About Portia
Portia Freeman is an AASW counsellor who helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, relationship strain, trauma and ADHD. She keeps sessions straightforward and focused so people can feel steadier sooner. Portia uses practical tools and clear steps that are easy to use between sessions.
She listens first, then builds a plan with each person. That plan draws on approaches like cognitive behavioural work, mindfulness, ACT and EMDR when trauma memories need attention.
Background and approach
Portia aims to make therapy understandable and applicable to everyday life. Portia has eight years' experience in community and clinical settings across Australia. Her background includes working with people affected by adoption and foster care, autism, blended family issues and chronic illness.
She also supports people coping with grief, guilt, domestic violence and eating concerns. In sessions she focuses on strengths and skills. People learn to notice unhelpful patterns, try new behaviours and manage strong emotions.
She uses simple exercises, breathing and grounding alongside talking and practical planning. Portia treats each person as an individual. She works collaboratively and checks in regularly to see what is helping.
The aim is steady progress, not quick fixes, with tools people can keep using after therapy ends.
How Portia's approaches work online
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on values and action. It helps people notice difficult thoughts and feelings, then choose small steps that match what matters to them. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts, feelings and actions connect and uses practical exercises to shift unhelpful patterns. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is used when traumatic memories cause ongoing distress; it aims to reduce the intensity of those memories and the reactions that follow.Finding the right approach is part of the work and will be decided together. Portia will chat about your goals and preferences, then suggest options and adjust them over time. The process is collaborative so you can see what feels most useful and make changes as needed.
Online sessions make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions need less bandwidth and can be a good shorter check-in. Live chat or text-based messaging is useful for quick updates, daily skills practice or when typing feels easier than speaking. These formats give flexibility so therapy can continue around work, study and family commitments.
Questions people ask
What concerns does Portia help with?
How would you describe Portia's therapy style?
What experience does she bring?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Which languages are supported and can international clients join?
What session formats are available online?
How are costs handled?
How do I begin working with her?
What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Eating and food-related issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 8 years
- Licensed
- Languages
- English
We will earn a commission if you sign up through our link, at no cost to you.