Jo Schaeffer – Psychotherapist

I studied psychology at University. Towards the end of my first post-graduate training in counselling, I set up private practice in Tokyo, Japan where I lived and worked for two and a half years.

I then took two years to travel and experience life before re-settling in my home town of Sydney and establishing my private practice here.

I have since completed the formal part of my second post-graduate training, with my thesis and exam preparation in progress.

During my training I worked part time for two years in a private psychiatric hospital in Sydney. This involved working individually and with groups of people with drug and alcohol, mood and personality disorders. This experience gave me a strong foundation for my psychotherapy practice.

I also managed and supervised a large team of volunteer telephone counsellors. This experience highlighted the potential for telephone counselling and online therapy to allow greater access for people in remote places.

I chose psychotherapy out of the other possibilities in this field because part of the training requirement is to personally be the subject of psychotherapy. This makes a lot of sense to me. I have been in therapy since I began my training and I am living proof that it works.

I feel passionately that psychotherapy is a kind of attention that every human being deserves.

It is objective and subjective, accepting and challenging, intimate and private, all at once, with the overall goal being your greatest well-being.

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney
  • Graduate Diploma of Counselling from the Australian College of Applied Psychology, Sydney
  • Advanced Clinical training towards Masters in Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy from the Australian Centre for Integrative Studies, Sydney

Professional Associations