Starting Without the Stress

Stress is the most common reason people walk into a multi-discipline clinic, and the risk is that whoever they see offers their own tool regardless of fit. So here is an honest division of labour.

Acupuncture and massage. Genuinely useful for the physical side — held shoulders, a clenched jaw, shallow breathing, a back that will not let go — and the effect is real and temporary. A course with a review, not an indefinite standing appointment.

A long consultation. Useful for the audit: where the recovery is in your week, what time work stops, what the alcohol actually is, what you have stopped doing. Then two changes that survive a bad week.

Your GP. Necessary, not optional, if this has become persistent low mood, panic attacks, avoidance, or drinking more to cope. A mental health treatment plan subsidises psychology sessions, and psychological therapy outperforms everything in this building for those conditions. Also necessary for the bloods that mimic stress: thyroid, iron, B12.

Nobody here. If you are in crisis. Lifeline 13 11 14, or 000 in an emergency.

What we will not do is convert a stress presentation into a twelve-session package across three practitioners. That is the easiest way to spend a great deal of money in a clinic like this and it is not a plan. Everything here carries a measure and a review date.

We are at 2 Austin Street, Lane Cove, opposite the library and metres from Longueville Road, with parking behind the library.

The hardest part is usually the first phone call

Most people put this off longer than they meant to. Not because the problem went away, but because booking means admitting it is a problem, and because nobody wants to arrive somewhere and discover they have come to the wrong place.

So before anything else: asking costs nothing and commits you to nothing. You can describe what is going on, hear whether it is something we work with, and decide afterwards. Plenty of those conversations end with us pointing someone somewhere else, and that is a perfectly good outcome.

What you do not need before you book

You do not need a referral. You do not need a diagnosis. You do not need to have tried everything else first, and you do not need to have it clearly explained in your head — "I just do not feel right" is a reasonable way to start, and it is how a lot of people start.

You also do not need to be in crisis to deserve an appointment. Waiting until something is unbearable makes it harder to shift, not easier.

What is useful to bring, if you have it

Any test results, scans or specialist letters. A list of what you are taking, including supplements. And if you can, a rough sense of when this started and what makes it better or worse — not a timeline to the day, just the shape of it.

If you have none of that, come anyway. It is a first appointment, not an exam.

How to tell whether this is the right place

Three things worth asking before you commit to anything:

• Do they work with what I have? A straight answer here is a good sign. So is "not really, but I know who does".
• What happens in the first session? You should get a clear answer, not a mystery.
• What will it cost and how long usually? Nobody can promise a result, but everyone should be able to tell you the fee and roughly how many visits is typical.

And if something is urgent

This kind of care works over weeks. If you are dealing with severe pain that came on suddenly, a serious injury, chest pain, or thoughts of harming yourself, that needs a doctor or an emergency service now — not an appointment next week. In Australia, 000 is the emergency number and Lifeline is 13 11 14, at any hour.

Ready when you are

When you want to take the next step, the contact page is the way in. The next thing that happens is the first consultation, and it is worth knowing what that looks like before you walk in.