Information for New Patients

Psychiatry Services

To continue providing the best possible care and support to our current patients, we are taking a short pause on accepting new patient referrals until February 2026. This allows us to give our existing patients the attention they deserve. We truly appreciate your understanding and look forward to welcoming new patient referrals from February 2026.

Our psychiatrists are unable to complete ADHD assessments or ADHD medication reviews for new patients.

We are not set up as a crisis service provider and are unable to provide emergency appointments.

Please see the numbers below for crisis support services.

Counselling services

Please see the counselling page for information about our registered counseller, Salihan Laugesen.

At times, our clinic hosts placements for Masters of Counselling students from the University of Canberra. These students are in our clinic as part of their final placement and are supervised and supported by our Doctors to care for patients in our clinic. Appointments with our students on placement do not have associated fees. Please contact reception regarding our current availability.

Psychology Services

Lara Fridgant is currently on leave and not accepting new patients for 2025.

Booking an initial consultation

Before we can make an appointment, we require a GP referral to be sent to our clinic. We then need you to contact our reception team to discuss your referral and the next steps. Our Doctors will triage your referral. They may request extra paperwork or patient history to also be sent prior to booking (Previous medical reports for example).

Fees and billing

Please contact our reception team for billing information. As a private specialist clinic, we are unable to provide bulk-billed appointments.

Rescheduling your first appointment

Please understand there is a high volume of patients waiting for an appointment. Therefore, please let us as soon as possible that you need changes to be made to your initial appointment. There may be cancellation fees for non-attendance on the day or insufficient notice of a cancellation. Please be advised that if you require your initial consultation to be rescheduled that there may be an extended waiting time for rebooking. Our Doctors 'New Patient' time slots are booked outmany months in advance.

Patient Age Requirement

Our Psychiatrists area of specialty is in Adult Mental Health conditions. Our Doctors do not see children or young adolescents. Please speak to our reception team for more information.

Our practice has an obligation to provide our staff with a safe work environment. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of aggression or abuse, including verbal abuse and aggression that can occur over the phone or written by email.
We are a small privately owned family practice - our obligations to see patients are not the same as the public health system. Persons and their family members who show behaviour that is abusive, aggressive or threatening, will not be accepted by our practice as a patient.

Emergency contact numbers - If you're in crisis and do need immediate support please see contact numbers below:

LIFELINE: 13 11 14

ACT CRISIS TEAM: 1 800 629 354

NSW MENTAL HEALTH: 1 800 011 511

In an emergency please call 000

reception@murrumbatemanspecialist.com.au