For Referrers | The Glow Centre

Fees are current from 1st July 2024.

The 2023-2024 Australian Psychological Society (APS) recommended fee for 46-60 minute session is $300.

Referring your patient to us

The Glow Centre is a safe, supportive space where clients can explore themselves more deeply, understand their behaviour patterns, and improve relationships and wellbeing.

Our clinicians draw on evidence-based therapies and are committed to creating meaningful, lasting change for the people we work with.

Our approach

We aim to go beyond symptom management — helping clients develop insight, resilience, and long-term growth. Each person’s therapy is tailored to their needs, and progress is regularly reviewed to ensure the best possible outcomes. We value collaboration and transparent communication with referrers to support continuity of care.

Who we work with

Individual therapy: we support adolescents* (aged 14+) and adults across a range of presentations. *Each clinician’s areas of focus and minimum age criteria are outlined on our clinician profiles.

DBT program: we offer a DBT program for adults (18+), delivered through our dedicated GlowDBT service.

Our practice focuses on individual therapy and skills programs, rather than couples or family therapy.

Practical information for referrers

Fees: we are a private practice and fees are payable at the time of consultation. Clients eligible for the Medicare Better Access initiative can claim rebates after paying the full session fee.
Referrals: referrals can be made under a GP Mental Health Treatment Plan or psychiatrist or paediatrician referral.
Service limitations: please ensure that your patient is aware that we do not offer bulk billing, invoice third parties, accept Chronic Disease Management Plans, or offer crisis counselling.

Ethical boundary note

To maintain ethical standards and ensure objective care, we generally do not see individuals who are known to each other - such as family members, partners, or friends. While we appreciate the trust that referrers and clients place in us through referrals, working with people who share a personal relationship can compromise confidentiality, objectivity, and therapeutic outcomes. Even if one person is no longer receiving treatment, prior knowledge of their experiences may still affect our ability to provide unbiased support. For these reasons, we avoid dual relationships of this kind. We can discuss booking you with another clinician at our practice (pending clinician availability).

Making a referral to us

General Practitioner

Please provide:

• Referral letter

• Mental Health Treatment Plan (if your patient consents to it’s release), or a statement in the referral letter that a MHTP has been created, or

• Eating Disorder Treatment and Management Plan

Psychiatrist or Paediatrician

Please provide:

• Referral letter requesting services under the Better Access initiative

• Eating Disorder Treatment and Management Plan

Patients not accessing Medicare rebates

Where a patient is not eligible for Medicare rebates, or chooses not to access them, you are welcome to provide a general referral or recommendation letter. Please indicate in the letter that Medicare will not be utilized.

Where to send your referral

We send and receive clinical communication and referrals via fax or secure email only.

Fax: 3319 6618

Password protected secure email: info@glowcentre.com.au

Please note that we do not have the capacity to accommodate urgent referrals.

Referral requirements for Better Access services

Referral letter

A referral letter can be to a specific clinician or a general referral to The Glow Centre. Our intake team will match your patient to a clinician based on several factors (patient needs and availability, clinician caseloads, etc.).

A referral for mental health services should be in writing (signed and dated by the GP) and include:

patient's name, date of birth and address;
the patient’s symptoms or diagnosis, including whether a GP Mental Health Treatment Plan has been completed for the patient;
a list of any current medications;
the number of sessions the patient is being referred for (the ‘course of treatment’);
a statement about whether the patient has a mental health treatment plan or a psychiatrist assessment and management plan.

GP Mental Health Treatment Plans

A Mental Health Treatment Plan should be treated as a living document for updating as required.

If your patient has previously had a MHTP created and they are seeing their regular doctor, they may not require a new MHTP, just a referral for psychology.

If your patient is new to you and your practice or their diagnosis has changed, you may need to have a new MHTP created.

Course of treatment and specifying the number of services in a referral

Referrals are valid for the number of services noted in the letter, not by expiry date.

The referring practitioner can decide how many services the patient will receive in a course of treatment, within the maximum service limit for the course of treatment. The maximum service limit for each course of treatment is set out below.

Individual therapy:

Initial course of treatment - a maximum of 6 individual services.
Subsequent course of treatment - remaining individual services up to the patient's cap of 10 services per calendar year (for example, if the patient received 6 services in their initial course of treatment, they could only receive 4 services in a subsequent course of treatment provided within the same calendar year).

Groups:

Up to a maximum of 10 group therapy mental health treatment services per calendar year.

Group therapy referrals do not need to specify it is for group therapy. Referring practitioners do not need to specify if a referral is for group therapy and/or individual therapy under Better Access. If a referral does not specify whether it is for individual or group therapy, the patient can use the referral to access either or both individual and group therapy treatment options and for the above maximum services per referral. It is recommended that the patient speak to their referring practitioner about their treatment needs and the type of treatment that they are engaged in at The Glow Centre.

