About Next Chapter Health

 

Recognising the importance of being an authentic practitioner within a business that embodied truly-held values shared by clients, our principal psychologist, Travers Holbrook, established Next Chapter Health. He believed an ethically-driven business providing high-quality psychological support would increase positive client outcomes and be a sustainable business in the long term.

The practice has gone from strength to strength and is now home to a team of like-minded practitioners and administrative staff working passionately to support our clients. That said, we are a small business and are far from perfect. We are human and get things wrong from time to time. We are always working to rectify any issues we identify, but encourage and embrace feedback about how we can do better.

Please email us at hello@nextchapter.health with any thoughts you wish to share.

Our Mission

Next Chapter Health aims to promote and support the psychological health and wellbeing of those in our community. We seek to promote wellbeing by offering our therapeutic and training services. We honour individual differences and diversity, core human values, and the complexities of life. Our services provide compassionate, professional and collaborative interactions to help support psychological recovery, resilience, and transformation.

A Values-Led Practice

We feel strongly about ethical and sustainable business practices and the way we run the practice reflects our values.

  • First and foremost, we value people! Our clients are our top priority, but we also truly value all of those who are involved in our business, from the administrative support person on the phone, to the clinician who helps hold your pain.

  • We don’t simply ‘accept’ or ‘tolerate’ difference — we purposefully celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our team, our clients and our community. We welcome the unique contributions that each individual can bring in terms of their education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, sexuality, neurodiversity, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, religion, range of abilities, parental or caregiving status, political perspective, and beliefs

  • We strive to be an ethically driven, but still profitable, business. We don’t pretend that money isn’t important because we do have to pay the rent and keep the lights on. We need to be a sustainable business to support our clients in the long term but our commitment is that drive for profit will never push us to act unethically.

  • Next Chapter Health seeks to give back to the community where possible. The practice maintains at least 30% of its client load on a reduced fee, ranging through to bulk billed and pro bono sessions. We set aside $1 from every paid session to support those in the Next Chapter Health community. To date, we have been able to provide emergency relief items, groceries, school uniforms, sporting equipment, and more. Next Chapter Health practitioners also provide free training on trauma-informed practice to local allied health businesses.

  • We will be open and transparent about your therapy needs and collect only the information that is relevant to the support we provide you. We will work collaboratively to create a custom treatment plan designed specifically for you and your circumstances.

    If we don’t think we are the right service for you, we will let you know and help you find somewhere more suitable.

  • We believe change is possible. To help clients achieve it, we embrace professional and ethical standards, apply best practice principles, and always seek to conduct ourselves in an ethical manner that is both professional and authentic.

    We value lifelong learning and every Next Chapter clinician is continually developing their clinical skills and knowledge through professional development, clinical supervision, feedback and self-reflection.

  • We value effective and respectful communication. In connecting with others, we seek to empower both them and ourselves, and not coerce or assert power over another. We try and ensure we are transparent and inclusive in our communications with our clients and each other, including in our forms.

  • We seek to make a positive impact on the world we live in, through the psychological support of Next Chapter Health’s valued clients but also our choices in products, services and providers. We understand that every purchase makes an impact so, where possible, we try to ensure our purchases have a positive impact on the world in which we live and the people living in it.

    Whether it is selecting technology providers who value data security and privacy, opting for a 100% accredited renewable energy plan, or buying FairTrade coffee for the kitchen, we put out money where our mouth is and choose the path we feel is more ethical.

  • We are committed to supporting the training and development of new therapists entering the field. We participate in a structured mentoring program for provisional and early-career psychologists as well as offering internship placements to graduates requiring practical experience.

  • As well as paying what items are worth, we also believe in paying people what they are worth - FairPaid, we call it. With our clinicians, administrative support staff, and other service providers we always try to have open and honest discussions around fair payment for services rendered. We encourage people to know their value!

The evolution of our logo

 
 
 
 
 

The creation of Next Chapter Health was the start of Travers’ next chapter and a way to mark a new period in his life. Travers and the rest of the team have always felt connected to the practice name. As time has passed though, the original logo didn’t feel connected to what Next Chapter Heath had turned out to be.

Our new logo draws on a number of important aspects of who we are as a practice. The colours are uplifting, which we love, but the rainbow elements also represent our celebration of diversity, including LGBTIQAP+ pride. The open book represents the chapters in our lives and the ability to write new ones, possibly with endings different than expected. The winding road through the book highlights the non-linear path to wellness, recovery and transformation, which is rarely a straight one.

At one spot on the road is a semi-colon, partly representing a person about to make their way along the path. Primarily though, it represents a movement that started as a message of affirmation and solidarity against suicide, depression, addiction, and other mental health issues.

In 2013, Amy Bleuel - founder of Project Semicolon - issued a challenge:

On April 16, 2013 everyone who self-harms, is suicidal, depressed, has anxiety, is unhappy, going through a broken heart, just lost a loved one, etc. draw a semicolon on your wrist. a semicolon represents a sentence the author could’ve ended, but chose not to. the author is you and the sentence is your life”.

The semicolon is a statement that a person chooses to continue writing the next chapter in their story. We love that symbolism and connection so decided to incorporate the semicolon into the Next Chapter logo, as our own indelible semicolon. Hope is so important to recovery and we believe is created by empathetically building authentic connection, restoring voice and agency, and doing a whole lot of bloody hard work.

Ultimately, we would love our logo to be a symbol of hope to those who are struggling, but we know that’s asking a lot from a little picture. At the very least though, we hope it sends the message that it is possible for all of us, with support, to be the authors of our own lives and be empowered to begin our very own next chapter.