Mental Health

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Podcast Episodes

#126: Movement and the Mind with Dr Lucy Loveday and Dr Simon Rosenbaum

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#118: Childhood and Complex Trauma with Dr Cathy Kezelman, AM

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#113 Communicating with Adolescents with Dr Jon Jureidini, Psychiatrist

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#98 Trauma and PTSD with Dr Petra Skeffington, PhD & Clinical Psychologist

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#88 Protecting physical health in people with mental illness with Dr Joe Firth, PhD

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#81 Health coaching in practice with Kim Poyner, practice nurse & Simon Matthews, psychologist

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#79 Positive psychology with Dr Tim Sharp, aka Dr Happy

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#71 Acceptance and commitment therapy with Prof Bruce Arroll, GP

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#66 Prescribing happiness with Dr Darren Morton, PhD

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#48 Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with Therrie Rosenvald, psychologist

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#36 Asperger’s Syndrome with Prof Tony Atwood, PhD

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#25 Mindfulness in clinical practice with A/Prof Craig Hassed, GP

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#23 Mental health skills with Dr Johanna Lynch, GP

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#19 Concepts around youth mental health with Dr Chris Ganora, GP

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

#16 Food and mood with Prof Felice Jacka

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Show Notes

Online Resources

GP Psychiatry Support Line: A new, free resource helping GPs manage the care of mental health patients

Centre for Clinical Interventions: Excellent free information handouts, worksheets and workbooks for a variety of mental health conditions from anxiety to interpersonal problems.

Religious-integrated cognitive behavioural therapy manuals, by Duke University

PsychologyTools.com: evidence-based psychology tools for mental health professionals

Acceptance Commitment Therapy resources & worksheets, by Bruce Arroll

Examples of Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs): useful summary of unhelpful thoughts (pdf)

Guided Meditations for Children, with Annaka Harris: Annaka brings decades of expertise to guide children in beautiful, playful, and engaging meditations to access kindness and awareness

Sherwood Resource Library: A curated resource library from Sherwood Holistic Psychology, featuring expert videos, books and more.

Self-compassion.org: An all-in-one resource for self-compassion. The official website of Dr. Kristin Neff, pioneering self-compassion researcher, author and teacher.

Organisation Websites

The Butterfly Foundation: Support for Australians experiencing eating disorders

ReachOut.com: Australia’s leading online mental health organisation for young people and their parents

The School of Life & their YouTube channel: a global organisation helping us understand ourselves, improve our relationships, our careers and our social lives

EquallyWell.org.au: Resources, videos and handouts for health professionals and patients for improving physical health in those with mental illness

Black Dog Institute (Aus): Enabling mentally healthier lives through innovations in science, medicine, education, public policy and knowledge translation.

Headspace.org.au: mental health resources

Batyr: Giving a voice to the elephant in the room by smashing the stigma around mental health and creating positive behavioural change for young Australians now and in the future

Princeton Environmental Institute: Emotional well-being while home gardening similar to other popular activities, study finds

Videos

TED Talk on the space between self-esteem and self-compassion, by Kristin Neff

A brief video on grief – the ball in a box analogy, great for showing patients

Mindfulness – the sushi train metaphor, by Dr Russ Harris. Great for showing patients when introducing the concept.

The power of self to heal our parts, by Richard Schwartx and Soren Gordhamer

Images

(Click to enlarge)

Books

Mind over Mood, Dennis Greenberger, PhD

Discover simple yet powerful steps you can take to overcome emotional distress–and feel happier, calmer, and more confident. This life-changing book has already helped more than 1,100,000 readers use cognitive-behavioral therapy–one of today’s most effective forms of psychotherapy–to conquer depression, anxiety, panic attacks, anger, guilt, shame, low self-esteem, eating disorders, substance abuse, and relationship problems.

Full Catastrophe Living, Jon Kabat-Zinn

Based on Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this classic, groundbreaking work—which gave rise to a whole new field in medicine and psychology—shows you how to use medically proven mind-body approaches derived from meditation and yoga to counteract stress, establish greater balance of body and mind, and stimulate well-being and healing. By engaging in these mindfulness practices and integrating them into your life from moment to moment and from day to day, you can learn to manage chronic pain, promote optimal healing, reduce anxiety and feelings of panic, and improve the overall quality of your life, relationships, and social networks.

Getting Unstuck in ACT, Russ Harris

In Getting Unstuck in ACT, psychotherapist and bestselling author of ACT Made Simple, Russ Harris, tackles common ACT obstacles faced by both therapists and their clients that can make them feel “stuck.” These obstacles include sending mixed messages on the part of the therapist, a lack of motivation on the clients’ part, as well as confusion regarding the theoretical basis of ACT. This book is a must-have for any ACT therapist looking to streamline their therapeutic approach.

