Counselling Conversations with Julie

Are you someone who feels the physical effect in the lead-up to a presentation, feels sick, sweating, shaking, and feels like you are going to faint, what the heck is going on? Moderate levels of stress, the positive stress that motivates us for example to ask someone out or to have that difficult conversation, can enhance our performance, however, too much stress can sabotage our efforts. Thank y...

*This podcast talks about Domestic and Family violence. Domestic and family violence means any ongoing acts of violent behaviour between current or former intimate partners, typically where one partner tries to exert power and control over the other, usually through fear.  Domestic and family violence is a crime and is always the fault of the offender. For help in Australia: Lifeline- 13 11 14, SM...

Safety is a fundamental human need essential for our mental and physical wellbeing. A sense of safety is paramount for our minds and body to feel secure and anxiety-free. The loss of safety directly impacts our stress response. This ultimately affects our health, relationships and quality of life. Thank you for joining me today. For more information please click the link to check out more of what...

We are all unique and individual and self-knowledge about who we are can lead to a life of wellbeing both physically and mentally. We can make better life choices in our lives to become more productive and satisfied in our personal and professional lives. The benefit of really knowing ourselves through understanding our personality and character traits is one of the keys, as they are significant p...

Agoraphobia is a mental health condition that causes excessive fear of certain situations. Some people may even avoid leaving their homes. Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder that causes an intense fear of becoming overwhelmed, trapped, or unable to escape and get help.

Stress appears in our lives in many shapes and forms. We are happily getting on with our lives and then it hits us. An overwhelming feeling that everything is too hard, too loud, too much effort, just too much! We are running on empty. What’s going on? Faced with constant challenges, the overload of stress can make it difficult to cope. At this stage, you are in what is called stress fatigue or cr...

The death of a loved one can be among the most distressing experiences a person can face. The loss of the person is evident, they are no longer with you, and you grieve and have profound sadness. Your feelings and emotions are evident and often validated by others. However, what happens when we feel a profound sense of loss and sadness but there has not been a death of a loved one?  It is often mo...

Depression affects how you feel about yourself and your day-to-day life becomes more difficult to manage. It is characterised by a persistent depressed mood or loss of interest in things you previously enjoyed, lack of energy, appetite changes, self-esteem, trouble sleeping or sleeping more than you usually do, some people feel irritable or have difficulty concentrating. We know that a range of co...

Stress is a common everyday occurrence in our lives. We need a certain amount of stress that does not overload our internal resources. Positive stress helps us meet our challenges to grow and learn. On the opposite side, we have negative stress. It is the kind that wears you out and places your mind and body in distress, it can be exhausting. Chronic stress or stress that persists for a long time...

Mental health exists on a complex continuum, and experiences vary from person to person on how they think, feel and act when in different levels of distress and challenges. It also helps to determine how we handle stress-related incidents, and relationships with others and helps us to make healthy life choices. Mental health is important at every developmental stage of life, from childhood and ado...

Self-regulation is important in relationships, wellbeing, and overall satisfaction and success in life. Self-regulation is the ability to manage our own emotions,  behaviour, and reactions to feelings and situations, events, or things that happen around us, which can include being able to regulate reactions to strong feelings such as anger, frustration, excitement, and embarrassment.  People who c...

As we roll into a New Year, we often ruminate, and go over and over our past hurts, grievances, losses, and difficult and often negative experiences we have faced throughout the year. We feel a heavy burden and we are weighed down by the experiences getting to the end of one year and looking forward to the next is our aim, our goal. But here we are in the second week of January, and we still hold...

Welcome back to the Counselling Conversations with Julie podcast. We also welcome the energy and growth that 2024 brings! In whatever shape or form that arrives. A new year always has us thinking about what we can do better. How to be a better friend, partner, or parent, we make resolutions and list goals. We often feel the pressure to achieve to be better than we are, but what is the measure of b...

Not all people look forward to Christmas; for some, it can be joyful and full of happiness, but that is not so for everyone. The images and expectations of the Christmas season can exacerbate feelings of fear, anxiety, depression and loneliness. Thank you for joining me today. For more information please click the link to check out more of what we are doing at Beyond The Surface Counselling https:...

Communication is essential in all relationships. However, the most essential part of communication is to be a good listener. Listening requires you to hear what is being said or the subtleties of what is not being said. We can learn these skills and improve on them with practice. Building good communication skills builds strong relationships, and people who feel confident in their relationships be...

As caregivers, we play a huge role in helping children to calm down. When children are upset, overwhelmed or anxious they look to the adult to help with regulating their emotions.  Thank you for joining me today. For more information please click the link to check out more of what we are doing at Beyond The Surface Counselling https://linktr.ee/beyondthesurfacecounselling

The feelings and behaviours of others we work, live, and socialise with directly impact how we feel, and how we respond to our own emotions. Imagine you are in a car park, and you witness a car backing into another, the drivers get out and start to shout at each other. Do you feel annoyed as they are delaying you or do you feel the fear that the drivers are feeling? How do you feel when you walk p...

We all have individual and group behaviour patterns. Patterns generally involve repetitive actions, tasks, or behaviours that we engage in frequently, often without much thought. Toxic behavioural patterns are also automatic, the behaviour may have caused problems in the past, in relationships, at work, in a family or elsewhere. It is difficult to recognise the behaviour let alone change it, and i...

What would you call a difficult emotion? From my observations, difficult emotions might range from feeling overwhelmed and having difficulty finding the words to express yourself, to sadness, fear, jealousy, shame, anger, grief, and loss which includes separation anxiety. These difficult feelings are unpleasant, but they also make it difficult to function in daily life and they interfere with our...

Core beliefs are something that you strongly hold on to. They are rigid and inflexible and are maintained by focusing on information that supports the belief. We often ignore evidence that contradicts it.    Core beliefs are central to your main ideas about yourself, others and the world. We view ourselves, others and the world from these beliefs. These beliefs are like a lens through which we loo...

Forgiveness means different things to different people. The Oxford Dictionary defines forgiveness as ‘the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven’. The key words are the action or process, as it is an intentional decision to let go of the anger and resentment toward a person who has hurt or offended you. Working on forgiveness can lessen the pain and hurt the act had on you and help you a...

Self-actualisation is a state of mind that allows you to approach problems, relationships and needs with acceptance and understanding. Psychologist Abraham Maslow developed the motivational theory of the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs is often depicted in a triangle, with the lowest levels representing basic human needs and more complex human needs at the top of the pyramid.  Thank you...

Sand Play therapy has considerable evidence for its efficacy and effectiveness. It is a psychotherapeutic method applied when working with children, adolescents and adults. Its theoretical background is in psychodynamic theories of play therapy and Carl Jung’s analytical psychology.  The sand play therapy technique is one therapy that can be offered to a client to create a picture of their inner w...

HALT is an anachronism that stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. The use of the HALT model was developed to help substance abuse users in recovery see when they were most vulnerable to relapse. The HALT’s method of the four letters also stands for risk states and are interrelated. Since then, other people have used it successfully in multiple stages of their work and personal lives. I have...

Life is full of uncertainties, but there are two things that are certain - birth and death. We all have a limited amount of time on earth, and sometimes it's cut short while other times, we live to old age. Regardless of where we are on this journey, we must ask ourselves how we can live our best lives. This question is relevant at all stages of our lives, and regardless of our age, we should stri...