Indus Therapy & Consulting

26/08/2026

Schema Therapy sessions feel different to standard talk therapy, and it is worth knowing why before you start.

Sessions often involve more than just conversation. Imagery rescripting, for example, involves revisiting difficult early memories in imagination and introducing what was needed but not present. It is done carefully and collaboratively, and it works at a level that talking about the memory alone rarely reaches.

Chair work involves giving voice to different parts of yourself, the schema, the critic, the healthy adult, in a structured way that helps them become more visible and more workable.

None of this is done without preparation or without the client's understanding and consent. The work is collaborative, and the pace is always set by the client.

It can feel unusual at first. Most people find it more useful than they expected.

✿ Book your 10-minute call today
✿ 0451 846 596
✿ [email protected]
✿ https://www.industherapyco.com.au

24/08/2026

A note for GPs and allied health practitioners.

Indus Therapy welcomes referrals, and Schema Therapy is one of the approaches I use most with complex presentations where standard CBT has not been sufficient.

If you have a client who keeps returning with the same patterns despite previous treatment, who has insight into their difficulties but cannot seem to shift them behaviourally, or who presents with chronic relationship difficulties, persistent low self-worth, or complex trauma histories, Schema Therapy is often the right next step.

I work with individuals from South Asian and CALD backgrounds, neurodivergent adults, and people navigating complex trauma and relationship patterns. I also offer EMDR for trauma presentations and can integrate modalities based on the clinical picture.

Referrals can be made via a standard GP mental health care plan or directly. I am happy to have a brief conversation with referring practitioners about suitability before a client is booked in.

Camberwell and online across Victoria.

✿ Book your 10-minute call today
✿ 0451 846 596
✿ [email protected]
✿ https://www.industherapyco.com.au

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20/08/2026

Something I notice often with men who come into the room for the first time.

The schemas are usually there. The Emotional Deprivation schema: the deep sense that your emotional needs are not important and no one will meet them. The Defectiveness schema: the quiet conviction that if people really knew you, they would find something fundamentally wrong. The Self-Sacrifice schema: the belief that your worth is tied to what you provide, and that needing anything for yourself is weakness.

These schemas do not get formed in a vacuum. They form in childhood environments, family dynamics, and cultural messages about what men are supposed to be. Strong. Self-sufficient. Not too much. Getting on with it.

Schema Therapy gives those patterns a name, a history, and most importantly, a way through. It is not about being fixed. It is about understanding how you got here and building something more workable going forward.

If this lands, it might be worth a conversation.

✿ Book your 10-minute call today
✿ 0451 846 596
✿ [email protected]
✿ https://www.industherapyco.com.au

18/08/2026

One of the things that distinguishes Schema Therapy from many other approaches is the explicit use of the therapeutic relationship as a vehicle for change.

The concept of limited reparenting involves the therapist providing, within professional limits, what was missing in early life. Genuine warmth, appropriate boundaries, consistent care, honest feedback.

This is not about recreating a parent-child dynamic. It is about offering a corrective relational experience that helps the nervous system learn something different about what relationships can feel like.

For many people, particularly those whose early environments were critical, unpredictable, or emotionally absent, this is one of the most powerful elements of the work. The therapy relationship itself becomes part of the healing.

✿ Book your 10-minute call today
✿ 0451 846 596
✿ [email protected]
✿ https://www.industherapyco.com.au

18/08/2026

Something a little different today.

Indus Therapy is now listed on Shapes and Sounds, a directory of Asian therapists across Australia built to make it easier for people to find a clinician who genuinely understands their cultural context.

As part of the listing they asked me why I became a therapist. Here is what I said.

Growing up I could not make sense of why life and people were the way they were. I had one friend whose family was well adjusted, which made me want to learn how that even existed. So basically lived experience.

That is still the honest answer. I came to this work because I needed to understand it first. And that has shaped everything about how I practise, who I work with, and why cultural context is never an afterthought at Indus.

If you are looking for a therapist who understands where you are coming from without you having to explain it first, the Shapes and Sounds directory is a genuinely useful place to start.

🔗 https://justshapesandsounds.com/therapists/rishi-sharma

✿ Book your 10-minute call today
✿ 0451 846 596
✿ [email protected]
✿ https://www.industherapyco.com.au

17/08/2026

I’m running a free 30-min session for GPs online, walking through 3 motivational interviewing techniques you can actually use in your very next consult. No theory you’ll forget by Friday.

📅 Mon 24 Aug, 1:00–1:30pm AEST
💻 Online
✅ Free, counts as self-recorded CPD

Link in bio to register, or scan the QR on the flyer.

Rishi Sharma | AASW Accredited Mental Health Social Worker, EMDR-trained
Indus Therapy & Co, Camberwell & Ivanhoe

17/08/2026

Most people are familiar with the inner critic, that voice that tells you that you are not good enough, that you are doing it wrong, that you should be ashamed.

In Schema Therapy, the inner critic is understood as an internalised version of critical messages received early in life. It is not your voice. It is someone else's voice that got so deeply embedded it started sounding like your own.

Schema Therapy distinguishes between several types of critic modes: the Punitive Critic, which attacks and condemns; the Demanding Critic, which sets impossibly high standards; and the Guilt-Inducing Critic, which focuses on your impact on others.

The work involves recognising which critic is active, understanding where it came from, and gradually building the Healthy Adult's capacity to respond to it with perspective rather than capitulation.

✿ Book your 10-minute call today
✿ 0451 846 596
✿ [email protected]
✿ https://www.industherapyco.com.au

13/08/2026

13/08/2026

Shakti Mental Health is doing the work that makes everything else possible. Shifting how mental health is understood in South Asian communities, reducing stigma, and creating the conditions where people feel safe enough to ask for help in the first place.

At Indus, we see the impact of that work in the room. Clients who come in having never spoken about their mental health before, not because they did not need support earlier, but because the cultural conversation around them never made space for it. That is the gap Shakti is closing.

We work alongside Shakti because we believe clinical services and community advocacy belong together. One without the other only goes so far. The community we are both trying to reach deserves both.

If you are from a South Asian background and have been looking for a space that understands your cultural context without you having to explain it first, Shakti is a good place to start.

🔗 shaktimentalhealth.com

✿ Book your 10-minute call today
✿ 0451 846 596
✿ [email protected]
✿ https://www.industherapyco.com.au