Build a resilient workplace by prioritizing mental health through supportive environments, open communication, work-life balance, Employee Assistance Programs, stress management, and ongoing training.
Guide helps parents recognize teen stress signs, triggers, and impacts. It highlights benefits of counselling, professional support by Melbourne psychologists, and services by Your Mind Matters, including telehealth.
This guide clarifies differences between ADHD and anxiety in children, highlighting symptoms, impacts, and the importance of early professional assessment for accurate diagnosis and effective support.
This guide outlines anxiety signs, daily impact, and practical management techniques like relaxation, cognitive restructuring, and gradual exposure, emphasizing professional support via counseling and workplace programs.
In today’s busy world, accessing support has become easier with online services. A Telehealth psychologist offers the same professional, evidence-based care you would receive in person, but with the convenience of connecting from home, work, or anywhere with internet access.
Not sure if Telehealth psychology is right for you? Here are five signs you might benefit from working with a psychologist online.
For many Australians, local psychology services may be limited. A Telehealth psychologist in Australia makes it possible to access professional support without travelling long distances. This ensures you can receive consistent care, no matter where you live.
Balancing work, study, or family life can make it difficult to attend in-person sessions. Telehealth appointments save time by cutting out travel, making it easier to fit therapy into your week.
Some people find it easier to open up in a familiar environment. Meeting with a psychologist via Telehealth can provide a greater sense of comfort and reduce the anxiety that may come with attending a clinic.
Telehealth can be combined with face-to-face sessions, giving you choice and flexibility. This means you can still see a psychologist in person if you prefer, but switch to online sessions when needed — such as during busy times, illness, or travel.
Whether you are seeking an ADHD assessment online or counselling for trauma, anxiety, or relationships, Telehealth gives you access to psychologists who may not be based in your local area. This expands your options and helps you find the right professional fit.
A Telehealth psychologist provides the same standard of professional care as in-person sessions, with the added convenience of flexibility and accessibility. If you are considering support for your mental health, Telehealth might be a helpful option.
At Your Mind Matters Psychology Services, our Melbourne-based team also offers Telehealth psychology across Australia, including assessments and therapy.
📞 Get in touch today to book a Telehealth psychologist appointment.
Our Blog Author
This post was written by the team at Your Mind Matters. Telehealth sessions with our psychologists are available across Australia. Meet our team.
There’s no question that feelings can be highly, highly unpleasant. For many people, emotions can become so overpowering that they can compel us to do things we mightn’t be proud of – we can yell, throw things, or binge drink.
Many clients we see at Your Mind Matters struggle with big emotions – some clients report feeling emotionally dysregulated when they’re upset, and struggle to bring themselves back to a baseline, neutral state. It’s a common problem, and can lead to all kinds of difficulties.
This blog is about Distress Tolerance, which is a host of psychological tools that can help us when we’re struggling with truly overwhelming feelings. The goal of Distress Tolerance is not to eliminate an emotion, or even significantly reduce its intensity – instead, it’s about teaching us to tolerate the emotion, and withstand the urges that can come with it. It belongs to a kind of therapy called Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).
DBT is an evidence-based therapy for multiple forms of mental health challenges, and contains plenty of ideas that can be great for anyone’s emotional wellbeing. DBT breaks itself up into lots of different bits and pieces – one of these is a Skills component, that has Distress Tolerance as a sub-school inside it. You can think of DBT as a big book – Skills is a chapter, and Distress Tolerance takes up a few pages in that chapter.
Distress Tolerance is about asking yourself what behaviours your emotions urge you toward, with a particular focus on the kind of behaviours that lead to greater distress later on – i.e., make the situation worse. For instance, if you were a tennis player whose emotions led to an urge to smash your racquet against the court, your Distress Tolerance goal could be to reduce your racquet-smashing – because this will make you feel embarrassed or guilty later on, and avoid the competitive consequences that come with it. Note the player’s goal wouldn’t be to feel less angry, although this would be nice… instead, Distress Tolerance asks you to ride that emotion more effectively, and not make the feeling worse.
Other behavioural goals can be:
Distress Tolerance asks clients to build a Distress Tolerance Toolkit – i.e., a set of skills that include self-soothing, distraction, connecting with others, and mindfulness. Again, we’d hope these tools reduce the intensity of your feelings; but more importantly, we’d hope they lead to you tolerating your distress without engaging in life-worsening behaviour.
