Blogs

Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA): What is it? And how can we support individuals with a PDA profile?

Image source: https://sunshine-support.org/resources/#infographics What is Pathological Demand Avoidance Pathological demand avoidance, or Pervasive Drive for Autonomy (PDA)*, is an anxiety-driven ...

Understanding and Managing Children’s Challenging Behaviours – For parents

Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash Have you ever experienced the challenge of navigating a teenager’s sudden outbursts or trying ...

Working through trauma from a schema therapy lens

Photo by Aditya Saxena on Unsplash My previous blog aimed at providing a brief overview of trauma and posttraumatic stress ...

Breaking the Cycle: Why Avoidance Behaviours Lead to More Avoidance

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash Anxiety can be an uncomfortable and distressing feeling that we want to get rid ...

Assertiveness: What does it look like and why it’s important

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash Most people have experienced situations where they have not received what they wanted or ...

Coping with the Stress of Year 12’s Final Semester with Strategies for Success

Photo by Windows on Unsplash The final year of high school, Year 12, is a crucial period in a student’s ...

Understanding the function of an eating disorder (Infographic)

Please note: the following infographic has been designed to help readers better understand eating disorders and why some are so ...

The Craving Cycle: A CBT Concept for Managing Addiction

Photo by Külli Kittus on Unsplash In psychological therapy, we’re almost always looking to make progress. This often comes back ...

How to Succeed in Achieving Your Goals: A Quick Guide to Changeology

Photo by Annick Saminaden “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by ...

Treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Image source: helpguide.org What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)? Maybe you’ve heard someone refer to themselves as having “OCD” or being ...

Couples conflict: Why do we keep hurting each other and fighting about the same thing?

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash Conflict is a natural and unavoidable part of intimate relationships. Conflict often has a ...

Learning Assessments: What, When, Why and How?

Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash Has it been suggested that your child undergo a learning assessment? Are you unsure ...

What is Play Therapy? And how can it help your child?

“Enter into children’s play and you will find the place where their minds, hearts, and souls meet.” -Virginia Axline   ...

A Neurodiversity-Affirming Approach: What Is It and How Can It Support Your Child(ren)?

Image source: https://www.onwardsandupwardspsychology.com.au/post/understanding-neurodiversity What Is Neurodiversity? In recent years, the neurodiversity movement has become increasingly prominent. Coined in the 1990s ...

Postpartum depression

Photo by Aditya Romansa on Unsplash Parenthood tends to be talked about in glowingly positive terms. It is described as ...

A brief overview of trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash What is trauma? Trauma refers to the emotional response experienced following exposure to a ...

Major Depression – More Than Just Feeling Blue

Photo by Jack Lucas Smith on Unsplash Nowadays, people may use the word depression to colloquially describe several different feelings ...

Burnout: Is that what you’ve been feeling and what to do about it?

Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash Have you felt exhausted, overwhelmed, feeling like you hate what you’re doing, not enjoying ...

What is Coercive Control?

Photo by Nadine Shaabana on Unsplash The term Coercive control has increasingly been in the media in recent months as ...

How to Talk about Death With Adults and Children

Have you ever felt at a loss for words when you heard about a death? Have you ever felt out ...

How can a therapy dog benefit me in my sessions?

“A dog has no use for fancy cars, big homes, or designer clothes. A water logged stick will do just ...

Moving on from Parentification

Do you identify with any of the following? Feel overly responsible for the emotional needs of others Insecure about depending ...

Understanding Your Thoughts

Understanding Your Thoughts Simply put, thoughts are our opinions and beliefs about ourselves, others and the world around us. Thoughts ...

Relationships – The House that Makes a Home –

What are the elements for a happy, healthy, and strong relationship? Some people say trust, others say honesty, loyalty, commitment ...

Mind Full or Mindful?

No doubt you, as a therapist or client will at some point in the process be introduced to the principles ...

Are you really practicing gratitude?

But I should be grateful….right? Recent times have called for the re-evaluation and adjustment of self-care practices and an emphasis ...

What is the best way to parent your child(ren)?

As parents, it’s our desire to want to give our kids the best. We expect a lot from ourselves to ...

