Counselling and hypnotherapy are not registered professions in Australia. Western Australia sets standards for practitioners like me through a Code of Conduct, and gives you an independent body to complain to. This page sets out both.
I am Barbara Saba. I hold a Master's degree in Mental Health, I am a qualified counsellor, and I am certified in 5-PATH® hypnotherapy through the Banyan Hypnosis Center. I worked for fifteen years in frontline mental health casework before moving into private practice.
I am not a registered psychologist, psychiatrist, or medical practitioner. Counsellors and hypnotherapists are not registered under the national scheme that covers those professions. Nothing I offer is a substitute for medical, psychiatric or psychological diagnosis or treatment, and I will say so directly if what you need sits outside what I can offer.
Because counselling and hypnotherapy are unregistered, practitioners in Western Australia are covered instead by the Code of Conduct for certain health care workers, administered by the Health and Disability Services Complaints Office (HaDSCO). It has applied in Western Australia since 2023, and it applies to me.
The Code sets seventeen standards that health care workers must meet. In summary, a practitioner must:
The full text of the Code is published by HaDSCO at hadsco.wa.gov.au/Code-of-Conduct, and that published version is the authoritative one. The summary above is provided so you know what standards apply before you decide to work with me.
If you are unhappy with anything about your care — how you were treated, something I said, a fee, a cancellation, or anything else — you are entitled to raise it, and doing so will never affect how you are treated.
Email hipimpacthelp@gmail.com and tell me what happened. I will acknowledge it within three business days and respond properly within fourteen days. Most things are resolved at this stage, and I would rather know than not know.
You do not have to raise it with me first, and you do not need my agreement. The Health and Disability Services Complaints Office is independent of me. Its service is free, and it can investigate, conciliate, and where necessary issue prohibition orders against practitioners.
Every Australian state and territory has an equivalent health complaints body, and most apply a version of the same Code. If you are not sure which one covers you, email me and I will point you to the right one — including if the complaint is about me.
What you tell me stays between us. I keep clinical records because the Code requires it and because good practice requires it, and those records are kept securely and are not shared with your employer, your family, your insurer, or anyone else without your written consent.
There are narrow exceptions that apply to every practitioner in Australia: where there is a serious and imminent risk to your life or someone else's, where a child is at risk of harm, or where records are required by law or a court. If any of those ever applied, I would tell you unless doing so would increase the risk.
You can ask to see your own records at any time.