Mental Health

Depression

It is common for everyone to have a few down days every now and again. Depression is different – it is persistent feelings of sadness, irritability, emptiness, lack of motivation and concentration, loss of interest or pleasure, and decline in socialising and work involvement.

Tips for beating Depression:

• Talk to someone – talking to your GP or Psychologist so they can start to treat your symptoms.
• Get Active – Physical exercise has been shown to benefit both the body and mind. When we exercise our brain releases endorphins and serotonin into our body – these feel good chemicals improve our mood, help sleep, and increase motivation.
• Increase socialising – depression can be very isolating so make and keep plans to get out of the house, spending time with friends and family, and even joining a sporting/interest group.
• Establish health eating and sleep routines – make sure you limit phone and computer when trying to get to sleep.

Anxiety

We all need anxiety and worry to keep us safe, learn and grow, and even motivate us to achieve and succeed. Anxiety becomes a problem when we can’t turn off the fear, uneasiness, or worry. It can be triggered by social settings, specific events such as speaking in public, or a general feeling of worry about a number of events or activities in your life.You may feel excessive worry and uneasiness, struggling to concentrate, fatigue, panic attacks, irritability, disrupted sleep, and decline in socialising and work performance.

Tips for beating Anxiety:

• Talk to someone – talking to your GP or Psychologist so they can start to treat your symptoms.
• Breath – We have all been told to ‘just breath’ when we are feeling anxious or worried. However, it really does work. Taking a few slow deep breaths in through the nose, holding, and breathing out through our mouth has shown to reduce our heart rate, blood pressure, and increase blood flowwhich results in a feeling of calm.
• Mindfulness – challenging ourselves to be more present in the here and now can reduce our anxiety thinking.
• Containing of worry – give yourself purposeful time to worry and challenge yourself to take action to solve struggles or issues.

Relationships

Relationships can feel like hard work. They can be influenced by many factors such as daily stress, financial strains, children, work commitments, affairs, past relationships, trauma, grief, and mental health. When these influences are present, unhealthy patterns will develop particularly with communication and conflict.

Psychological therapy can help you to better communicate, reduce conflict, repair from betrayal, and overall improve functioning. The purpose of relationship therapy isn’t only to make a relationship work and for a couple to stay together – it can also be used to help end a relationship in the healthiest way possible

Trauma

Life can expose us to traumatic events which can cause us to experience extreme distress, nightmares, flashbacks, avoidance behaviours, hypervigilance, irritability, disrupted sleep, difficulties concentrating, and significant reduction in coping with everyday life. These events may have happened once or many times and either recently or a long time ago.

When we experience trauma our brain may struggle to process or make sense of it. We keep reliving these experiences with intense emotions and physical sensations.

Psychological therapy allows you to process these events so we can reduce symptoms, change your coping strategies, improve relationships, and give you a sense of control over your life again.

Grief and Loss

We not only experience grief when someone dies, we also experience grief when life events come to an end such as a relationship, losing a job, or moving towns/cities. We may struggle with the intense feelings and physical sensations, such as sadness, as well as difficulties making sense when this happens.

When grieving, we expect you to feel denial, bargaining, anger, sadness, and acceptance. These stages are not in any specific order and these different feelings can occur many times throughout the day. Grief can also be complicated when we get stuck on the loss, and struggle to accept what has happened – particularly when the death was a result of murder or suicide, or the relationship with that person was difficult or abusive.

Psychological therapy will help you process and make sense of the grief and to learn to live and cope with these memories.

Stress

Stress is an important aspect of life and can maintain healthy functioning in all aspects of our lives. We cannot have life without stress. High and persistent levels of stress can have a negative impact on your mental health as well as your relationships, work performance, and friendships.

Psychological therapy can teach you skills and strategies to learn to cope with and manage your stress.

Drug and Alcohol Misuse/Dependency

Misuse and addiction is a treatable condition. It can take many forms such as dependency on alcohol, substances, cigarettes, and gambling. You may experience a failure to fulfil important roles in your life at home and work, a reduction with social and reactional activities, withdrawal from friends and family, and struggles to control use. You may also have ongoing desires to stop using or engaging in the behaviours however experience unsuccessful efforts which influences motivation and goals.

Psychological therapy provides treatment through withdrawals, urges, cravings, and relapse. We provide insight with education, teaching coping skills, prevention strategies, and goals for change.

Sleep

“Why can’t I just go to sleep?” is a very common question. Many people with sleep difficulties will lie there for hours trying harder and harder to get to sleep only feeling more frustration and worry about their lack of sleep. When it comes time for sleep the next day, sleep becomes a very unpleasable experience and you start to avoid it.

Some tips with sleep:

• Establish good sleep routine – start to prepare and plan for sleep about 30 minutes before getting into bed. Turn off the TV, computer, have a warm shower, and warm decaffeinated drink.
• Stop using phones and computer in bed.
• Don’t check you phone or clock for the time despite how many times you wake up during the night.
• If you are still tossing and turning after 30 minutes get out of bed – go to the bathroom, grab a glass of water, and then head back to bed to try again.
• Start using breathing and mindfulness strategies to turn off the thoughts.

Psychological therapy can help with all of the above and more to help establish a healthy long lasting sleep routine.

Sex Therapy

Sex is an important and healthy part of life. The motivations to have sex can include procreation, pleasure, and even stress reduction. Difficulties with sex and issues surrounding sex may lead to reduced self-esteem and self-confidence and challenges within relationships. Many individuals and couples feel embarrassed or ashamed to seek help or guidance with their struggles.

Psychological therapy can help with:

• Erectile and orgasm difficulties
• Premature ejaculation
• Mismatched libidos
• Reduced sex drive
• Vaginismus
• Sexual Identity

Once physical causes have been ruled out, it may be confusing to understand why you are experiencing difficulties. Psychological factors, such as anxiety, depression, and stress can cause and increase these difficulties. Sex therapy will provide insight and awareness, education, understanding, and skills to overcome your sexual difficulties

Pregnancy and Fertility

Having a baby is a life changing event. You may experience struggles conceiving, miscarriage, difficulties through pregnancy and delivery, as well as adjusting to life when the baby comes home.

Pregnancy can be a challenging experience for all. You may feel worries and concerns with the new challenges and learnings. It is an emotional rollercoaster from sadness to happiness.

Psychological therapy allows you to understand these changes, process grief and loss, and improve your coping skills.