Mental Health & Wellbeing

The one week TV ban

This time a few weeks ago, give or take a few hours, I was standing dripping wet in the lounge room, looking at my kids in total disbelief. Seconds into my shower they had decided to battle it out, and I had to come back in to negotiate calm. As I stood there with conditioner [...]

Why Naming & Shaming Won’t Work

Last week the Queensland Government announced plans to name & shame repeat juvenile offenders. I wrote an opinion piece for the ABC in response.   You can read the full article here, but in summary I oppose such actions for one main reason.   It doesn’t work.   The rationale for naming and shaming is [...]

Girlfriend October 2013

Losing your virginity and double standards for men and women: Girlfriend October 2013 Melinda Tankard Reist The article ‘Like a Virgin’, in the October issue of Girlfriend, argues, quite rightly, that there is a double standard when it comes to men losing their virginity and women losing theirs. “It’s time we stopped talking like virginity [...]

Overcoming a difficult childhood…tips for parents

Maggie Dent's suggestions for parents who are survivors of child abuse: Find a safe trustworthy person to explore your 'child' story of the painful moments of childhood, so that the story can then be viewed through adult eyes and be transformed. Pursue personal growth and healing by reading, listening, doing seminars, doing online trainings, sharing [...]

Pornography addiction leads to same brain activity as alcoholism or drug abuse

People who are addicted to pornography show similar brain activity to alcoholics or drug addicts, a study has revealed. MRI scans of test subjects who admitted to compulsive pornography use showed that the reward centres of the brain reacted to seeing explicit material in the same way as an alcoholic’s might on seeing a drinks [...]

“Smacking never did us any harm!”

How often have you heard that line? How often have you said it?   I’m not here to tell you how to parent your kids. I’m learning every day just how hard a job it is. But I can’t help thinking to myself, whenever I hear this:   “Yeah, smacking never did us any harm, [...]

The Tightrope between Primary and High School – Scary or Successful?

It's about this time of year when Yr 6 students start thinking about high school next year. By now, many parents will have decided which secondary school their son or daughter will attend, and the kids themselves are already feeling 'done' with primary school. Attitudes and behaviours are changing....and "Boring!" becomes the key word of [...]

Proactive Grief Recovery: An ideal or a great idea?

With recent focus on emotional intelligence, it seems now is the perfect time to analyse whether we are doing enough in classrooms to support our children through the process of grief recovery. As an educator, I believe our Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Institutions should be implementing (PGR) Proactive Grief Recover - addressing grief related [...]

Racism Impacts Mental Health of Teens

An international review of published studies has found children and young people experience poor mental health, depression and anxiety following experiences of racism. University of Melbourne researchers say the study, which found 461 cases of links between racism and child and youth health outcomes, is the first of its kind. Lead researcher Dr. Naomi Priest [...]

Go to Top