There is compelling evidence that actively creating a grateful state is great for our mood, hope, mental wellbeing and stress levels, but as anyone who’s tried it has probably noticed, it’s hard to keep doing it regularly.

I was thinking the other day how we rarely run into trouble when things are going great. Seems obvious, right? It’s usually when we are stressed, or rushed, or surprised, or tired or hungry or… otherwise off balance, that we say things we regret, do things that make it worse, and suffer the most difficult emotional upheavals. I often hear clients berate themselves for not using a new skill when it would have helped, and then describe the wildest, most… Action-movie-level of c

Attention activism is the radical idea that if we start to understand human attention as a precious resource, and become more aware of the ways it’s being mined and exploited, we begin the process of taking it back. We can connect with attention activism through the areas of education and awareness, organising with others around it, and creating 'attention sanctuaries' in our everyday lives.

Continuing on from the previous post about guilt vs shame, I wanted to write a bit about humiliation and embarrassment, other feelings which can get confused for shame. The way you feel when a friend notices your fly is unzipped… Or the way you felt when you said something wrong in front of the whole classroom, and everybody laughed loudly at you. These are examples of classic situations which can trigger guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, and shame. We typically mix up thes

Guilt, embarrassment, humiliation, and shame... We typically mix up these words as a catch-all, but the truth is they describe very different feelings.

Something that often comes up in therapy is how subtle differences in how we define words can contribute to miscommunication.

February 17th 2026 is the 4th anniversary of sexual conversion therapies being banned in Victoria, and I make a point of marking it each year.

Welcome to the new-ish year, where we are once again nearing the end of January, and many people are lamenting their well-meaning resolution to do things different this year (which only lasted days or weeks).

When exploring personal history during assessment with gay clients, something that feels easy to overlook is the subtle way our sexual orientation can be denied by the world around us, in hundreds of little details.

Self-talk is a big deal when it comes to our mental health, and some concepts have more impact than others. In this piece, I’ll be introducing ‘parts language’, a self-talk technique that helps to create space within yourself to cope better with difficult experiences.

Ask most people about their strongest motivator, and the answer will often be ‘deadlines’. Whether it’s for school, work, or chores, we often feel most driven by the urgency of barely avoiding a disaster, and this can become our default response.