Please note: if the referral letter is written for more than the maximum service limit, we an only accept the referral for the maximum allowed by Medicare.

More information about referrals and GP Mental Health Treatment Plans:

If your patient has unused sessions on a referral at the end of the calendar year, they can continue to use them the next year.

After your patient has completed the first course of treatment (maximum 6 sessions), additional sessions can be referred for under the same MHTP, with a maximum of 10 sessions claimable per calendar year. Please take into consideration any services accessed with another allied health professional within the same calendar year.

GP MHTPs do not expire at the end of a calendar year or in 12 months from creation, so your patient does not need a new plan to continue their GP MHTP into the next year.

For ongoing management of a patient under a GP MHTP, referring doctors can use time-tiered 'general attendance' items.

A MHTP review is not usually required unless there is a change in the patient's presentation/diagnosis.

After your patient has exhausted all 10 Medicare rebated sessions for the calendar year, they can continue to see us as a private patient for as long as they would like, but no further Medicare rebates will apply within the current calendar year.

Eating Disorder Treatment Plans

For patients living with a diagnosed eating disorder, an EDP can be used if they are to receive psychological treatment for the diagnosed eating disorder. Please see our Meet the Team page to view our clinicians who see clients for psychological treatment for eating disorders.

The EDP requires involvement from a multidisciplinary team. This may include:

Coordinating GP, Psychiatrist, or Paediatrician (required)
Psychologist (such as your clinician at our practice)
Accredited Practising Dietitian
Other health professionals (e.g. paediatrician, psychiatrist, or medical specialist as needed)

It’s essential that your team members communicate regularly and work collaboratively towards the patient's treatment goals.

Once the plan has been developed, your patient may be eligible to access rebates for:

up to 40 psychological service rebates
up to 20 dietetic service rebates

Plan validity and expiry:

EDP are valid for 12 months from the commencement date of the plan.
Allowable EDP rebates are calculated per 12-month period from commencement date of the EDP.

Referral and review intervals:

referred sessions are released in stages, with reviews required along the way.
the maximum number of sessions that can be referred for at a time is 10.
referring practitioners cannot override the maximum, and the recipient can only accept for the allowed maximum.
some referral stages will require a review by multiple members of the patient's care team:
- sessions 1-10: the primary health professional (GP, Psychiatrist, or Paediatrician) prepares an EDP and referral. This initial referral allows the patient to access up to 10 psychology sessions.
- sessions 11–20: once the first 10 sessions are used, the patient must return to their primary health professional (GP or Psychiatrist) for a progress review. If ongoing treatment is recommended, the referring practitioner can provide a new referral for up to another 10 sessions.
- sessions 21–30: accessing sessions beyond 20 requires a more detailed review. At this stage, two medical professionals must review the patient's progress (usually the GP plus a Psychiatrist or Paediatrician). Both must agree that further treatment is needed before another referral is provided for sessions 21–30.
- sessions 31–40: for the remaining 10 sessions, the patient must return to their primary health professional (GP, Psychiatrist, or Paediatrician) for a progress review. If ongoing treatment is recommended, the referring practitioner can provide a new referral for up to another 10 sessions up to the maximum of 40 sessions.

Because these review processes can take time, we recommend advising your patient to arrange review appointments with their care team well in advance (before their current referral has been completed) so that they don’t experience gaps in care or difficulties claiming Medicare rebates.

At the end of the 12-month plan period, a new plan can be issued by the referring doctor if required. At that time, the session count 'resets' to zero, meaning that access to a new set of up to 40 psychological services can commence again.

Useful links regarding plans and referrals (clickable links are below)

Services Australia fact sheets:

Services Australia infographics:

GPMHTP and EDP templates:

General Practice Mental Health Standards Collaboration has created templates in various file types (Word, PDF, and formatted versions for software systems): GPMHTP templates
InsideOut Institute for Eating Disorders has templates available in the InsideOut GP Hub & Practice Management Toolkit on their website: Plan templates, item numbers, and other information for referring under EDP

Communication and collaboration with referrers

How we will work with you

Upon receipt of referral, a member of our intake team will make contact with your patient regarding appointment availability. We will advise both you and your patient of there is a significant wait.

We will notify you once your patient has attended their first scheduled appointment, and advise the outcome of the session and the plan for therapy moving forward.

After 6 sessions, we will write to you to give a treatment update and recommend any additional course of treatment in order for you to consider preparing another referral.

After the next 4 sessions, we will again write to you with a treatment update.

We will then write to you at the end of that course of treatment.

We always welcome calls from referring doctors, we are only too happy to chat with you about your patient's treatment. We are committed to excellence in outcomes and greatly appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with our clients' treating team in order to ensure the best possible all-round care is provided to our clients.