which can reduce anxiety and improve mood.Deciding which approach to use is something the therapist does with the person. Bernadette will talk through goals, preferences and what has helped before. Together they will try options and adjust the plan as needed so therapy stays useful and relevant.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat and text-based messaging. Video is useful for face-to-face conversation and visual cues, phone sessions work well with lower bandwidth, live chat is handy for shorter check-ins, and text messaging lets someone reflect in writing between sessions. These options make it easier to fit counselling around work, caregiving or busy days and still get consistent support.
Start online instead of waiting
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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