Trauma in all forms has the potential to change the way a person understand the world, how they see to others and how they relate themselves. The experience of trauma can catalyse certain emotional and psychological responses that aim to protect the person emotionally.

 If you are a person with a uterus and who menstruates, PMS week can be a tough time and a half! Everything hurts, everyone sucks, your body feels yuck and need ALL OF THE CHOCOLATE NOW.

Here’s my trauma-informed take on ways to cope with PMS symptoms

Problematic perfectionism can form part of a variety of clinical presentations including Depression, generalised anxiety, OCD, and trauma. Whilst ‘flavours’ of perfectionism within someone’s personality can enhance functioning and motivate them to reach their goals, when the need to be perfect becomes strongly tied with self-worth and identity, we have an issue.

With so few Asian Australians accessing therapy, it’s important to try to understand what personal barriers that this group might be facing. Here are my thoughts on 5 such possibilities.

Overcome social anxiety and learn to let go of external validation and the fear of disapproval. Melbourne Psychologist Helen Tang discusses examples of living more authentically as she talks about a gym class that didn’t go according to plan.

“…the problem is that CBT can focus a lot on our ‘logical and rational’ brain (which in some people seems perfectly intact!) rather than the ‘emotional’ brain. It is often here that deeper more ingrained negative beliefs about the self, often stemming from a past memories exist”

Here are 5 ways to channel that post-booking anxious energy into something productive and start preparing for your first session.

Burnout symptoms can appear when our personal limits are not adhered to and when our boundaries are crossed one too many times. Prevention is certainly more preferable than treatment and response. So here’s four things to consider when trying to opt out of hustle-culture and prevent burning out in the first place.