About Amber
I’m Amber Rules, a PACFA Accredited Supervisor, Registered Clinical Counsellor, psychotherapist, addiction support specialist, existential group therapist and mental health educator. I’m also the Clinical Lead at Sydney Addictions Recovery and the Founding Director of Rough Patch Affordable Counselling. I’ve been working in mental health for over 15 years, and my practice is shaped by radical harm reduction principles, abolitionism, anti-oppressive values and lived experience.
I’m a white, cisgender, Queer, AuDHD, chronically ill, fat woman. I have lived experience of family violence, trauma, addiction and disordered eating. I live and work on unceded Gadigal and Wangal land in the Inner West of so-called Sydney. My family background includes Eastern and Northwestern European ancestry and stories of colonisation, war, migration, brutality and survival that still echo.
Before I became a therapist, I spent years working in music, film, and television. The work was fun but it mirrored a lot of the chaos I grew up with. I was young, vulnerable and burnt out by the time I found my way into counselling, first as a client, and eventually as a student. I trained at Jansen Newman Institute, and since then, I’ve oriented myself to the kind of care I wish had been more available for me; specific, flexible, responsive and affordable.
At Sydney Addictions Recovery, I work with people impacted by substance use or compulsive self-soothing behaviours (such as gambling), as well as the people around them. Affected Others (such as partners, parents, children and friends) often get overlooked in both research and clinical work and being an Affected Other is part of my own lived experience, which makes it even more meaningful for me.
Rough Patch was born out of frustration and hope. Too many people fall through the cracks between public and private mental health systems. I wanted to create something for those folks: people who can’t afford full-fee therapy but who also can’t access public services due to long waitlists, narrow eligibility or wanting to leave those services for people who really need them. Our mission is to provide affordable, accessible, high-quality counselling without
adding pressure to our overstretched public systems. We also offer therapists a way to do meaningful work that aligns with their values, with lots of robust support that prevents burn-out and helps them build their solo private practices.
Like a lot of grassroots organisations working outside the mainstream, Rough Patch runs on a shoestring. Our senior leadership team, including me, are all volunteers. It’s not a sustainable long-term strategy, but for now it allows us to keep the doors open while we build. I keep my private practice going partly because I love the clinical work, and partly because it’s what pays the bills.
I’m deeply critical of dominant mental health models, including 12 Step programs and psychiatric systems, even while recognising they’ve helped many people and are often the only option. I try to approach my work with honesty, pragmatism, flexibility and humility - knowing that unlearning oppressive systems and ideologies is lifelong work.
A Day in the Life of Amber Rules
7am(ish): Ease into the Day
My alarm goes off at 7am and I snooze it for as long as I can get away with it. I take my ADHD medication and wait for it to drag my brain into functional mode, do some gentle stretching, open a Diet Coke (one of my few remaining vices!) and ease into the day.
8am: Check Emails
I check emails and messages from the Rough Patch team or any private clients who might have contacted me overnight. I might reply to a media request from a journalist, write a referral letter for a client or finalise a workshop I’m delivering.
9am: Clients
First thing in the morning is a popular time for client bookings, so I usually reserve this spot for them. They might be someone actively using substances, an Affected Other trying to make sense of the chaos that their loved one’s substance use is causing, or a couple trying to repair trust after a relapse. I work with a lot of Affected Others such as parents, partners and adult children, and they need specific interventions tailored to their complex situations.
10am: Clinical Supervision
Supervision session with either a counsellor from the Rough Patch Community of Practice, a private practitioner working in the addiction space, or a supervisee working in a publicly funded rehab. I love being a clinical supervisor because I get to walk alongside passionate counsellors as they learn, grow and strengthen their clinical skills.
11am: Training Content Creation
Another client session, or sometimes I will use this hour to write training material or edit something I’ve drafted earlier. I often run workshops for organisations, RTOs and tertiary programs who want nuanced, harm-reduction-based addiction content for their students, staff or stakeholders. I also deliver wellness workshops to organisations who use Rough Patch’s EAP program.
12pm: Client
Another client session. This one might be with a client working on reducing their substance use, or unpacking the role substances play in their life. My approach is grounded in harm reduction and curiosity - not pushing abstinence, not pathologising, just figuring out what’s working and what isn’t.
1pm: Spotify, Lunch & Diet Coke!
Lunch, Spotify and stare at a blank wall for a while. Sometimes it’s leftovers, sometimes it’s peanut butter toast and more Diet Coke. I’m trying to be better at stepping away from the desk to eat. I usually do phone assessments at this time of day as well.
2pm: Admin & Media Calls
Admin, clinical notes or a media call. Journalists are often interested in Rough Patch and why it matters, especially given the shortage of affordable, accessible mental health services in Australia. Occasionally I’ll get a request from a journo to comment on something scandalous, such as a celebrity’s substance use - with the expectation that I’ll sensationalise or judge them. I take great pleasure in declining those ones.
3pm: Clinical Supervision
Another supervision session, often with someone navigating the challenges of working in an inpatient AOD setting. Often the content is less about the clinical work and more about navigating the oppressive systems that clients and supervisees are forced to engage with in these settings.
4pm: Nina
Check in with my wonderful, tireless Admin colleague Nina to make sure she has everything she needs; respond to counsellor messages in the Rough Patch Slack channel, edit website content or blogs.
5pm: A Change of Pace
A break, or at least a change of pace. If I’ve got group supervision in the evening, I’ll try to rest a bit now - take a walk, sit outside, just stop talking for a minute.
6pm: Group Therapy
Evening group - either group therapy or group supervision, or attending my own group therapy. This might be a group of people involved with substances, a Rough Patch Community of Practice meeting, or group supervision with clinicians interested in deepening their addiction work. These groups are some of my favourite to facilitate or be a part of; especially the Yalom-style existential psychotherapy groups!
8pm: Finish Up for the Day
I finish up, close the laptop and decompress. I feel it if I’ve pushed too hard during the day, so I’m always adjusting the load, trying to stay connected to my body and trying to practice what I preach.
Connect with Amber
Website: https://www.sydneyaddictionsrecovery.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roughpatchcounselling