Mindfulness for Life, Dr Craig Hassed

Mindfulness for Life is the only book you will ever need on mindfulness. It shows you how to apply mindfulness techniques to your own life whether you need help with medical conditions, personal development or spiritual development. Chapters are included on: stress and ageing, anxiety, depression, addiction, attention deficit orders, pain, weight management, eating disorders, heart disease and stroke, cancer, dementia and sleep; lifestyle, education, workplace, parenting and sporting enhancement; and self-actualisation, happiness and enlightenment development.

Online Courses

Australian Society for Psychological Medicine

Accredited Mental Health Professional training.

beacon 2.0

Free. A panel of health experts categorise, review and rate websites and mobile apps focussed on mental health.

This Way Up

Subscription-based. Courses for patients and clinicians designed to help you identify, understand and improve psychological difficulties like stress, insomnia, worry, anxiety & depression. Clinicians can register as prescribers for free and get access to CBT training, worksheets and more!Personally my preferred option of the online CBT options, though it is the only one that costs, most ~$59, but has a wider range e.g. includes insomnia, chronic pain.  Good pictures and explanations, laid out well, and the least text heavy (still text heavy).

Bite Back

Paid program, with some free resources. Six weekly challenges to help you improve your mental fitness, increase your happiness, reduce stress, improve your friendships and your focus.

Mind Ninja

Paid program for children ~ 6-13 years old. 8 modules of strategies which will teach children exactly what they need to manage themselves, their thoughts and their emotions.

MindSpot Clinic

Various prices. Online assessment and CBT treatment for anxiety and depression, as well as courses. However, the most clunky interface I found, though it does have specific OCD and ATSI wellbeing modules which is good.

MoodGym

Subscription-based. Like an interactive self-help book which helps you to learn and practise skills which can help to prevent and manage symptoms of depression and anxiety. Free CBT for depression/anxiety, some humour, lots of self-assessment quizzes (too many for me, personally), so best suited for patients with patience.

The Brave Program

Free trial available. BRAVE is based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), the most effective method for overcoming anxiety in children and teenagers. Around 80% of children are free of anxiety after completing the therapist-assisted, BRAVE-Online Program.

The Lift Project

Requires purchase. An online educational adventure developed and presented by Dr Darren Morton, an internationally recognised wellbeing researcher and educator.

myCompass, by Black Dog Institute

Free. Designed to address mild to moderate symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression through personalised treatments delivered entirely online.

Mindfulness for Peak Performance, by FutureLearn

Free. Learn mindfulness techniques to reduce stress and improve your wellbeing and performance in work and life with this online course.

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy: professional training

Various prices. A professional training program that has been run annually at Monash University since 2005. MBCT is a manualised group-based intervention designed to reduce rates of relapse of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and most commonly applied with people who have had multiple previous episodes of depression.

OurRelationships

Based on Integrative Behavioural Couple Therapy, OurRelationship promotes emotional acceptance and associated behaviour change. The program takes 7-8 hours to complete, is designed to be undertaken as a couple (although it is possible to do it as an individual). Partners work separately and then have a joint conversation at the end of each of the three sections – titled ‘Observe’, ‘Understand’, and ‘Respond’. Respectively, these sections focus on observing the current state of one’s relationship, understanding problems, differences, stressors and patterns of communication, and how to accept, change, and communicate more effectively.

Food & Mood

Free. A course for improving mental health through diet and nutrition.

ACT Mindfully

Various courses and prices. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy workshops with Russ Harris. Internationally-acclaimed ACT trainer, Russ Harris is the author of the world’s best-selling ACT book, The Happiness Trap (as well as nine others).

AIMS (Anger & Irritability Management Skills)

Free. Developed for veterans by the US Department of Veteran Affairs, but can be used by anybody.  AIMS helps you to get along better with people, control your reactions to irritating events and avoid the consequences of getting too angry. App also available (see ‘Apps’)

Apps

Calm Harm: App Store | Google Play

Free. Calm Harm provides tasks that help patients resist or manage the urge to self harm.

PTSD Coach Australia: App Store | Google Play

Free. An app that helps people understand and manage the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Based on the latest scientific understandings of PTSD, the app was modified from the US Department of Veteran Affairs app of the same name.

AIMS for Anger Management: App Store | Google Play

AIMS is designed for Veterans and military Service members but can be used by anyone coping with anger problems. The AIMS app is based on the Anger and Irritability Management Skills online self-help course.

Other Podcasts

FoundmyFitness with Rhonda Patrick, PhD – Exercise as a Treatment for Depression: Apple Podcasts