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Book Review: Cringeworthy by Melissa Dahl – How to make the most of uncomfortable situations.
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Have you ever got into
bed and instead of slipping into a wonderful night’s sleep your brain decides
to run you through the highlights of your most awkward moments? You are not
alone. Online, an explosion of
memes on awkwardness has circulated the internet, with multiple forum...
Women Don't Owe You Pretty by Florence Given. A book review by Dr Sonja Skocic
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Women Don’t Owe You Pretty (2020) by Florence Given Florence Given starts her book off
with a ‘conversation’ between her younger self and older self. It’s a powerful
beginning that really highlights the evolution of her own mind. The
conversation relates to obje...
Why Try Career Counselling?
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Career Counselling is something that many people may
have first encountered in high school when choosing a tertiary course or
pathway after school. For a definition on what exactly careers counselling is,
please see this video
from one of our psychologists, Vi-An Le. People might have ...
What do you want to be when you grow up? Career tips for school leavers
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Deciding on a pathway after Year 12 can be an
overwhelming and difficult decision. Working with a career counsellor or psychologist in a
one-on-one setting provides an open, safe and structured environment to work
through the hard questions and thoroughly explore your career op...
Strategies for parents of children with ASD.
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Meltdown
in children: Strategies for parents Meltdown is not another word for tantrum. It’s
important to distinguish between meltdown and tantrum as while they can look
similar to an outsider, they are quite different and require different
strategies for managing and soothi...
Self-Care in Times of Crisis
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Self-care in
times of crisis It’s clear the
year 2020 has tested us as never before. What is not clear is how to respond to
the seemingly endless crises, calls for help, stressors and where our own self-care sits in relation to caring for others. In times of crisis we may feel
...
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a type
of cognitive behaviour therapy with a difference. ACT is one of the ‘third
wave’ therapies that offers an alternative way to enhance your quality of life
and reduce suffering. This therapy has a core...
Tip #5 Bring Meditation into your daily life
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· Choose to undertake some of your regular
activities in a mindful way with the aim of bringing yourself into the
experience in the present moment. Notice if the mind wanders off into thoughts
and gently bring yourself back into experiencing (or being aware of sensation)
...
Emotional Sensitivity, Reactivity and Equilibrium within a DBT framework.
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Understanding our emotions and
how they work is an essential part in conflict resolution between couples.
There are several factors that contribute to one’s emotional arousal and
experience of negative emotions. They
include your individual sensitivity and your reactivity to your
partn...
What Does Compassion Mean in Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT)?
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In Compassion
Focused Therapy, compassion is defined as a ‘sensitivity to suffering in self
and others with a commitment to alleviate and prevent it’. What
helps us engage our compassion is understanding our beliefs about how we feel
towards offering compassion to others, accepting c...
Couples Conflict Patterns
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There are relationship
patterns that DBT specialists have observed in couples. It is helpful to
understand these patterns, and you may recognize yourself and your partner in
them. The
Constructive Engagement Pattern : In this pattern, when a
couple encounters a conflict, or one ...
Learning to Meditate Tip #4 Begin by setting your intention and end with a dedication
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Tip #4 Begin by setting your intention and
end with a dedication ·
Set your intention before you start your
meditation. For example, ‘I will sit in mindfulness of the breath (or
sound/body/awareness - whatever you have chosen to do) for 10 minutes.’ This
helps you to ...
Learning to Meditate Tip #3 Remind yourself of your purpose
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It may be small, but it's not insignificant. It's important to r emind yourself of your purpose in meditating.
Although in meditation we learn to let go of striving for a particular outcome,
reminding ourselves of why we thought it was a good idea to learn to meditate
helps us to keep m...
The Places That Scare You (2001) Pema Chödrön - A Guide to Fearlessness.
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Pema
Chödrön writes in The Places That Scare You (2001) of the ancient
Buddhist principle of Bodhichitta. Chödrön is a Nun, Author, and Mother. She recalls
learning the principle aged six, while walking home from school one day. She
had been in a bad mood. An old woman called to her a...
Learning to Meditate Tip #2 Start Small and Build
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There
are differing opinions on how to establish a regular meditation practice, with
some teachers advocating a long practice of 45 minutes or more straight off the
bat. I have found that starting with a small amount of time to begin with and
then gradually extending the time once t...
Learning to Meditate Tip #1 Setting up Your Meditation Space
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Ever
wanted to start your own meditation practice? We’ll be bringing you a new tip each week on how to set-up and maintain a
regular mediation practice without having to leave your home! The benefits of meditation are well-known, but in case you need a
reminder here’s some reas...
Riding the Wave of Uncertainty: Taking Inspiration from Surfing when Managing a Crisis. By Dr Sonja Skocic
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Have you ever seen a dumper wave rolling in and found
yourself at the base of it with no understanding of the wave, the ocean floor, and no board or skills to tackle it? You get dumped, swallow salty ocean water, lose
your bathing suit and end up waddling back to shore with seaweed in
yo...
Food and Mood: How Food Influences our Mental Health
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How food
influences our mental health Have you
ever noticed yourself becoming irritable, angry, moody when you are hungry
(hangry)? Or feeling lethargic and foggy in the afternoon? For many of us it’s
the time when we tend to reach for something sweet like a biscuit or choc...
10 Minute Chickpea and Tomato Curry by Diane Rennard
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Photo by Agnieszka Kowalczyk Eating well doesn’t need to be complicated or costly,
with a few basic ingredients you can put together a simple nourishing meal in
minutes. You will also have some leftovers for lunch or
dinner another day saving you time and effort. 10 ...
Disrupt-Her by Miki Agrawal - A Manifesto for the Modern Woman
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Disrupt-her: A manifesto
for the modern woman (2019) This
book encourages a major disruption to the way you do things in your personal
and professional lives for the purpose of happiness, freedom and creative
inspiration. There are 13 areas the book explores including disruptin...
The Art of Happiness: A Handbook for Living by The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler. Book Review by Phoebe Cannard-Higgins
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For many years, Howard C. Cutler the American writer
and psychiatrist followed the Dalai Lama around America as he went from state
to state to speak about Buddhism and Buddhist principles. Cutler even travelled
to meet the Dalai Lama in his home in Dharamsala, India. Cutler, like many
...
Perfect Potion's Aromatherapy to re-set, get grounded and practice mindfulness by Sonja Skocic.
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Perfect
Potion's Aromatherapy to re-set, get grounded and practice mindfulness. Did you know that the sense of smell is
closely tied in with concentration, memory and mood? We can shift our mindset
and mood by ut...
Radical Self-Care for Difficult Times
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There are various frameworks of self-care that I value, particularly those that are driven by a need to sustain health and well-being for the benefit of others. This area is always of importance to me and my colleagues who work in the helping professions and as activists, but particularl...