Coastal Sands Counselling & Rehabilitation Services
Supporting recovery, functional improvement, and sustainable participation in work and life.
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker · Coastal Sands Counselling & Rehabilitation Services
Colm Sands
Founded Coastal Sands to do one thing well: provide specialist psychological support for people navigating the impact of injury. Not general counselling adapted for injury a practice built from the ground up around the specific clinical, systemic, and human challenges that injury presents.
Professional background
Clinical experience & career history
My career has been shaped by work at the intersection of mental health, rehabilitation, and complex systems environments where psychological support cannot be divorced from functional recovery, return to work goals, and the systems that surround an injured person.
Current · 2024 - present
Principal Clinician & Founder
Specialist psychological practice focused on adjustment to injury, return to work psychology, and rehabilitation aligned mental health support. Providing ATIC under WorkCover QLD, NIISQ, and private insurer frameworks, as well as Medicare funded and self funded services. Telehealth available Australia-wide.
Prior experience · Hospital & community rehabilitation
Specialist Clinician - Rehabilitation Settings
Several years working in specialist hospital and community rehabilitation settings, with a particular focus on traumatic brain injury, neurological injury, and complex psychosocial presentations. This work involved close collaboration with multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams, families, and the broader systems surrounding injured individuals including insurance, legal, and vocational rehabilitation frameworks.
Prior experience · Insurance & employer systems
Psychological services within statutory & employer frameworks
Experience delivering psychological services within statutory insurance, employer-funded, and EAP settings developing a grounded understanding of the reporting, communication, and alignment requirements that referrers and insurers expect. This background is central to the practice's ability to provide clear, practical, and system aware psychological care.
Foundation · Public health & social work
Social work & public health settings
Professional foundations built in public health and social work establishing the biopsychosocial framework and systemic perspective that underpins all clinical work at Coastal Sands.
Clinical philosophy
How I approach clinical work
My approach is rehabilitation informed, trauma aware, and biopsychosocial. I believe that effective psychological support for injured people cannot exist in a silo it must account for the full context of a person's injury, the systems they're navigating, and the functional and vocational goals that matter to them.
I work to avoid over pathologising distress. Being injured, being off work, dealing with a claims process, and facing uncertainty about the future are genuinely difficult circumstances. Distress in these contexts is a reasonable response not a disorder. My role is to help people develop the understanding, skills, and psychological flexibility to move through these challenges with less suffering and more effective action.
Practice values
What guides our work
These aren't aspirational statements they're the practical commitments that shape how every client and referrer experiences working with Coastal Sands.
"I didn't want to build a broad, generalist practice. I wanted to build a deep, specialist one where every clinical decision is informed by a genuine understanding of what injury means for a person, what the system around them demands, and what recovery actually looks like in practice."
Colm Sands - Accredited Mental Health Social Worker, Coastal Sands Counselling
Book with Colm
In-person · Telehealth · All funding
Book directly online via Halaxy, or contact us to discuss your situation and the right referral pathway.
Referring to Colm?
Referrals are welcomed from GPs, case managers, WorkCover, NIISQ, insurers, and rehabilitation providers. All referrals acknowledged within one business day.
Practice details
Provider
Colm Sands
Accredited Mental Health Social Worker
Session length
50-60 minutes
Initial assessment may be longer
Delivery
Telehealth & in-person
Sunshine Coast · Australia-wide telehealth
Medicare number
1978631T
GP MHTP referrals accepted
Assessments available everywhere via telehealth
All Assessments are available via secure video across Australia. Interstate WorkCover and insurer referrals are accepted.
Key services
Start your recovery - or refer a client today
Early psychological support after injury makes a genuine difference to recovery outcomes. Whether you're looking for support for yourself or making a referral, we're ready to help.