New Chapter: Essentia Health Brighton Is Moving Fully Online

After many years of providing face-to-face psychological and mental health services in Melbourne, Essentia Health will be closing our physical clinic in Brighton and transitioning our clinical services fully online.

This is an important change for our team, but it is not the end of Essentia Health or the services we provide. Rather, it represents the next stage in how we deliver specialist mental health care—combining accessible online therapy with an increasing focus on intensive and retreat-based treatment in Phuket, Thailand.

Why We Are Closing Our Brighton Clinic

Over recent years, there has been a significant shift in the way people access psychological therapy and specialist mental health services.

An increasing proportion of our clinical work is now delivered online. Telehealth has enabled us to work with people well beyond Melbourne, including clients throughout Australia and internationally.

For many people, online therapy provides greater flexibility, continuity and access to clinicians with specialist experience in approaches such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Radically Open DBT (RO DBT), trauma-informed treatment and stabilisation-based approaches.

Our clients are no longer necessarily located within driving distance of Brighton.

As our services have evolved, maintaining a permanent physical clinic has become less consistent with the way our clients are choosing to access treatment and the direction in which our clinical programs are developing.

Closing our Brighton clinic allows us to direct more of our resources toward the services our clients are increasingly using.

Our Clinical Services Will Continue Online

Although our physical Brighton clinic is closing, Essentia Health is continuing to provide clinical services online.

Existing and new clients will continue to be able to access individual therapy, consultation and other appropriate clinical services through telehealth.

Online therapy is no longer simply an alternative to attending a clinic. It has become an important part of contemporary mental health care.

It allows specialist treatment to be delivered consistently while enabling clients to remain connected with their everyday lives, families, workplaces and communities.

Importantly, it also reduces geographical barriers. People who previously may not have had access to clinicians experienced in DBT, RO DBT and trauma-informed approaches can now participate in specialist treatment regardless of whether they live in Melbourne, regional Australia or overseas.

An Increasing Focus on Phuket, Thailand

Alongside the growth of our online services, an important part of the next chapter of our work is the continued development of Wise Mind Retreats in Phuket, Thailand.

The retreats have grown from a recognition that effective psychological treatment does not always need to be restricted to the traditional model of attending a consulting room for a weekly appointment.

For many people, weekly outpatient therapy remains the most appropriate and effective form of treatment.

For others, there can be significant value in temporarily stepping away from their usual environment and creating dedicated time for therapy, learning, reflection and behavioural change.

Our retreat programs provide opportunities to integrate psychological therapy with skills development, mindfulness, exercise, self-reflection and practical experiences that allow participants to apply what they are learning to everyday situations.

Rather than therapy occurring separately from life, the retreat environment provides opportunities for people to learn, practise, reflect and experience change while continuing to engage with everyday living.

Combining Online Therapy With Retreat-Based Treatment

One of the most exciting developments in our model of care is the ability to combine ongoing online treatment with more intensive, face-to-face therapeutic experiences in Phuket when clinically appropriate.

For example, a participant may undertake assessment and preparation online before travelling to Phuket for a retreat. Following their retreat, online sessions can provide continuity and help consolidate what has been learned as they return to their everyday environment.

This creates a broader continuum of care:

Prepare → Experience → Practise → Return → Consolidate

This model allows intensive therapeutic work to occur while maintaining the continuity that can be so important when someone returns home.

Our retreats are not designed to replace ongoing mental health care and will not be appropriate for everyone. Instead, they provide an additional option within a broader range of psychological and mental health services.

Thank You, Brighton

Closing a physical clinic that has been part of our professional lives for many years inevitably brings mixed emotions.

Essentia Health Brighton has been much more than a collection of consulting rooms.

It has been a place where clients, clinicians, families, colleagues and referrers have come together. Within those rooms there have been thousands of conversations—some incredibly difficult, others hopeful, and many representing important moments of learning, connection and change.

We are enormously grateful to the clients who trusted our clinicians with their care, the clinicians who contributed to Essentia Health, and the colleagues, referrers and organisations who supported our work.

The Brighton clinic may be closing, but the relationships, knowledge and experience developed there remain an important part of who we are.

The Next Chapter for Essentia Health

Mental health care continues to evolve, and so must the way we provide it.

Closing our Brighton clinic allows us to simplify our physical footprint while expanding access to specialist services beyond the geographical boundaries of a traditional clinic.

Our next chapter will have an increasing focus on:

• Online specialist psychological therapy and consultation
• DBT, RO DBT and trauma-informed clinical services
• Flexible and accessible treatment for clients across Australia and internationally
• Intensive and retreat-based therapeutic programs in Phuket, Thailand
• Integrating online treatment with retreat-based experiences where clinically appropriate

While we are saying goodbye to our consulting rooms in Brighton, we are not saying goodbye to Essentia Health.

Instead, we are changing where and how our work takes place.

We would like to sincerely thank everyone who has been part of Essentia Health Brighton and who has trusted, supported and contributed to our services over the years.

We look forward to continuing this work online, throughout Australia and internationally, and through the continued development of our retreat programs in Phuket.

Dr Peter King
On behalf of the Essentia Health team
Psychotherapist
Clinical & Academic Lead, Asia Pacific DBT Institute

Continuing Your Care

Current clients will receive information regarding the transition to online appointments and any changes relevant to their ongoing care.

Existing and new clients can continue to access our online therapy, professional consultation, DBT, RO DBT and trauma-informed services.

Information is also available for people interested in learning more about our Wise Mind Retreats and therapeutic programs in Phuket, Thailand.