There are lots of methods and strategies DBT uses in their Distress Tolerance framework – many of them are available for free from the Dialectical Behavior Therapy distress tolerance page.
If you need support right now
If this is an emergency, call 000. For 24-hour support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or text 0477 13 11 14. DirectLine, the Victorian alcohol and drug counselling service, is available on 1800 888 236. More options are on our resources page.
Our Blog Author
This post was written by Patrick Carey, Clinical Psychologist at Your Mind Matters. Paddy works with adults presenting with anxiety and mood disorders, trauma, obsessive-compulsive disorders, substance and gambling issues, psychosis spectrum disorders, and grief and loss, and is trained in CBT, ACT, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Metacognitive Training and mindfulness approaches. Meet our team.
People can be scared of many different things, such as dogs, aeroplanes, needles or insects. And the degree to which we’re fearful of these things can also vary. For example, I personally am scared of birds (this is also known as ornithophobia). Yes, I know…terrifying. However, it’s a mild fear, as this does not stop me from walking through a park where I know birds will be present, or walking down the sidewalk when I see them on the footpath in front of me. I may not like it, but it doesn’t interfere with my life. Unfortunately, this may not be the case for everyone, because, as mentioned above, the degrees of fear can vary. Many individuals will go out of their way to avoid that which causes fear. Some may never go on a desired holiday, or see family interstate due to being frightened of flying. Others may avoid going outside in spring and summer due to their fear of bugs. In these circumstances, seeing a psychologist can be helpful, in order to help tackle this issue.
One way to do this, and my preferred way, is through systematic desensitisation. This involves gradual exposure to that which causes fear and discomfort. To start off, I work with my clients to develop a hierarchy, starting with what causes the least amount of fear, or anxiety, and building up to that which causes the most fear. It’s important that clients follow these steps in an environment that is safe and predictable. Let’s use fear of dogs as an example. Depending on the severity, step one may be just talking about dogs. Believe it or not, this alone can be enough to cause uneasy feelings for some. I ask my client to rate their anxiety level for step one (1-10). The idea is that the more the client is exposed to this step, they will become desensitised, leading to their self-rating to drop over time. Once the client is comfortable and essentially bored with this step, we then move onto step two. Step two may involve looking at pictures of dogs. For example, I would advise against going to a dog park to observe dogs there, as this is an unpredictable environment, as we cannot control or stop a dog from running up to the client, which could lead to more distress. Moving on, step three may involve looking at videos of dogs. Once again, the client would continue to rate their level of discomfort, and eventually, once this drops to an extremely comfortable level, we move on to the next step. Eventually, the aim and goal would be to have the client comfortably sitting in a room with the dog, and even interact with a dog.
In addition to a hierarchy, it is beneficial to work on breathing strategies in sessions as well. These help ease some of the discomfort within each step. Learning to challenge unhelpful and unrealistic thoughts via CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is also very helpful, as often, we overestimate the level of threat, and are more fearful of certain things than necessary.
If an individual has an animal-related fear, such as the above, it can be beneficial if the psychologist they are working with utilises animal-assisted therapy. Therapy dogs are generally quite well-trained and love people. Exposure to therapy animals is done in a safe and predictable environment, and it’s reassuring to know that the specific dog is friendly, and that the handler (in this case, the therapist), has an understanding of the client’s fear, and can work with the client in a manner in which they are comfortable. As opposed to attempting to interact with a dog at a dog park, or on the street, which is less predictable. However, it is important to ensure that the psychologist and therapy animal you choose to work with are suitable for your own level of fear, as some dogs can be more excitable than others and may not be suitable for someone who has trouble even being in the same room as a dog.
Luna in her therapy dog vest.
If you think working with a psychologist would help you tackle your fear, give us a call to find a psychologist that is suitable for you. Please note that Johana is able to assist with clients who have a moderate fear of dogs, as Luna is an excitable dog.
Our Blog Author
This post was written by Johana Xanthopoulos, Clinical Psychologist at Your Mind Matters. Johana works with children and adolescents, with particular experience in autism, anxiety and depression, and has completed Animal Assisted Therapy training with her dog Luna. She is fluent in English and Greek. Meet our team.
My previous blog aimed at providing a brief overview of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder: A brief overview of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. This blog focuses on how therapy can aid in processing past traumatic or upsetting experiences.
