Our Mission
Acorn Psychology was established in 2008 with two primary goals. First, to help people in the local community to live happy and functional lives. Our second goal was to create a workplace that offered meaning and purpose, as well as a supportive and collegiate atmosphere for our team. These goals are obviously intertwined and we can’t achieve one without the other.
We see people for support in many different contexts. For some, they meet us when life circumstances seem beyond endurable, for others we offer an independent and supportive environment to cope with ongoing stress. Some people come to us as a result of mental health challenges, or because of concerns about risk given stressful or traumatic life events. And of course, we see many people for support around every day life stressors such as VCE, difficult work environments, or problems with tricky people in their lives.
We know we don’t always get it right, but we’re constantly striving to find ways to improve. If you have concerns about some aspect of our service please don’t hesitate to get in touch; we want to know if we’ve made a mistake and welcome the opportunity to learn and repair when problems are brought to our attention.
Our Values & Giving Back to Our Community
At Acorn we believe that connection, as individuals, families, colleagues and with our wider community is essential to well-being. We are also incredibly grateful that we work within such a beautiful location, that we get to do jobs we love, and that we’re part of such a healthy team.
We want to be able to give back to the community beyond the work we do at Acorn. For this reason we allocate the equivalent of two (50 minute) sessions per week to goodwill. This might take the form of a pro-bono (bulk-billed) appointment offered to an existing client whose circumstances change (for instance if illness causes them to lose their job), or, if there is no need for such an appointment we donate the profit from two appointments to not-for-profits.
As a team we jointly choose organisations to support on an annual basis. We are currently partnering with:
Vets for Compassion - Founded by local vet Elaine Ong (whose team look after Kelly’s menagerie of pets so well), Vets for Compassion works to improve animal welfare within Australia and internationally. The vets and veterinary nurses who volunteer are at the front line during natural disasters, treating injured wildlife as well as farm animals and pets.
Edgar’s Mission - Based near the Macedon Ranges, Edgar’s Mission provides a sanctuary for rescued farm animals. It is founded on the principles of kindness and provides care for abandoned and neglected or abused animals
Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation - OCRF does important work with a dedicated and passionate team to increase awareness of ovarian cancer, and to raise funds that go directly towards research to help develop a test to support earlier diagnosis and better treatment options.
A Note on our Use of Artificial Intelligence
At Acorn Psychology, we value the trust you place in us and are committed to providing thoughtful, personalised care. While we understand that it’s available and considered ethical, we do not currently use assistive technology, such as AI tools, to generate or draft our session notes nor reports.
All notes and records are created by our psychologists to ensure accuracy, confidentiality, and a personal reflection of the care provided during sessions. If this changes in the future, we will ensure transparency and will always seek consent before we record any aspect of a session using AI.
If you have any questions about our note-keeping or privacy practices, please don’t hesitate to ask.