Renée McDonald
Are you ready to become the best
version of yourself?
Let’s take the first step towards your goals.
About
Renée McDonald
Hello and welcome to my website!
I’m Renée, a counsellor, psychotherapist and coach.
I am passionate about helping people live fulfilling lives by equipping them with the skills to overcome the challenges they face.
With over 20 years experience working in therapy and the community, I also bring over 16 years experience in my private practice.
Offering compassionate, confidential and caring sessions in counselling, coaching and training, I am driven to help individuals, couples and families find the balance they are looking for.
Located in Wollongong for in-person sessions, with digital online therapy and coaching sessions available to assist you anywhere in the world, I work with clients both locally and internationally, with additional accreditation to deliver online coaching and counselling.
Whether you are feeling lost, stuck, confused or hurt, let’s sit down and chat about getting you back on track.
Socials:
The finish line can wait.
Let’s just take the first step together.
Book your free 15 minute consultation*.
*Please note the terms and conditions connected to this free 15 minute consultation. It is only available once for each client. This is not an ongoing free service.
Services
Counselling
Helps with: Anxiety, bereavement, grief, loss, bullying, mental health, relationships, trauma, stress.
Counselling falls under the umbrella term of ‘talking therapies’.
Counselling gives people the opportunity to talk openly about their challenges and feelings, while being heard and understood. Counselling tends to be short-term and I tend to use solution-focused, existential and person-centred short-term methods. Counselling aims to help you live a more productive life in your own way.
If you are looking to make a positive change in your life, or would like to explore and understand your feelings in more depth, please explore my counselling services further.
Psychotherapy
Helps with: Mental health, wellness goals, fear and insecurities, stress, relationships, destructive habits, childhood trauma, grief, loss, anxiety and depression.
Psychotherapy is a collection of therapies designed to help you with the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that are affecting you. I am trained in integrative, existential and humanistic psychotherapies. This means I work with you wherever your headspace is.
Psychotherapy is more long-term work and gives you the necessary skills to cope with challenges in a healthy and empowering way.
If you are looking to take control of your life and move forward with confidence and resilience, please explore my psychotherapy services further.
Life Coaching
Helps with: Confidence, career choices, accountability, goal setting, relationships, meaning, purpose, happiness.
Life coaching is a broad term that includes the support and guidance to live the life you crave.
If you feel disheartened, disillusioned, struggling with self-esteem, or any negative perception of your day to day routine, life coaching can assist.
Like a sculptor seeing a statue inside a block of clay, a life coach can challenge, motivate, support and inspire you.
If you are looking to return the spark to your life and power towards clearly defined goals, please explore my life coaching services further.
Business Consulting
Helps with: Changing workloads, business growth, training, upskilling, performance management, financial planning.
Are you satisfied with the current performance of your business? Or the people within your business? Business consulting provides objective support to ensure maximum productivity, efficiency and a confident workforce.
As an experienced business consultant I’m able to identify markets, bring niche expertise, action change, provide objectivity, and develop lasting professional solutions.
My expertise is in the area of assisting you to gain the best effort from your staff in order to achieve your professional goals.
If you are looking to increase business and achieve success, please explore my business consulting services further.
Business and Executive Coaching
Helps with: Productivity, motivation, leadership skills, performance, staff morale, communication, marketing, goal setting.
Business and executive coaching are two methods with the same goal – to solve business related issues and help clients get more from their business.
While business coaching has a focus on the metrics of success for a business: strategy, market needs, organisation and so on; executive coaching deals with personal growth.
Blended together these skills offer dynamic and multi-dimensional approaches, ideal for businesses looking to stabilise or grow.
I have extensive experience working with small businesses and professional practitioners to improve their mindsets, and as a result, increase their profits.
If you are looking to maximise the potential of your business, please explore my business and executive coaching services further.
Online Therapist Training
Helps with: Mentoring, digital familiarity, digital therapeutic holding, feedback, communication, disinhibition effect, written communication, audio and video tools.
Are you looking to take your real world therapeutic skills to the online environment?
The continued progression of technology has allowed for traditional therapeutic practice to move to the digital space, with client lives accessible in a dynamic and modern way.
Across email, audio, and video connectivity, the ability to connect with and heal clients wherever they are has never been more available.