There is an abundance of research on various modalities for working through trauma in a therapeutic context. Here we unpack the use of imagery rescripting, a schema therapy intervention. Please note, this is not the sole treatment approach available.
Schema Therapy focuses on understanding how our past experiences have shaped our schemas (beliefs specific to ourselves and the world around us). During our childhood, our needs may not have been met (e.g., our need for support, nurturance, safety/protection, emotional connection) which contributed to the development of early maladaptive schemas, unhelpful behavioural patterns and coping mechanisms.
A part of schema therapy is aimed at building attunement (‘tuning in’) to our emotional responses when faced with a triggering situation or event. It is about building awareness of how current life stressors can activate our schemas and lead to strong feelings and behavioural responses. Often, it is not the current event that evokes such an intense emotion, but more about how we interpret this event and the meaning we derive from it based on our early experiences. For instance, exposure to trauma or an upsetting event may lead to interpretations such as “This is my fault”, “I am bad/unworthy/not good enough”.
Prior to moving into imagery rescripting, your clinician will complete a thorough intake and assessment. Often, it may be necessary to build emotion regulation skills and learn relaxation strategies, to ensure that you are ready to move to the part of therapy where rescripting occurs. You might be asked to complete questionnaires, which look at the symptoms you experience and the impact on your daily functioning. This can provide valuable information and can be used to measure your progress throughout treatment.
Imagery rescripting is a therapeutic technique, where through the guidance of a trained clinician, one re-imagines a past painful memory, entering the image from the perspective of their child self. The aim is to change the way one feels and thinks about the event, by inserting new meanings/interpretations and leading to a corrective emotional response. The focus is on imagining a different outcome where the individual’s needs (for example, for safety, protection, nurturance) are met. During an imagery rescripting exercise, one does not need to relive the traumatic or upsetting event. What occurs is that the image is paused when a ‘hot spot’ (the moment feelings of distress begin to appear) is reached, and the therapist enters the image to support the client and meet their needs.
Now at this point, you may be thinking, “but that doesn’t change what actually happened”. And you are right. We can’t go back and change the past, but what we can do is change how you think and feel about the memory. Brain studies have shown that the brain responds in a similar way to imagining and actually experiencing an event.
The process of imagery rescripting takes approximately 12-15 minutes, but can vary from person to person. Once the image has been rescripted, you will have the opportunity to reflect on the experience of the exercise with your clinician. Many clients have provided positive feedback regarding imagery rescripting and reported a shift in their emotional response and beliefs when they think of the rescripted memory. This includes feeling ‘lighter’ when thinking about the memory, feeling less distressed and reduced anxiety.
If you would like some support in working through past upsetting experiences, our team of psychologists are here to help.
If you need support right now
If this is an emergency, call 000. For 24-hour support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or text 0477 13 11 14. 1800RESPECT is available on 1800 737 732 for anyone affected by domestic, family or sexual violence. More options are on our resources page.
Our Blog Author
This post was written by Maria Kampantais, Senior Clinical Psychologist at Your Mind Matters. Maria works with clients presenting with anxiety disorders and past trauma, drawing on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, mindfulness techniques and Schema Therapy. Meet our team.
Anxiety can be an uncomfortable and distressing feeling that we want to get rid of. This can lead to making choices that will alleviate our anxiety in the quickest way. Avoidance behaviours can encompass a wide range of physical and mental actions, from procrastination and refusing to think about certain things, to social withdrawal and distracting oneself. These behaviours can momentarily ease discomfort but ultimately reinforce the problems they are meant to alleviate.
Here’s how the cycle of avoidance typically unfolds:
Breaking the cycle of avoidance can seem daunting and overwhelming. However, gradually taking steps towards confronting feared situations will go a long way in breaking down this cycle and building a sense of confidence. While it may be tempting to jump into the deep-end and tackle your biggest fear first, taking a slow and persistent approach allows for you to learn and practise skills that can assist you.
Avoidance behaviours may offer temporary relief, but they are ultimately counterproductive, fuelling a cycle of increased avoidance. To break this pattern, it’s vital to confront challenges directly and adopt healthier coping strategies. By doing so, we can not only avoid the negative consequences of avoidance but also experience personal growth and resilience.
Our Blog Author
This post was written by Simone Chaochalakorn, formerly a Psychologist at Your Mind Matters. Support for anxiety and avoidance continues to be part of our services. Meet our team.
