Cultivating healthy habits

If you’re feeling stressed or dissatisfied about your current habits and behaviour, attending counselling can be incredibly helpful to help you make effective changes in your life, and develop healthier habits.

• Goal setting and self monitoring – Psychologists are well equipped to help you define specific, meaningful and relevant goals. Clarify what you want to get out of building healthier habits, and explore actionable steps for your aspirations in physical or mental health, career, or personal development.
• Mindfulness Meditation - A psychologist guides you through a mindfulness meditation practice, focusing on breath awareness and body sensations. Through gentle guidance and reflection, you can develop present-moment awareness, and non-judgmental acceptance to help make more conscious choices, and ultimately healthier habits.
• Cognitive Restructuring (Reframing unhelpful thought patterns) - A psychologist can help you identify negative thought or behavioural patterns and distorted thinking related to healthy behaviours. Using cognitive restructuring techniques, you'll learn to challenge unhelpful beliefs and develop more balanced and adaptive perspectives. 
• Neuroplasticity Exercises - Your psychologist might share tailored neuroplasticity exercises, such as visualisation techniques to enhance your understanding of brain plasticity and its role in habit formation. By engaging in these exercises, you’ll harness the brain's adaptive potential to strengthen neural pathways associated with healthy habits. 

Receive support and guidance to work through your goals, navigate setbacks or challenges with the help of a professional, and maintain resilience and determination to succeed and meet your goals around changing habits.

Mindfulness-Based Interventions

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) offer powerful tools for cultivating present-moment awareness and enhancing self-regulation. Psychologists incorporate techniques such as mindfulness meditation and body scans to help you develop greater insight into your thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. By fostering non-judgmental acceptance and self-compassion, MBIs empower you to make conscious choices aligned with your values and well-being.

Cognitive-Behavioural Techniques

Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) provides practical strategies for identifying and challenging unhelpful thought patterns and behaviours that prevent the adoption of healthy habits. Psychologists help you reframe negative beliefs, set realistic goals, and develop effective coping skills for managing stress and cravings. By integrating cognitive restructuring with behavioural activation techniques, CBT promotes sustainable behaviour change and encourages healthier habits.A psychologist guides you through a mindfulness meditation practice, focusing on breath awareness and body sensations. Through gentle guidance and reflection, you can develop present-moment awareness, and non-judgmental acceptance to help make more conscious choices, and ultimately healthier habits.

Hack Your Brain

The brain has a remarkable capacity to reorganise and adapt in response to our experiences and the information we feed it, and psychologists leverage these principles to tailor their approach to help establish and reinforce healthy habits. By engaging in consistent behaviours and intentional practices, you can strengthen connections in your brain associated with habits, effectively rewiring the brain for greater well-being. psychologist can help you identify negative thought patterns and distorted thinking related to healthy behaviours. Using cognitive restructuring techniques, you'll learn to challenge unhelpful beliefs and develop more balanced and adaptive perspectives.

The time it can take to change a habit largely depends on the individual, and varies widely depending on several factors:

• Habit complexity: "Simple" habits may be easier to change than more complex ones, however what may be simple for one person, may be much more complex and ingrained in your daily life than for another.
• Frequency of repetition: How often, and how consistently you practice the new behaviour can affect how quickly it becomes a habit.
• Commitment: How motivated and committed are you to making the change? Many people find it easy to change their behaviour for a few days, but the effort required to commit to long-term change also extends to resisting the temptation to revert back to old routines and habits.
• Environmental cues: Your environment and the cues in it can impact the success and formation of habits. Looking at the bigger picture of what influences your daily routines and habits can help identify related areas where you may need to change your behaviours.
• Social support: Having support from friends, family, or a community can make it easier to stick to new habits.

Research suggests that the time it takes to form a new habit is highly individual and can range from several weeks to several months. A study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology in 2009 found that on average, it took participants about 66 days for a new habit to become ingrained, but this varied widely depending on the behaviour in question, and the person.

Patience and consistency are key when you are changing habits. It's normal to experience setbacks along the way, but with time and effort, habits can be successfully changed.

Solution-Focused Therapy:

Solution-Focused Therapy sessions are 20 minutes, focusing on identifying goals, exploring solutions, and building on strengths to achieve desired outcomes efficiently. The shorter duration encourages a focused approach, enabling you to make progress in addressing your concerns within a brief timeframe.

Standard Length:

Provides ample time to delve into issues, explore emotions, and collaborate on strategies for positive change. During these sessions, you can expect to work towards achieving therapy goals and developing skills to enhance their overall well-being.