A summer day turned into the scariest day of my life Saturday 23rd December 2017 was a beautiful summer day in Melbourne. I was about to experience my first Christmas in summer, and my fiance had decided we would get ourselves some nice food from our favourite Italian supermarket. That morning he wanted to take the car, but I insisted … Read More
Advanced Listening Skills That Therapists Know and You Need To
Have you ever had that feeling after speaking with someone that they didn’t really hear what you were trying to say? You’re not alone. On the flip-side, have you ever had a long conversation with someone and felt that you never really figured out the points they were trying to make? As human beings, we tend to take communication for … Read More
How to Deal with Lockdown Fatigue
How Can We Deal With Lockdown Fatigue? If I never hear the words; lockdown, close contact, primary contact, secondary contact, household contact, community cases, vaccine hesitancy, contact tracing, robust data, outbreak, Delta variant, it will be too soon. All of Australia has had a taste of lockdown by now, but for Melburnians this is lockdown number five, which equates to more than … Read More
Ghosts of a Lockdown Past: Stories of Melburnians in a Post-Isolation World
After seven months of ‘lockdown’, Melburnians are now finally starting to get back to the things and people they love. Many are rejoicing, and so they should! It’s safe to say lockdown was tough for all of us. Losing loved ones, relationships, jobs, social interaction, holidays and housing; lockdown proved challenging, to say the least. The recent easing of restrictions has provided a light … Read More
Exploit the Powerful Invisible Forces of Ethos and Environment
This post is part of our series on The 5 Evidence-based Foundations of a Mentally Healthy Workplace. What do ethos and environment mean in a workplace context? Ethos and environment are broad terms though can be boiled down in a professional context to workplace culture. Workplace ethos, environment and culture refer to the overarching values, beliefs, expectations and practices of … Read More
Empower Employees with Wellbeing Training & Education
This post is part of our series on The 5 Evidence-based Foundations of a Mentally Healthy Workplace. What is empowering education? Empowering education is training or education that empowers those who receive it. Truly empowering education should increase self-efficacy in the skill area and encourage individuals to implement the training to improve themselves and their environment with the new knowledge. … Read More
Why it’s Crucial for Organisations to be Supportive Structures
This post is part of our series on The 5 Evidence-based Foundations of a Mentally Healthy Workplace. What does ‘Supportive Structure’ mean in the workplace? Supportive workplace structure refers to structure or policy at an organisational level which creates a safe and supportive working environment for all employed. What does a supportive structure look like in the workplace? Supportive structure … Read More
Why Workplaces with a Community Mindset Win
This post is part of our series on The 5 Evidence-based Foundations of a Mentally Healthy Workplace. What is a ‘community mindset’? Community mindset refers to an overarching attitude where people share a sense of belonging to a group, and work together for both individual and overall group success. What does community mindset look like in the workplace? As ‘community … Read More
Why Your Management Team Needs a Strengths-Based Approach
This post is part of our series on The 5 Evidence-based Foundations of a Mentally Healthy Workplace. What is strengths-based management? Put simply, strengths-based management is where leaders put the main focus on employee strengths rather than shortcomings. This does not mean shortcomings are not addressed; rather they are approached as areas for improvement or professional goals. A strengths-based leader … Read More
The 5 Evidence-based Foundations of a Mentally Healthy Workplace
With frequent talk of “work-life-balance” encouraging more personal time to improve mental health, it is easy to forget the ‘work’ part of the equation. Mental health does not completely shift according to each context or setting we step into. Rather, mental health is fluid, with effects from one setting flowing through and impacting all others. With the average full-time employee spending … Read More