Maybe you’ve heard someone refer to themselves as having “OCD” or being “OCD” about certain things like cleanliness or orderliness. In reality, OCD is a mental illness that can dramatically impact someone’s life. OCD is characterised by the presence of intrusive and unwanted thoughts, ideas or images (obsessions) that lead to increased anxiety and repetitive, intentional rituals (compulsions) that are used to remove the anxiety. For more information relating to the understanding of OCD, check out our earlier blog here: Understanding Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
OCD tends to gradually build in severity due to the relationship that exists between the two factors, obsessions and compulsions. We are hardwired to attempt to solve problems with behavioural solutions, which for a long time in history that was integral! Thousands of years ago, we needed to effectively identify and avoid threats. If we didn’t feel the need to run away from a tiger hurdling towards us, we probably wouldn’t survive very long. In OCD, there is a miscalculation of a threat, where our obsessive, intrusive thought causes us undue anxiety. Often, we’re aware that these obsessions are irrational, yet we still have an urge to escape the “threat”. For example, someone with OCD may find themselves frequently thinking “If I forgot to turn the stove off, my house will burn down!” (obsession) feeling more and more anxious about it until they check to confirm they indeed have turned the stove off (compulsion). By checking, they have addressed the anxiety and the worry goes away until the obsession returns, which in some cases may be in a matter of minutes. In OCD, the person’s brain has LEARNT that the COMPULSION relieves ANXIETY and therefore wants to do it more!
OCD can be a challenging condition to treat. Prolonged practice of challenging obsessions and confronting compulsions can assist in minimising the severity of OCD and can significantly improve wellbeing. When dealing with OCD, we want to focus on addressing both Obsessions and Compulsions, if we can find ways to disrupt both elements, we have two points of attack in challenging the OCD cycle.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a first-line recommended treatment for OCD. In CBT, we attempt to understand why the obsessions are occurring and why our brain has labelled them as “threatening”. During this process we also explore strategies that help us to minimise the use of compulsions, which are often the most impactful element of OCD. Often, this is done through something called exposure therapy.
When entering a cold body of water, you might find it uncomfortable or difficult to stay in the water. However, after some time submerged, your body becomes used to the cold sensation and the water becomes much easier to tolerate. Much like cold water, the longer we can sit in the discomfort of anxiety without using compulsions to escape (i.e., get out of the water), the easier it gradually becomes.
Graded Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) is a process frequently used in addressing the compulsions of OCD. In this process, the client and the therapist work together to develop an exposure hierarchy, which is like a ladder of different experiences that are gradually more anxiety-provoking. After this, the client is exposed to each level of the ladder over a handful of sessions until each level feels manageable, gradually reaching the top of the ladder. In each instance, the job is to sit in the anxiety without using the compulsion to “escape” (or get out of the pool).
It’s a bit like weightlifting! If we want to lift 100kg and we’ve never touched a weight, it’s going to be very hard because we aren’t strong enough. But if we gradually increase the weight as we build up our strength, eventually we can lift the 100kg! The best thing about this process is that the task in front of us isn’t getting any harder because we are getting stronger. Similarly, our exposure hierarchy doesn’t tend to get much harder because we are building our tolerance to different situations.
ERP is super helpful in addressing compulsions but also facilitates challenging our anxious obsessions. Our anxious voice tells us that we have to use our compulsions in these situations, which we are able to challenge by showing ourselves that we can get through the discomfort without them.
If you would like assistance addressing personal challenges in your own life related to OCD, why not give us a call? Our team of highly skilled and well-experienced psychologists are here to help. Call us now and take that first step towards obtaining the life you deserve!
Abramowitz, J. S., Deacon, B. J., & Whiteside, S. P. H. (2010). Exposure therapy for anxiety : Principles and practice. ProQuest Ebook Central ProQuest Ebook Central
Abramowitz, J. S. (2006). The psychological treatment of obsessive—compulsive disorder. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 51(7), 407-416. doi: 10.1177/070674370605100702.
Hezel, D. M., & Simpson, H. B. (2019). Exposure and response prevention for obsessive- compulsive disorder: A review and new directions. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 61(1), S85. doi:10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_516_18
Our Blog Author
This post was written by Steven Andritsos, Clinical Psychologist at Your Mind Matters. Steven works with teenagers and adults experiencing depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances and phobias, drawing on cognitive behavioural therapy alongside Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Meet our team.
