Sage Counselling Services

01/09/2026

🌟 Meet Tjad — our amazing Therapy Assistant!

Tjad has been part of our team since 2025, developing and applying his skills as he continues his pathway towards becoming a Clinical Psychologist.

Tjad is passionate about demystifying men’s mental health and being a positive, encouraging mentor for young people. He brings a neuroaffirming approach to his work, along with a strong interest in emotional regulation and supporting young people to build confidence, connection and self-understanding.

He is already making a wonderful contribution to our team and is an incredible asset to the young people we support.

We’re also excited to continue developing projects that align with Tjad’s passion for mentoring, as well as his interests in sports psychology and mental wellbeing.

We’re so lucky to have you on the team, Tjad!

24/08/2026

Our next team member to re-introduce is the lovely Sophia! Sophia is an experienced Mental Health Endorsed OT, and has expansive experience working with NDIS participants, bringing both passion and expertise to her work.

Joining Sage in 2021, Sophia had previously grown her passion in coming alongside people with disabilities and their families at Therapy Focus. Sophia is driven to equip young people to understand their challenges, learn and apply coping techniques and strategies, and create support systems and scaffolding to best enable functioning. With special interests in identity, employment, life transitions and community engagement, Sophia continues to be a valued asset to our team, and to the people and families she assists.

Sophia hopes to increase her teaching role and we look forward to some upcoming projects enhancing this area for her!

17/08/2026

Let’s reintroduce you to our team ☺️

Kaleah is our Principal OT, a senior mental health occupational therapist with specialist endorsement from Medicare and Federal Credentialing as an Eating Disorder Clinician.

Kaleah established Sage Counselling Services in 2012, following experience across inpatient hospital settings, teaching neuroscience and neuropsychiatry within the School of Occupational Therapy at Edith Cowan University, contributing to the foundation of ECU’s Interprofessional Ambulatory Care Clinic, known as IpAC, and developing the mental health unit for the Master of Physiotherapy program.

Kaleah believes mental health care should be accessible to everyone, and Sage has been built around finding practical ways to navigate the barriers people can face when seeking mental health care and support.

Her belief in the importance of early intervention, timely intervention and crisis care has also shaped Sage’s engagement within the community. Over the years, Kaleah has written and delivered parenting courses, school education sessions, aged care initiatives, workplace and organisational mental health education and interventions, as well as mentoring, supervision, postgraduate training for OT WA and clinic based care.

Kaleah is passionate about working with individuals, building strong clinical teams, training and supporting other professionals, and contributing to a mental health landscape that delivers accessible, evidence based best practice care.

11/08/2026

While we’re working behind the scenes on a new look for Sage, we wanted to take a moment to share what remains at the heart of who we are and what Sage Counselling Services stands for.

Our mission remains clear. We believe mental health support should be accessible and attainable for everyone, across every stage of life.

At Sage, our clinicians aim to help people develop greater wisdom in their own experience. That idea is also reflected in our name, with Sage meaning wisdom.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing more about how this guides our work, from the leadership of our Principal OT and the experience of our clinical team, through to supervision, training and our project work in the community.

Thank you for continuing to support Sage as we uphold evidence based best practice and work towards the changes we believe matter in mental health service delivery. 🌿

03/07/2026

Sage is currently moving through a thoughtful rebrand and website refresh.

While our online home is being updated, our clinical work, training, supervision and student-related pathways continue as usual.

For enquiries, referrals, placement questions or professional development opportunities, please contact us directly.

We look forward to sharing more of Sage’s next chapter soon.

05/06/2026

Grateful to spend the day with Pagoda Resort & Spa and the WA Occupational Therapy Association, exploring the meaningful work of thinking, feeling, behaviour, interaction and engagement. A beautiful group, rich discussion, and a real privilege to facilitate.

28/05/2026

We’re expanding our project! Wonderful meeting today with Aegis Montgomery house Mount Claremont to prepare our next Mental Health in Residential Care collaboration. Exciting times!

26/05/2026

We discuss interoception and its role often in our office. Thank you Kelly and your team for helping lead great work and research!

“My body will signal hunger but within seconds switch to nausea, disgust, or anxiety.”

“If something comes in my mouth with a non-preferred texture, I feel nauseous and can’t eat any more.”

These are real experiences shared in our previous survey on ARFID.

93% of respondents said interoception plays a role in their ARFID experience.

But for many people, this doesn’t only mean muted body signals, which is how interoception is often discussed.

Many respondents described the opposite.

77% reported intense interoceptive experiences such as nausea, disgust, fear, or rapid “too-full” sensations that can quickly override hunger and stop eating mid-bite.

Why this matters:
Understanding a person’s interoceptive experience (rather than pushing them to ignore it) is key.

Interoceptive signals aren’t always quiet or hard to detect.

Sometimes they are intense, overwhelming, and central to the ARFID experience.
When we respect both muted and intense body cues, we help build body trust, and make eating more possible

Learn more in our ARFID Part 2 Course https://www.kelly-mahler.com/product/on-demand-course-arfid-feeding-challenges/

Image Description: Orange tile with blue title, “Is interoception a factor in ARFID?” Underneath 1 quote reads, “My body will signal hunger but within seconds switch to nausea, disgust or anxiety”, another reads, “If something comes in my mouth that is non-preferred texture, I feel nauseous and can’t eat any more.”. 2 boxes read, “93% of respondents said that interoception is a factor in their ARFID experience.” and “77% described intense interoceptive experiences like nausea, disgust, fear, or rapid “too-full” sensations that often override appetite and can stop eating mid-bite.”

19/04/2026

In a time where thoughtful, attuned practice feels more needed than ever, there is something quietly powerful in understanding not just what we do, but how and why we do it.

The way we think, the way we respond, the patterns that shape engagement, resistance, and change. These are not surface considerations, but the subtle architecture beneath our experience, often unseen, yet profoundly influential.

This upcoming Cognitive Behavioural Therapy training, offered in collaboration with WA Occupational Therapy Association, invites a turning toward that inner landscape with greater clarity. A gentle exploration of the interplay between thought, emotion, and behaviour, and the ways these patterns shape both our struggles and our capacity for healing.

Held as a practical and dynamic day, this work moves beyond theory into lived understanding. A space to explore how we come to know ourselves and others, to work with thoughts, feelings, and behaviours with greater awareness, and to cultivate a steadiness that can be carried into moments of complexity and care.

There is something quietly transformative in learning to meet these patterns with clarity. In pausing long enough to understand what is unfolding, and in doing so, allowing a different way of responding to emerge.

I would love to see you there, and tickets are now available here:
https://tinyurl.com/2ksec8w7

Friday 5th June
8:30 to 17:00
Pagoda Resort, Como

A space to deepen into the work itself, and into the way we come to meet it.