Importance of Self-Compassion

At some point in our lives, we all have heard the phrase that ‘charity begins at home’! Most of us ...

Dealing with marital separation and divorce

The ‘D’ word…. It sure isn’t something that you would fathom when you decide to marry. Yet it happens so ...

Maintaining Motivation

Not motivated to exercise as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on? You’re not alone!  Most of us are having trouble sticking ...

The 5 Love Languages…More than Just a Gimmick?

Humans use language as a principal form of communicating with each other. Language allows us to convey our needs, wants, ...

Supporting Primary School children with managing school anxiety

Regardless of your child’s age group, the transition back to school for the start of a new year can be ...

Managing Grief and Loss

Grief, in general, is a response to loss. Grief can occur after a death, divorce, sickness or other significant loss ...

Self-care This Holiday Season

It’s that time of year again….December! The new year is fast approaching and for many of us, December can be ...

Adapting to Change

The one constant thing in our lives is change, as it is constant and inevitable. Change can come into our ...

How to get a better nights’ sleep

Want a better nights’ sleep? Here’s what you need to know… https://youtu.be/_UFrY_1h2zU We all have crummy sleep from time to ...

Animal-assisted therapy at Your Mind Matters Psychology Services

Animal-assisted therapy, or AAT involves a situation where an animal is assisting a therapist to reach a specific goal with ...

Why Everyone Needs Their Beauty Rest

Many people say that sleep is important and that we need to rest up, but why exactly is that so? ...

Are you trying to cope with a loss?

Grief is a natural response when facing a life limiting illness and the death of someone you love. Each person experiences ...

How We Feel in Our Body and Intense Feelings

Have you ever felt so angry that your stomach hurt and your head pounds? Well, I have. In a recent ...

Dealing with a life changing diagnosis: Providing support or being a carer

Learning that someone close to you has a potentially life impacting diagnosis, is a difficult experience. You may feel anxious, ...

Maintaining emotional wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

2020 sure hasn’t turned out like we envisioned. What started as a regular year, soon turned into something very different ...

How YMM can support you during the COVID-19 pandemic

SUPPORTING OUR COMMUNITY AND CLIENTS In the wake of community concerns around COVID-19, we’re committed to providing our clients with ...

Goodbye 2019, Hello 2020 – How to make it your best year.

As we near the end of another year, we often start to think about our New Years’ resolutions. We reflect ...

Accessing Support over our Christmas Closure

Christmas can be a challenging time of year for some of our clients, so we thought it may be helpful ...

What Now? Life after a formal diagnosis of Autism

For some families, having a diagnosis that explains their child’s speech, behavioural and emotional issues is a relief. However, for ...

Beating The Monday Morning Blues

I think we’ve all experienced that sense of dread as Monday rolls around. Feeling ‘blue’ with the lead up to ...

Challenging Behaviours: What is your Child’s Behaviour Trying to Communicate?

Behaviour is communication I’ve never forgotten the following phrase that I heard in my initial training when I started working ...

Coping and Managing with Workplace Stress

The workplace environment is rapidly and constantly changing. With online platforms, digital tools and smart devices make work more portable ...

Self Care Resources

Steps We Could Take to Take Care of Ourselves One of our psychologists has taken the time to put together ...

Have you heard about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and would like to know more?

What is CBT? CBT is an intervention that takes a practical, task based approach to solving problems. The focus of ...

The Relationship Between Diet and Mood

Why is eating healthy also good for your mind and mood? It’s a no brainer that eating healthy can improve ...

How to cope when you can’t fall pregnant

We all have those friends or family members who seem to fall pregnant the instant they decide to have a ...

Anger in Children

Anger is a normal feeling that everyone has felt at some point in their life. However, anger is a feeling ...

Goal Setting

Goal setting is the process of creating an action plan with the aim of motivating a person towards a goal ...

Navigating the NDIS

Are you new to the NDIS? Below we have answered some of the common questions asked by families. Once I ...

Incorporating relaxation into everyday life

Many of us struggle to unwind and relax. We can often get caught up in the busy nature of life, ...

Handy tips towards improved mental health in adolescents

Adolescence is the peak age of onset for many mental health conditions, with half of all mental disorders usually starting ...

