Mental Work

Bron unpacks what end-of-year burnout looks like for therapists and her 🔥 red hot 🔥strategies for preventing burnout (book your leave for next year NOW!).  LINKS Comic by Gemma Correll on burnout: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbAi-OrrSBw/ THE END BITS Mental Work is your companion to early-career psychology, hosted by Dr Bronwyn Milkins . Love the podcast? Reviews really help! Leave a rating &amp...

Nervous about including parents in therapy? Wish you could run the other way when a parent asks to speak with you? Our guest today, Marie Vakakis, wants EVERY therapist to feel comfortable working with parents and families. Marie helps Bron to 👉🏽 address common anxieties that psychs have about working with parents 👉🏻 How to involve parents in therapy 👉 Common dilemmas and how to address them....

Bron unpacks saying 'goodbye' to clients when the therapist is the one who is ending the relationship. Otherwise known as 'therapist-led termination' or 'unilateral termination', this is something that all therapists will encounter when they change workplaces, take extended leave, or decide that therapy just isn't working with a particular client. Bron takes you through 👉 Ethical considerations i...

Bron and Matthew unpack 👉🏽 Being part of the LGBTIQA+ community as a psychologist 👉🏻 The importance of being authentic inside and outside of therapy 👉 Matthew's passions outside of therapy 👉🏿 Why Matthew chose to leave the clinical psychology bridging program 😲  Guest: Matthew Jackson , Psychologist LINKS Matthew's Insta - Matilda Mercury (@matildamercuryqueen) THE END BITS Mental Work is...

Bron is joined by Allison to unpack the highs and lows of Allison's journey to licensure. Allison went through some downright scary experiences as a therapist-in-training, but wanted to come on the podcast to share with you a story of hope and the lessons she has learned about 👉🏽 Burnout 👉🏻 Unethical placements 👉 The importance of supportive colleagues 👉🏿 Basic workplace needs 👉🏾 Not blam...

Bron and Natalie unpack her 4+2 journey as a school provisional psych. They chat about 👉🏽 Natalie's transition from primary school teacher to provisional psych 👉🏻 Great things about being a psych 👉 Managing complex cases and vicarious trauma 👉🏿 Supporting LGBTIQA+ young people 👉🏾 Self-disclosure when you are neurodiverse and part of the queer community 👉🏼 Tips for case reports. Guest: N...

Bron and Amanda unpack treating generalised anxiety disorder by applying two treatment approaches (CBT and Schema Therapy) to the same hypothetical case. They chat about 👉🏽 The downsides of worry and how it can become problematic for clients 👉🏻 How to set up anxiety treatment for a client using CBT and Schema 👉 Similarities and differences between CBT and Schema techniques.  Guest: Amanda Mos...

Bron and Sahra unpack whether it's okay to be yourself on social media. They chat about 👉🏽 challenges and responsibilities that psychologists have in managing their online presence 👉🏻How to be authentic online while managing risk 👉 What clients think of their therapists' social media. Guest: Psychologist and Co-Director of Mindscape Psychology / Director of the Australian Association of Psych...

Bron and her guest unpack whether you can make it as a psychologist in your 20s. They chat about 👉🏽 Strengths and challenges when you're a young psychologist 👉🏻 Questions that clients may pose 👉 Our experiences and how we've navigated them  👉🏾 How to not feel like an imposter when you are a young professional. THE END BITS Mental Work is the podcast unpacking the challenges faced by ea...

Bron and Hayley unpack the career pathways that psychologists can take to achieve their financial goals. They chat about 👉🏽 Pros and cons of the one-to-one standard way of working 👉🏻 Hayley's career journey into 'one to many' offerings and business coaching 👉 What Hayley views as the next stage in the Psychology profession 👉🏿 How early career psychs can be part of the change! Guest: Dr Hayl...

Bron and Amanda get passionate about the deceptively simple CBT technique of behavioural activation. They unpack 👉🏽 How to maximise outcomes for clients 👉🏻 When and how to introduce behavioural activation 👉 Troubleshooting difficulties 👉🏿 Adaptations for clients with significant difficulties participating in pleasurable and mastery-focused activities.  Guest: Amanda Moses, Author of Treatin...

Bron and Averil unpack why it is so bloody hard to find a placement as a provisional/registrar psychologist. They chat about 👉🏽 Why universities find it hard to find placements for students 👉🏻 Why public health, private practices, and NGO's find it difficult to offer placements 👉🏿 What would make it easier for organisations to offer placements 👉🏾 Tips for finding a placement and hope for t...

How experienced do you have to be to contribute to discussion about the Psychology profession? This episode is all about that imposter syndrome-y self-doubt that holds early-career psychs back from taking up space and shaping the profession. Bron and Catherine unpack 👉🏽 How to feel comfortable with taking up space 👉🏻 How to give effective feedback at work 👉 How to step into sharing opinions a...

