Mind Always Matters

Understanding the difference is crucial: Sadness is a moment, but depression lingers. 🌧️➡️🌑 Let’s learn more about recognizing and supporting mental health. ***de

Exploring the Difference: Sadness vs. Depression #DepressionAwareness #MentalHealthMatters

If you’re navigating the pain of loss and are in the process of grieving, we warmly invite you to join our group counselling session.

“Putting Thoughts on Trial” is a cognitive technique designed to help individuals challenge and reassess their beliefs and perceptions, particularly those that may be distorted or irrational. This method is akin to a courtroom trial, where thoughts are examined and evaluated for their validity, much like evidence in a legal case.

The process begins with identifying a specific thought or belief that is causing distress or is unhelpful. Once identified, the individual gathers evidence both supporting and contradicting this belief, effectively ‘cross-examining’ their own thoughts. This step is crucial as it encourages a more objective view of one’s internal narrative.

The individual then critically evaluates this evidence, challenging the accuracy and rationality of the belief. This is similar to how a jury would weigh evidence in a trial. The goal is to consider alternative perspectives or interpretations that might be more aligned with the facts.

After thorough examination, a ‘verdict’ is reached about the belief’s validity. If found to be based more on distortion than reality, the individual works to replace it with a more rational, realistic thought. This step is crucial for cognitive restructuring, a key component in cognitive-behavioral therapy.

“Putting Thoughts on Trial” is a powerful tool in managing negative or unhelpful thought patterns, promoting mental wellbeing by fostering a more accurate and less biased understanding of one’s experiences and perceptions.

Couldn't have asked for a better way to begin the year.

Conducted a workshop for a group of amazing the young adults of Watume Global Ministries. This photo does not do justice to the beautiful interactions we had while discussing childhood trauma and it’s manifestation.

The first step towards healing is being aware of what has happened and how it is (possibly) creating concerns in your life. This workshop threw light on the unresolved issues caused due to childhood emotional neglect, that required attention.

The Cycle of Anxiety

The cycle of anxiety is a process where a person avoids their feelings or thoughts that creates distress in them, and as a result, those feelings and/or thoughts grow increasingly powerful. This creates a vicious cycle.

To break the anxiety cycle, we need to become aware of this cycle. So instead of letting our anxious thoughts and feelings drive our behaviour, we will learn to slow down our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. In psychotherapy, the therapist and the client work together on breaking this cycle.

Work, Physical Health, Emotional Health, Relationships and Spirituality are five important aspects of human life. Work-life balance would involve us paying attention to all these five aspects of life and having time for our leisure activities. 

These days, work-life balance can seem like an impossible feat. Maintaining work-life balance helps reduce stress and helps prevent burnout in the workplace. Chronic stress is one of the most common health issues in the workplace. It can lead to physical consequences such as hypertension, digestive troubles, chronic aches and pains and heart problems. Chronic stress can also negatively impact mental health because it’s linked to a higher risk of depression, anxiety and insomnia.

Indulging in other aspects of our life helps us combat the stress that formulates and helps us in achieving a balance in life. If we find it a challenge to have a healthy work-life balance, it might be of help if we explore that with a registered clinical counsellor. 

The Personal Iceberg is a Satir Transformational Systemic Therapy (STST) technique used as a transformational tool to explore the self. The tool utilizes the metaphor of an iceberg to represent human experiences; the small tip represents visible behaviors. As the Iceberg metaphor illustrates, the observable is only the tip of what a human experiences. Each layer under the water represents a part of personal experience that is unique to each individual, and if explored, gets us closer to the childhood trauma, emotional neglect and/or pain the person has experienced in the past.

It is a way of conceptualizing human experience and recognizing that most human experience is actually internal. The components of the internal experience are very interactive and systemic. Changes in one area often result in some changes in other areas. Therapists who engage the clients in this form of therapy focus on creating a healing in the client by unravelling the unmet yearning the client might have experienced in the past.

Have you ever wondered how the process of therapy would look like ?

Therapy process is captured beautifully by Satir Change Model. This describes how an individual moves from the Late Status Quo to the New Status Quo. Improvement is always possible. This conviction is the heart of the transformation system developed by family therapist Virginia Satir. Her system helps people improve their lives by transforming the way they see and express themselves.

An element of the Satir System is a five-stage change model (Old status quo, Resistance, Chaos, Integration and New status quo) that describes the effects each stage has on feelings, thinking, performance, and physiology. Using the principles embodied in this model, you can improve how you process change and how you help others process change..

Check the bio to book for a session.

One of the responses to trauma is Fight response. There are situations when this response is helpful and healthy. For example, if someone speaks to you in a condescending manner, you might say, “I won’t let you speak to me that way,” which is a healthy fight response.

However, when someone has been exposed to intense trauma over time, they find themselves always feeling as though they are on high alert, ready to fight. This unhealthy response can manifest in

1. Controlling behaviors
2. Bullying
3. Demanding perfection from others
4. Feelings of entitlement

Sometimes unhealthy fight responses turn inward. People can feel incredibly angry with themselves for seemingly no reason.

If you have had unhealthy fight responses, take a moment to be compassionate with yourself. You may have learned these behaviors in order to survive and be safe. If you would like to explore this further and heal from this trauma response, it would be of help if you reach out for counselling services.

The ‘fawn’ response is an instinctual response associated with a need to avoid conflict and trauma via appeasing behaviors. For children, fawning behaviors can be a maladaptive survival or coping response which developed as a means of coping with a non-nurturing or abusive parent.

Psychotherapist and complex trauma (C-PTSD) expert Pete Walker coined the term ‘fawn’ response to describe a specific type of instinctive response resulting from childhood abuse and complex trauma. In his discussion on ‘fawning’, Walker asserts that trauma-based codependency is learned very early in life when a child gives up protesting abuse to avoid parental retaliation, thereby relinquishing the ability to say “no” and behave assertively.

Check the link given in the bio to book for a counselling session 😊