Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Mental health can be a difficult thing to manage, and while spending time in a beautiful locale like Tamborine Mountain can do wonders for improving your outlook, sometimes we need a little extra help. When mountain residents need that help, it’s Fergus Trevethan they can turn to, operating out of his practice Our Space Psychology. Fergus has quite a storied history himself, with experience from all over the world and a background in volunteer work that still keeps his schedule packed, but we were lucky enough for him to take a spare few moments out of helping the community to explain just what makes Our Space tick.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How long have you been operating Our Space Psychology? What led you to open it?
We’ve had the practice up here coming up on eighteen months. Prior to that I was a school-based psychologist down in Logan, and a psychologist and teacher in Southport. We’ve been living on the mountain for about 12 years. It’s a lovely community up here and it’s nice to be able to provide extra psychological services here. It’s an area where I felt I could contribute back to the community and be involved in everything from the acute mental health and hospital discharges. Also we work with the local schools and children as well.
You have an extensive background in travel and volunteer work, correct? Has that impacted your path to here?
Yeah, a bit of a colourful youth! I left home when I was 17 or 18 and I have worked for the United Nations in refugee camps in Africa and lived in Norway, Sweden and the UK. I realised I really liked working with children, so I came back to Australia, did my teaching degree, and went into schools. When I was at university, I was working with the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane as part of the Clown Club having fun with the children in the oncology wards. Volunteer work has always been part of the core fabric of what I do. Now it’s morphed into more pro bono psychological service delivery.
Do you specialise in any particular field?
I’m a generally registered psychologist, so I have the capacity to work with multiple populations. My area of interest is always going to be children after having an education background but I’m also really enjoying the access to acute mental health up here. Mental health discharges is a really interesting field, working with people with schizophrenia, bipolar, and really unique demographics. It’s different every day, which is what I really enjoy.
Would you say there is a most common issue that you find yourself treating?
I think there’s an enormous need for general mental health services in our region, from anxiety in the classroom to acute mental health care and long-term interventions for NDIS participants. It’s a really broad spectrum of stuff that I cover.
Do clients book directly or do you mainly get referrals?
Initially, people were booking directly. Almost all the referrals now are word of mouth or via the GPs here on the mountain or down in Beaudesert or Jimboomba or the pediatricians down in Southport.
Is there a wait list?
We do have a waitlist, which is unfortunate. It’s anywhere from 6-8 weeks to get a consultation. It is challenging, but it’s probably reflective of the community’s need. I don’t like being booked up months in advance, but there’s so many people crying out for different types of services. On the other hand, the longer the waitlist, the more it means people are taking the steps to get help with these problems. The awareness around mental health is slowly increasing and the stigma is slowly decreasing, which is great. There’s nothing wrong with putting a hand up and seeking help for the sake of your mental health.
While you are a psychologist, you also work with a counselor here, Lousia Honan. What’s the difference between the services you offer?
Psychologists and counselors are different, they bring a very different skill set to the table, but they combine really well. The psychologist comes from a clinical perspective where they are providing diagnoses and the counselor is coming from a counselling perspective of providing strategies for navigating personal issues.
What goes into the average day here for you?
I don’t think there is an average day! My day might start at 7:15 over at the state high school doing counselling sessions and off-site consultations for students. Or I might be doing some crisis management with the leadership team, or in here doing cognitive assessments for our NDIS participants or for children who are struggling to access the curriculum. Or it might be coming in for an emergency consult for someone who’s just been discharged from the Robina mental health ward. It could be anything, but it starts at that around 7:30 mark and then powers all the way through to 5:30 when I wrap up, take the therapy dog home and walk her, and catch up with my family, which is always nice to do. It’s nice to only be 5 minutes away from home and not 50!
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
Yes. It’s a wonderful, wonderful lifestyle. We have four children up here, and they’re into everything from basketball to dancing, everything that the mountain offers before and after school, which is great. We’re on 5-6 acres of land which is a really lovely spot to raise our kids, have the therapy dogs, and enjoy all the fruits of Tamborine Mountain and the local region. I love the community, there’s a lot of like-minded people up here. We have young children who can go down the street, ride their bikes, walk to school… it’s a wonderful place to live with a lovely community and lovely people, and it’s nice that we can offer a service for our community members. We only wish we came earlier!
What’s your favourite thing to do on the mountain?
I love the bushwalks. Knoll Walk, Curtis Falls, some of those backfire trails with just the children or the dogs as well. I love sitting on my mower in the summer, those little things. It’s a stark contrast to how I grew up in inner city Sydney. That’s what people move up here for, the lifestyle. You don’t get that in other places.
What do you think Our Space Psychology really provides to the area?
We’d like to be perceived as offering a unique service for our local community and wider region. It is a lovely space where you can come, sit back, see Louisa or myself and really get concrete ideas of how to navigate some tricky times in your life. We offer assessments because otherwise you’ll have to wait for nine months then go out to the Gold Coast or Brisbane for a cognitive assessment.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
All the different people from different walks of life that I meet, which is fantastic. I really enjoy those conversations and the relationships we build over time. It is a small community, so you get to know lots of different people within your community and I really enjoy that as part of my job.
Our Space Psychology
Level 1, 96 Main Western Road, Tamborine Mountain QLD 4272
We are always looking for new topics for our blog. If there’s something you like to see more of, send your suggestions to: social@professionalsserendipity.com.au, or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com.
