Working in the mental health field may be very fulfilling at times, but also quite taxing. It may be quite taxing on the mental and emotional health of mental health practitioners to give assistance to those at their most vulnerable. In the mental health field, burnout is frequent and may devastate the therapist and their … read more

I am very excited to introduce Anita Whelen Somatic Experiencing Practitioner who joined my practice in January. While we practice in different ways, our work highly compliments each-other. Anita’s background is in body work, while I am a psychodynamic and somatic psychotherapist. Here is a conversation I had with Anita about her work. As a … read more

Mental health issues are constantly in the news. We are suffering  from relational problems, depression, anxiety, eating disorders and so on. These ‘disorders’ or other mental health diagnoses are often stem from untreated traumas in our life. Our government and the media only seem to know about one way of treating these life challenging issues … read more

As a psychotherapist, I find that the most common reason clients come to therapy is related to unhappiness in their relationship. Sometimes there are simple communication problems that can be changed in a few sessions, but more often there are deep-seated issues.  Our early experiences in life can create patterns of relating that last through … read more

http://www.childhoodtrauma.org.au/2015/august/practicing-shame-resilience Shame is not easy to talk about. It is a powerful emotion and can have trans-generational effects if it is not talked about and processed (Bradshaw, 1988). In order to develop a sense of worth, we need to have a parental figure giving our experience value. (Meares, 2005). If this is lacking, we believe … read more

My Desire Map workshops start… NOW! The Desire Map started out as a book, written by Danielle LaPorte. From there, it became the driver of over 500 book clubs around the world. At the heart of it all? A commitment to feeling good. Cynics would say that choosing to place your focus on feeling good … read more

This is the second part of trauma education by my friend and colleague and fellow Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner: Barbara Schmidt check out her website:  www.counsellingsomatic.com.au. When someone is stressed out & irrational it makes sense to explore negative thinking and to help that person to return to rational thinking (CBT). In Trauma however the frontal … read more

Exciting news coming regarding the The Foundations of Well-Being program! Stay tuned 🙂 I want you to know about Dr. Rick Hanson’s new online, experiential program – The Foundations of Well-Being (http://www.rickhanson.net/teaching/foundations-program/) – which will hardwire more happiness, resilience, self-worth, love, and peace into your brain and your life. Start this October, it’s a year … read more

Hello, Recently I attended to the Childhood Trauma Foundation’s amazing conference. The speakers and presenters, many of them presenting in this online course as well, inspired me so much that; I wanted to tell you about a great new online program: http://www.rickhanson.net/BraveTherapy/foundations-program Starting this October, the experiential, yearlong Foundations program will hardwire more happiness, resilience, … read more

Twitter handles: @MindfulWomen and @BraveTherapy About the Childhood Trauma Conference via The Australia Childhood Foundation “In the brain, the collective actions of individual nerve cells connect in intricate networks to shape behaviour, form and retrieve memories, evoke emotions, react to danger and build relationships with others. Knowledge about brain-body science has challenged and resourced exciting … read more

  How to calm your nervous system: Our autonomic nervous system ANS comprises of two major branches (put in a very simple way) the sympathetic, and the parasympathetic. When we feel anxious, you know that feeling of the heart rate going up, sometimes we feel it is in our throat, we may feel sweaty or … read more

http://www.southpacificprivate.com.au/daringway%E2%84%A2workshop Wholehearted living and dealing with vulnerability -30th May 2014 South Pacific Private’s PR Manager, Jacquie Grant, spoke to Andi Szasz, certified Daring Way™ Facilitator in advance of the upcoming Daring Way™ workshop at South Pacific Private on the 28th – 29th June. Andi, how did you get to be a qualified facilitator? I’ve been … read more

Due to the great response and interest a 2nd date has been announced for a weekend intensive for practitioners. This will be a last one for a while for practitioners.  Here is a lovely feedback about the last workshop from psychotherapist Jodie Gale: http://jodiegale.com/dr-brene-browns-the-daring-way/ And feedback from my beautiful daring ladies of the first workshop … read more

Stressing out about stress is not good for us 🙂 Love Kelly McGonigal work, let me know what you think.