Compass Retreats - Clinical Mentoring Program
The Clinical Mentoring Program differs from the Gateways Program in its focus on non-clinical, low, mild, and moderate clinical presentations.
It employs a 1:1 mentoring structure (expandable to 1:2 under specific circumstances) and adheres to standard psychology fee structures. Retreat durations are intentionally limited to three days to prioritise participant well-being and clinician fatigue management. However, clinicians remain flexible to adjust program parameters and associated costs as needed. Pricing reflects the elevated operational expenses inherent to 1:1 care models, heightened risk mitigation requirements, and extended consecutive service hours.
Compass Clinical Mentoring programs are intensive, customised and professional.
With the ability to travel anywhere globally, you can access high quality professional guidance from a Clinical Psychologist for a wide range of Occupational, Mental Health or Mental Wellness needs in a location of your choosing. This program is designed for situations where traditional therapy settings are inappropriate, inaccessible, or there is an immediate need for intensive treatment.
The Compass Approach
With as little as an hours notice a Clinician is able to organise flights to your requested location, at which time an initial phone consultation is had to discuss intervention goals and barriers. The clinician will then send various psychometric tests to establish pre-post intervention measurements and will offer various treatment pathways with an outlining of the benefits, limitations and weaknesses of each. Depending on the choices selected, a program will be designed and sent to yourself for review and a time/place will be agreed upon for commencement.
Your Imagination is the Limit.
Although, clinicians will be required to adhere to strict ethical guidelines, the utilisation of this service is vast and unique. Imagine having an intensive three day Gottman Couples therapist at a resort of your choosing, helping you and your partner to enhance and repair your relationship, or to have a three day psychological intensive intervention to address addiction, trauma, procrastination. Imagine being able to bring a Clinical Psychologist on to your team for a stint to aid with workplace culture or having a clinician guide you through an experiential exercise to face your lifelong fears. This unique resource is unable to be found anywhere else.
Ongoing support
After the service is concluded, ongoing therapy, consultation calls/telehealth, follow up interventions can be made available, to aid with lasting change.
Meet Your Clinical Mentor
Michael Spark is a Clinical Psychologist and the Director of Compass Therapy, Compass Retreats, Compass Paintings, and the host of the ‘Mike the Psych’ podcast.
Michael has identified large gaps in the mental health and mental wellness space where sometimes clients are too busy to engage in treatment that can take weeks or months; too avoidant to engage in exposure tasks, without having someone there to support them in person; or that there was a desperate need for immediate action that could not be facilitated by traditional private, NGO, and government services. He found through interactions with clients that many had strong needs for services that were not available anywhere.
Consequently, he developed the Clinical Mentoring Program that provides some coverage in these areas and felt that many would strongly benefit from an intensive, in house, intervention from someone like himself who has an 11 year history working in high-risk residential youth work and 10 years experience as a psychologist treating a wide range of psychological disorders with children, adolescents, adults and aged individuals.
His psychological work history includes University Counsellor, Geriatric Psychologist and Child Disability Psychologist. Additionally, he has worked as a research-assistant investigating mental health in the mining industry, providing training, presentations and interventions across Australia.
His own research has focused on father-child interactions and enhancing fluid intelligence, which has also been presented at various world conferences and symposiums.
Michael’s volunteer history includes youth mentorship, humanitarian aid within rural and remote Australia, Junior Motocross and Perth snorkelling groups.
Michael is trained in Schema Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR), EMDR 2.0, CBT-Enhanced (CBT-E) for eating disorders, Reminiscence Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Trauma Focused CBT (TF-CBT), Gottman Couples Therapy (level 3 trained) and Solution Focused Brief Therapy. He holds an interest in Personality Disorders, Trauma and ADHD treatment. He is additionally trained in sexual, religious, neurological, and racial diversity.
Michael’s approach is to value going at the client’s speed, full transparency, and humour; all of which are viewed as integral aspects of approaching difficult subjects.