Bron and Brian unpack what to do when a client shares offensive views in the therapy room. They chat about 👉🏿 What even IS an offensive view and when could it become something to address in therapy 👉 Our favourite phrases to use 👉🏽Therapist self-care and permission to refer out. Guest: Brian Cheng, Psychologist THE END BITS Mental Work is the podcast unpacking the challenges faced by early ca...

Bron and Emma unpack how to adapt therapy to neurodiverse clients, using Schema Therapy as the example. They chat about 👉🏽 The new Schema Therapy model that Emma and her colleagues have developed for working with neurodiverse clients 👉🏻 How non-affirming therapists can be ableist and unhelpful to clients 👉 Signs that you are attuned to your neurodiverse client 👉🏿 The social model of disabil...

Therapists usually experience shock! horror! and despair! when they think about recording a therapy session. So let's talk about it. In this episode, Bron unpacks 👉🏽 Why you should record therapy sessions 👉🏻 How to ask for client consent 👉 Recording and storing sessions 👉🏿 Tips for overcoming recording anxiety. Bron's Informed Consent for Recording Sessions Word/PDF template is available to...

Bron and Carly unpack a spicy listener question: Is it possible to be financially secure and avoid burnout? They chat about 👉🏽 Valuing the skills that you have to offer as a psychologist 👉🏻 Finding workplaces that align with your financial goals and respect that you are a human with a finite workload capacity 👉 How to not get sucked in by workplaces promising you the world. Guest: Carly Dober...

Bron and Jordan unpack working with kids. They chat 👉🏽 How to get kids engaged in therapy and build rapport with them 👉🏻 When and how to use self-disclosure with kids 👉 Managing parent expectations and getting parents onside 👉🏿 Resources for child therapy. Guest: Jordan Turner (Educational & Developmental Psychologist Registrar) THE END BITS Mental Work is the podcast unpacking the chal...

Bron and Amanda unpack neurodiversity affirming practice. They chat about 👉🏽 The social model of disability 👉🏻 How CBT and other CBT-umbrella therapies were created for neurotypical clients 👉 What neurodiversity affirming practice is VS what it is not 👉🏿 How to know if you're delivering neurodiversity affirming therapy. Guest: Amanda Moses, Director at Amanda Moses Psychology and Early-Care...

You've prepped a great session for your client but they seem completely uninterested in all of your suggestions - what do you do? Bron and Kate unpack the dilemma of 'nothing sessions'. They chat about 👉🏽 What it feels like to have sessions that fall flat, despite good planning 👉🏻 How to help clients understand what therapy can involve 👉 Ways to increase client engagement in sessions 👉🏿 Tip...

Bron and Amanda unpack the tell-tale signs that you're in an unethical placement or workplace. They chat about 👉🏽 Fair pay 👉🏻 Reasonable caseloads 👉 Contractor vs employment arrangements 👉🏿 Should placements be paid? (spoiler: yes obviously) 👉🏾 Supports if you need help. Mental Work is the podcast unpacking the challenges faced by early career psychologists, so they don’t have to go it al...

Bron is joined by Averil Cook (Clinical psychologist and Director of Bodhi & Psychology) and Sahra O'Doherty (Psychologist and Director of AAPi) to get curious about gender roles and leadership in the Psychology profession. They unpack 👉🏽 Why men are disproportionately represented in leadership positions in a female-dominated profession 👉🏻 Internalised misogyny 👉 Sahra and Averil's leader...

Bron is joined by long-term listener Sarah Glover (recently registered Psychologist) to share their registration journey with us. They unpack the lessons about 👉🏽 Feeling responsible for clients 👉🏻 Comparison to other psychs 👉 Being highly impressionable to what senior psychs say 👉🏿 Managing feelings of isolation. Mental Work is the podcast unpacking the challenges faced by early career psy...

Bron is joined by Emma St John (Sexologist & clinical psych registrar) to unpack how early-career psychs can apply their existing skills to talk about sex with clients. They explore 👉🏽 When is it relevant to talk about sex with clients? 👉🏻 Why it's important to examine our attitudes towards sex 👉 How to talk about sex 👉🏿 Applying our existing therapeutic skills to sex therapy interventi...

[Rerun] Bron takes listeners through the dilemma of choosing an area of practice to niche in. She talks about 👉 Feeling pressured to niche from colleagues, supervisors, parents, and everyone else 👉🏼 Benefits of niching 👉🏾 Why you don't have to niche (phew!) 👉🏻 What Bron feels now after Googling the crap out of niching. Mental Work is the podcast unpacking the challenges faced by early caree...