Dealing with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder

Bipolar Disorder is a mood disorder characterized by episodes of depression and mania. You may know this condition by its ...

Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is the term used to define the act of avoiding or putting something off. We can all relate to ...

Screen Time – How Much Is Too Much? When Is It a Problem?

I have so many parents asking me about screen time these days and what is and isn’t okay, so I ...

Knowing when to seek help

Most of us experience stress at some point in our life and some experience other mental health issues during their ...

Autism Spectrum and Sensory Issues

Individuals on the Autism Spectrum often experience differences in the way they process sensory experiences. They typically experience sensory input more ...

Quick Self-Care Tools for Parents

Having worked with children with a range of varying needs, one thing I have noticed is that parents often forget ...

Confidentiality – What You Need To Know

When seeing a psychologist, you may wonder what information remains confidential. Psychologists are bound by ethical guidelines, the APS Code ...

An Introduction to Mindfulness

MINDFULNESS – WHAT IS IT, AND HOW CAN I DO IT? You’ve probably heard the words “mindful” or “mindfulness”, but ...

Helping Children & Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder & Anxiety

Anxiety is a normal part of children’s development, but children and teenagers with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) ...

What is self-esteem and how do I improve it?

Self-esteem plays a key role towards our emotional well-being. Although low self-esteem is not in itself a mental health issue, ...

Building Resilience

Resilience is often described as an individual’s ability to transform adversity into wisdom, insight and compassion. Resilience is ordinary not ...

Preparing Your Child For School

Starting school is an exciting time for most children. However, for some children, starting school can be a difficult and ...

Practicing self-care this Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching, and the 2017 year is nearing a close. For many the festive season is a time ...

Relationships and Communication – How important is communication in a romantic relationship?

“Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work ...

Medicare Funded Online Counselling (Telehealth)

DID YOU KNOW….? As of 1st November 2017, Psychologists will be able to provide video counselling to patients in rural ...

如何让孩子学习两种语言

Our Speech Pathologist, Fiona Low, has re-written her blog on helping children learn two languages in Mandarin: 如何让孩子学习两种语言 澳大利亚是个多元文化的国家。许多家庭中,会说多种语言的孩子非常多。如今,英语虽仍是澳洲的官方语言,越来越多的家庭都选择让孩子在家里或在学校里学习各种外语;那,孩子从小接触多种语言,会不会影响孩子的语言发展呢? 关于儿童学习双语的错误观念: 误区1: ...

Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)

What is an Employee Assistance Program? An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an arrangement between an organisation and its employees ...

Men’s Health Week

June 12th 2017 marks the start of Men’s Health Week. Although it’s very normal for my peers and I to ...

Supporting your children to learn two languages

Across the world, most individuals are either bilingual (speaking two languages) or multilingual (speaking multiple languages). Today in Australia, many ...

Getting a better night’s sleep

Sleep is an important part of our well-being. Just ask a shift worker, a new mother, emergency service employees, a ...

Understanding Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety condition involving intrusive negative thoughts and the repetition of certain behaviours. What is ...

What can you expect when you visit a Psychologist at Your Mind Matters Psychology Services?

Coming to see a Psychologist can be rather daunting. Who wakes up in the morning and says, “I’d love to ...

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, worry or fear. Everyone feels anxious at some point in their life, but for ...

A Word on Addiction

Addiction is defined as not having control over doing, taking or using something to the point where it could be ...

Tipsheets for Helping Children with Challenging Behaviours

Children with Challenging Behaviours At some point, all parents deal with the frustration of having their children present with some ...

World Suicide Prevention Day

World Suicide Prevention Day 10th September 2016 The World Health Organization estimates that over 800,000 people in the world die ...

Coping with Bereavement

Bereavement affects people in different ways. There’s no right or wrong way to feel. Experts generally accept that people usually ...

Overcome Mental Exhaustion

5 Ways to Overcome Mental Exhaustion Feel like you’re at the end of your tether?  Here are 5 simple tips ...

Dealing with Catastrophic Thinking

Us humans are great at worrying and churning things over and over (AND OVER!) in our minds. It’s a terrible, unhelpful ...

Work-life balance

In this day and age, it can often become difficult to maintain a healthy work -life balance. With the increasing demands ...