Meditation with Dave
Meditation is all the rage… There is some decent science to back it up, and if you practice it regularly for at least 20 years, […]
Psychological Tools
Meaning and purpose in life
In a previous post, I looked at how to derive a sense of meaning and purpose from your studies. Given that you spend a large […]
Wellbeing for Academic Success FLO topic is live
I like this blog. It is a nice home for me to talk about student health and wellbeing. However, it is not necessarily the easiest place […]
Dr G's guide to self-care
Update: we now have a new Self Care Mega Guide with extra strategies and our service pamphlet attached to the back. A nice upgrade on the […]
Become A Behaviour Change Expert: Part 3 - Social Support
Welcome to Part 3 of Becoming a Behaviour Change Expert. In this series I am looking at the skills you can develop, so you can […]
The Cognitive Behavioural Model and how you can use it in your own life
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT – which has many variants) is a widely used evidence-based model of therapy that is helpful in addressing a range of psychological […]
Dealing with the aftermath of exams - podcast
So I am a little excited today. The reason? I just finished editing the first podcast I have ever created. I sat down with Khristin, one […]
A quick guide to self-care for mentors
Note 19/4/19 – an updated self-care guide can be found here. Last week a colleague of mine and I ran a mental health/self-care workshop for […]
Become A Behaviour Change Expert: Part 2 - Monitoring and Feedback
In Part 1 of my series on “Becoming a Behaviour Change Expert”, I looked at how to set better goals when attempting to make a […]
Guest author post - 'Handling conflict and misunderstandings in relationshi...
Back when I started my eMental Health Project Officer role at Flinders, I was introduced to Kellie Cathcart from the University of Newcastle (UON). She […]
Become a Behaviour Change Expert: Part 1 - Setting Goals
Most people I’ve known, or come into contact with as part of my work, have at some point in time wanted to make some kind of […]
How to derive meaning from your studies
I’m always on the lookout for research papers, from which I can extract ideas, concepts, tools or techniques that you can use to be better […]
Improving your exam performance when under stress
Many of us know the unsettling experience of memory failure under stress. It is particularly well known to students who find themselves ‘going blank’ during […]
What is the deal with mindfulness?
Back in early May, 2018, some students attended the Port Power Wellbeing and Resilience Program run here at the University. I’ve been communicating with them […]
Use grounding techniques to deal with strong emotions
In a previous post I tried to describe strong emotional reactions in a way that would facilitate dealing with them more effectively. In this follow-up […]
Not coping? - there's a course for that!!
The terms ‘coping’ and ‘resilience’ are thrown around a lot nowadays in relation to university students. The reasons are relatively simple. Studying at university can […]
Assignment schedule calculator
One of the counsellors just forwarded me a very cool resource that helps you schedule all the tasks you need to do to complete an […]
Financial wellbeing
I’ve just spent a couple of hours going through the recent ANZ Survey of Financial Wellbeing (2018). It provides a snapshot of the financial wellbeing […]
Understanding strong unpleasant emotions
Unpleasant emotions such an anxiety, fear, sadness and confusion, whilst undesirable, can provide powerful insights into our personal insecurities and if studied, can provide strong […]
myCompass for mild to moderate anxiety and depression
Update 13/8/18 – myCompass is now in Version 2.0. It has had a significant facelift. The basic sections and functions of the site are the […]
Is this a helpful way to think about relationships?
As part of the mental fitness series, I like to draw on published research to discuss ways that you might build different mental fitness skills, […]
An exercise to build self-compassion
Two of the areas of mental fitness I’ve described previously include being able to build positive emotions, and also better manage distressing ones. The ability […]
What do I mean by mental fitness "techniques"?
If you’ve had a look at my previous mental fitness posts (introduction, and domains of mental fitness), you are probably saying to yourself – “when […]
Port Adelaide Football Club - Wellbeing and Resilience Program
If you thought that football teams simply entertained you, and made you feel bad about your own fitness and how you look in shorts, you’d be […]