Over the past three years, I have been training online therapists with my online therapy training solutions. This has expanded to become Australian Online Therapy Training.
If you are looking to succeed in the online therapy world, please explore my online therapist training services further.
Corporate Training
Helps with: Closing skill gaps, engaged employees, industry changes, technological development, job satisfaction.
A business that stands still is one that falls behind its competition.
With your staff the key to your success or failure as a business owner, it’s vital to ensure they experience regular training.
As an experienced coach, psychotherapist and mentor I can assist you to take your business to the next level.
If you are looking to achieve or retain your competitive edge, please explore my corporate training services further.
10 Reasons to seek
counselling or psychotherapy
You are dealing with…
- #1 Communication issues
- #2 Infidelity or unfaithfulness
- #3 The end of a relationship
- #4 Trust issues
- #5 Grief and bereavement
- #6 Sexual issues
- #7 Thoughts of self harm
- #8 Dysfunctional sleeping or eating patterns
- #9 Feelings of loss, loneliness or isolation
- #10 Sudden or unexpected changes
Looking to take your real world therapeutic skills to the online space?
Here’s a free helping hand.
‘5 Secrets of Online Therapy Success eBook’
10 Reasons to seek coaching
You are looking to…
- #1 Fast track your success
- #2 Overcome the obstacles in your path
- #3 Create the life of your dreams
- #4 Establish self value
- #5 Find and maintain motivation
- #6 Openly express your thoughts and ideas
- #7 Overcome limiting beliefs and attitudes
- #8 Find your true passions
- #9 Get back on track after feeling lost
- #10 Identify and achieve your visions and goals
Qualifications
- Qualified parenting educator – Cert IV. BE (Community)
- Associate Diploma of Music (Entertainment Management)
- Bachelor of Counselling (Coaching)
- Graduate Diploma of Counselling
- Masters of Applied Social Science
- Formally trained in HR, Life Coaching, Business Coaching and Executive Coaching
- Cert IV TAE (Training & Assessment)
- PACFA Clinical Member
- ACTO Professional Member
- ICF Member
- ACSA Member
- Accredited Supervisor/Mentor, PACFA & ACSA
- Director, Australian Online Therapy Training (AOTT) Pty Ltd
- Manager and Director of an Internationally Accredited Training Program with ACTO.
Why seek a helping hand?
Has your relationship become a challenge to maintain?
Have your business goals become clouded or distracted?
Has your life not unfolded the way you had hoped?
Counselling, coaching and mentoring can help you find the balance and lifestyle you are after.
As a counsellor and coach I have dedicated my career to helping people overcome the challenges in their lives.
I don’t believe counselling is only for those who have exhausted all their options.
Anyone and everyone can benefit from counselling by equipping themselves with the tools to make and maintain positive life changes.
Whether in your personal life, your relationship, or your professional world, the steps to your success can be laid out before you.
Offering Counselling, Coaching and Mentoring for:
- -Families
- -Couples
- -Relationships
- -Individuals
- -Life Transitions
- -Grief and Loss
- -Businesses
- -Executives
- -Mindfulness
- -Personal Growth
- -Spirituality and Identity
- -Clinical Supervision
Online Services
Online Counselling
We all face challenges in our lives. While it may help to talk with family or friends to help work through these obstacles, there are circumstances where things may feel overwhelming without additional support.
Counselling is the process of talking through your challenges and finding ways to move forward in a positive way.
Online counselling is the extension of this goal.
Incorporating modern technology, all the benefits of counselling are available in a way that suits your schedule, needs and lifestyle.
Online Coaching
When you feel a disconnect between the life you want to be living and the life you are currently living, online coaching may help.
Positively geared and future-focused, online coaching draws a fluid line between where you have come from, where you currently are, and where you want to go.
Through outlining your future goals, online coaching provides a convenient and flexible approach that guides you to a more fulfilling and rounded life.
Common outcomes of coaching include increased organisation and confidence, conflict resolution skills, improved communication, enhanced emotional intelligence and professional development.
Types of Online Coaching
- Leadership Coaching
- Life Coaching
- Business & Executive Coaching
Online Training
The digital space provides a new setting for professionals to engage with, explore and benefit from.
