Jess and Laura met while training as psychologists at Child and Youth Mental Health, sitting at neighbouring desks. Laura had noticed that Jess was a reasonably nice colleague. Then one morning, Jess arrived with a giant carton of strawberry Big M. Fine. Everyone has their moments. But the next day there was another one, and another the day after that. Each day, the bright pink milk landed on Jess's desk with the quiet confidence of someone who had made no lifestyle changes whatsoever.

Laura lasted about two weeks. Which, given everything we know about clinical curiosity, was frankly heroic. Finally she asked. Jess confessed that she was in the early days of pregnancy, and the baby had very specific opinions about flavoured milk. They laughed until they cried, and a friendship was born.

Together they grew a shared love of psychological assessment, theory, and the work of supporting people through hard things. They also discovered they were very good at making each other laugh.

Their careers and lives took them in different directions. Laura went to New Zealand and back again, and both built thriving private practices around growing families. Eventually their paths crossed again when Laura began working from the rooms at Mount Evelyn. Jess and Laura saw a chance to build something intentional: a village. It was a chance to practise what we preach.

Why we're doing this

When you train in psychology, counselling or allied health, you learn alongside other people. You debrief together, puzzle over cases together, and lean on each other. Then, somewhere along the way in private practice, often just as you reach the peak of your skills, the work becomes solitary. That isn't a great recipe for a clinician's own wellbeing.

We believe that staying in this work for the long haul means looking after ourselves as well as our clients. We want to show up for our clients through the hard times and keep loving what we do. To manage that, we can't be doing it alone.

The therapy room door will always close, and that's how it should be. Outside it, though, we want The Frame to be a place of real connection. It's where clinicians learn together, collaborate, share referrals and supervision, and stay highly skilled and sustained. There's plenty of laughter over a cup of tea, and a kind ear on the days that are heavier.

Helping the helpers, so no one has to go it alone.

Why "The Frame"?

The name comes from the psychodynamic idea of the therapeutic frame: the consistent boundaries, rhythms and space that hold therapy safely, so the real work can happen inside it.

That's what we hope The Frame can be for the clinicians who work here. A steady, reliable space that holds you and your wellbeing, so you can hold your clients.