Suzanne Higgins – Credentialed Mental Health Nurse
For bookings please call Suzanne on 0491 005 804
Suzanne offers mental health counselling for women and men who are experiencing challenges during their pregnancy or in the early months and years after the birth.
Suzanne has a passion for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health and her areas of expertise include:
- anxiety and depression,
- grief counselling – including pregnancy loss,
- adjustment disorder,
- parent-infant relationship issues,
- post-traumatic stress (related to events around the pregnancy or birth),
- role overload and
- poor family of origin experiences.
Suzanne strongly feels that it is such an important life stage and that it is a privilege to support families during this time.
Suzanne provides counselling at The Birth House, and at another venue in Highton.
Suzanne works within an Alliance with Pritchard Health which enables some Medicare rebates for clients who come with a GP referral under the Psychological Therapy Scheme. In order to access this scheme, people need to meet certain criteria which GPs will explore before making the referral. The GP needs to nominate either Suzanne Higgins or Pritchard Health as the preferred provider on the referral form. This will mean there is no gap payment for up to 10 sessions per year as it is fully funded by Medicare.
People may also choose to self-fund and Suzanne is happy to discuss this option with potential clients.
Suzanne can be contacted on 0491 005 804. When you make contact she will explain the options for accessing her services and assist with referral processes where necessary. She is also happy to discuss whether she is the ‘right’ counsellor for you and if not, to give you the name of others who may best suit your needs.
In a crisis you would be best served by seeing your local GP or contacting the 24 hour Access line on 1300 094 187.
Suzanne has almost 15 years of perinatal mental health experience with Raphael Services here in Geelong, and also has experience in midwifery, maternal and child health and community health nursing which spans almost 35 years. Suzanne is a Credentialed Mental Health Nurse in addition to her qualifications in other nursing fields as mentioned above. She has postgraduate qualifications in Perinatal and Infant Mental Health and most recently was involved in the expert working committee who develop the 2017 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Perinatal Mental Health that are endorsed by NHMRC. Suzanne was a representative of the Australian College of Mental Health Nursing on the project group.
Suzanne grew up in Geelong, married a Melbourne man and lived up there for 25 years before returning to Geelong in 2002. She is a mother of 3: Marnie 25, Matilda 22 and Mason 13 years old. All of their pets also have names starting with ‘M’.