With my counselling and coaching training, along with online education, you have access to a cross-generational approach to assist and support you in using more digital services, platforms, apps and products in your client work.
Benefits of online training
- Community Learning
- 24/7 Accessibility
- Cost-effective
Renée also holds the following roles:
Wellbeing4me™ Clinic Manager
Wellbeing4me™ App Founder
- Australian Online Therapy Training (AOTT) Pty Ltd., Director
- Heart & Soul Movement® Retreat & Workshop Facilitator
- Renée McDonald: Butterfly Courage®, Private Practice Manager
Acknowledgement of Country
Renée acknowledges all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across this great land of Australia as we pay respect to their elders past and present. Renée also acknowledges all Indigenous peoples from wherever you reside.
She personally acknowledges the Dharawal people in the area that is the northern area of the South Coast of New South Wales, Australia, where she lives. Always was and always will be Indigenous and Aboriginal land. Renée welcomes all Aboriginal and First Nations people to her practice.
Renée prides herself on being a completely inclusive service, no matter what your background is, regardless of race, age, stage, sexual preference, gender, or religion.
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Renée McDonald does not provide a 24-hour, 7-days-a-week service, crisis service.
If you cannot reach Renée, and your request is urgent, or you are in crisis, listed below are some of the best crisis support numbers in Australia:
Australia:
Lifeline Ph: 13 1114
Suicide Call Back Service Ph: 1300 659 467
https://www.suicidecallbackservice.org.au/
Beyond Blue Ph: 1300 224 636
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/
Mens Helpline: Ph: 1300 789 978 https://mensline.org.au/
If you are not from Australia, please click on this link for ‘Suicide stop’: http://www.suicidestop.com/call_a_hotline.html, for international crisis numbers. If you’d prefer more personalised service, consider looking for local counselling, psychotherapy, psychology or psychiatric support in Google. Your local healthcare professional could assist you with a referral to local counselling or further mental health support.
As featured in:
Prices
All sessions are one hour in length.
Other prices are available upon request.
$140 for individual therapy (60 minute session)
$180 for couples / relationship therapy (90 minute session)
$200 for family sessions (90 minute session for three or more people)
$280 for coaching sessions
Coaching packages can be purchased upon request
Online therapy and coaching is also available.
Zoom web conferencing is available for all services.
For online payments, please click the ‘book now’ button to chat to Renee to ask about the services she can offer you.
Frequently asked questions
What services do you offer?
As an experienced counsellor, psychotherapist and coach I offer the following services:
- - Counselling
- - Psychotherapy
- - Life Coaching
- - Business Consulting
- - Business and Executive Coaching
- - Online Therapist Training
- - Corporate Training
These services are available for organisations, small businesses, individuals, couples, and families.
What do you recommend?
I am passionate about helping people live the lives that they crave and the lives that they deserve.
While your unique challenges, obstacles and opportunities will dictate the services that suit your best, I am committed to working with you to identify the negatives in your life and find the most effective way of turning them into lasting positives.
Do you have customised services?
Yes. Across counselling, coaching and training I offer bespoke treatment plans to suit your unique needs.
I don’t believe in a ‘one size fits all’ approach to mental health, or personal and professional development.
I commit to work with you to understand the root cause of your concerns and to work towards a more productive and satisfying life.
How do you take payments?
The following payment types are accepted:
- - Credit cards
- - Bank deposits
- - Cash
Working online, I use an encrypted credit card payment system, Stripe, to ensure complete privacy and protection.
Do you work online?
Yes. As an experienced counsellor and coach I offer online services to ensure everyone has access to the support and assistance they need.
My online services include:
- - Online Counselling
- - Online Supervision
- - Online Mentoring
- - Online Coaching
- - Online Training
How can I book a session?
Online therapy, supervision and coaching appointments are available at all times.
In person appointments are available:
Monday to Friday (Wollongong only)
If you’re ready to book a session, please do so here.
What if I’m still not sure about hiring you?
Choosing a counsellor or coach can be challenging.
When the most important aspect of a successful relationship is trust, it can be difficult to know who to trust your personal and professional development to.
To ensure your process is as simple as possible, I offer 15 minute obligation-free and complimentary consultations over the phone for new clients.
If you’re looking to find the right counsellor or coach for you, let’s have a chat and find the best solution for you.