BUILDING MENTAL HEALTH THROUGH EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE & SELF-REGULATION
Emotional resilience and self-regulation is the ability of an individual to recognise their emotions and learn to understand and adjust their emotional patterns in response to stress, uncertainty, challenges, and daily living.
Many of us may not realise that emotions are not simply just an experience. Emotion is a highly adaptive form of physiological response, and it regulates our lives. This mechanism evolved in our ancient brains many millions of years ago - from a need to make life-protecting decisions based on emotions - in order to moderate our behaviour.
Whenever we feel and experience an emotion, the body initiates a hormonal response, which in turn facilitates a behavioural response - a highly complex process involving major organs, neurotransmitters and the limbic system. The limbic system is the most ancient part of the human brain, which is filled with neural pathways that activate and facilitate emotions in response to stimuli. This system also controls the fight-or-flight (stress) response through the autonomic nervous system.
WHAT ARE EMOTIONS?
Emotions are our natural responses to the world that we experience. They can include happiness, sadness, surprise, contempt, anger, fear and disgust. It is the effective regulation of these emotions that actually helps us to cope and operate in a healthy manner within everyday life.
Suppression happens when uncomfortable thoughts and feelings are pushed out of the mind and into the subconscious. Simply put, we focus our minds on something else that helps us to forget what is really going on inside. For example, through:
Using distraction (i.e. watching TV, screen scrolling, gaming, going shopping)
Numbing activities (through drugs and alcohol)
Emotional eating
Controlling food intake
Channelling emotions into physical activity (i.e. boxing, running, gym work)
WHY DO WE REPRESS EMOTIONS?
Emotional suppression or inhibition is a necessity some of the time, as it enables us to cope, e.g. to avoid a potent feeling that is considered socially unacceptable; to replace an uncomfortable feeling with a more comfortable one; or as a response to the expectations of others. For victims of trauma, past experiences can often be too overwhelming to process, or the individual may even be pressured not to discuss what they experienced, lest it make someone else uncomfortable. Modern society also demands from us that we suppress our emotions - the price we pay to conform to society’s expectations.
HOW REPRESSED EMOTIONS SHOW UP IN BEHAVIOURS (NOT A COMPLETE LIST)
Don’t like to say no
Don’t like to disappoint others
Feel obligated to help others
A tendency to be the ‘caregiver’
An overachiever, workaholic or perfectionist
Put others’ happiness before your own
Worried about other people’s opinions/judgments
Feelings of inadequacy
Don’t like to ask for help
Feel that you don’t need help
Feel that you have to be the ‘strong’ one
Needing to be hypervigilant
Needing to be in control
Feeling that you are responsible for everything
Feeling more comfortable conforming to the expectations of others
Avoiding conflict
Don’t like to offend others
Never feel angry
Feel angry, but don’t express it outwardly
Feel uncomfortable around hypersensitive people
Rarely cry
Feel fine all the time and see yourself as laid back and/or easy going
Have escape/numbing habits (e.g. binge TV, social media, movies, alcohol, drugs, food)
Emotional eater
Feel low and tired for no particular reason
Suffer from low self-esteem
Have a mind that is foggy and/or unclear
Forgetful and/or absent-minded
Self-destructive behaviours (e.g. self-harm, overeating, substance abuse, unhealthy sexual behaviours)
Nervousness
Feeling numb
Become annoyed or stressed when others ask about your feelings
Forgetful
Feeling uncomfortable when others share their emotions with you
Feeling intensely angry but not understanding why
Aggressiveness
Avoidance/Withdrawal
Verbally abusive/aggression
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EMOTIONS GET SUPPRESSED?
Studies have shown that suppressing emotions actually endangers your health and well-being, both physically and psychologically. The continued suppression of emotion requires effort, and eventually this will take its toll on both the body and mind through the continuous stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system (stress response).
Research has also shown that emotional repression can lead to the weakening of the immune system, and ultimately have consequences on physical and mental health, and general well-being. Growing evidence demonstrates that unresolved and repressed emotions can contribute to the development of:
Mental health conditions such as stress, anxiety, and depression
Nausea
Digestive issues and complaints
Fatigue
Sleep problems
Muscle tension and pain
Appetite changes
Poor immunity
Stress without cause
Infections
Pain in the body
Hypertension
There is also evidence that long term emotional suppression can potentially lead to more serious health conditions. Dr. Gabor Mate, in his book ‘When the Body says No,’ presents a significant amount of research demonstrating the strong correlation between emotional repression and disease: including lung, heart disease, breast, prostate, and skin cancer; multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome; asthma; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer’s disease.
OUR APPROACH
Through modern science-based approaches, we work towards helping our clients understand the full effects of emotional suppression on their lives; working to find the root cause(s); and help them build emotional resilience - including the necessary resources to work with their emotions on a daily basis in a healthy way, and find more balance in life.
Our approach is individualised to each person and their needs, and can focus on:
Development of self-awareness and the ability to name the emotions that are experienced
Understanding damaging emotional response patterns and how to begin to change these
Validation of emotions
Understanding stress triggers and the body/mental/emotional responses
Guided self-study for how to better manage stress and emotions in daily life
Resilience training and/or emotional counselling
Development of self-compassion
Relaxation techniques
We offer both Face-to-Face and Telehealth sessions for both our regional and national community.
We provide a safe space for all of our clients, irrespective of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. See also our code of conduct page.
All of our services are personalised to the individual and our purpose-built spaces are located in a serene and private location, surrounded by landscaped gardens.
INITIAL CONSULTATION (FACE-TO-FACE or TELEHEALTH):
Duration: 90 mins
Cost: $175.00
PLEASE NOTE: For individuals facing complex issues, a 2-hour initial session may be needed. This cost for this is $22`5.00
All initial sessions require a $75.00 deposit to confirm a booking.
SUBSEQUENT SESSION(S) (FACE-TO-FACE or TELEHEALTH):
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: $125.00
WHAT TO EXPECT DURING AN INITIAL CONSULTATION WITH US
Working towards mental health through emotional resilience is part of an emotional journey, and is one where you need to be (a) comfortable with the process, (b) and feel comfortable with and trust the person that you will be working with.
As such, our initial sessions generally cover the following aspects:
In a gentle and exploratory way, we will firstly discuss with you the issues and concerns that you have and then help you look at prioritising these issues and concerns.
We will then discuss with you the options with respect to counselling, and discuss with you a forward plan that works for you.