Netta Dolev - Counselling & clinical Supervision

17/03/2025

Hello everyone,

As we start a new week, I wanted to share a short reflective exercise I only came across today, and found it to be quick and useful when checking in on our general wellbeing.

The World Health Organization came up with 5 wellbeing questionnaire, that can help us name and notice how we are travelling, and if there is anything we might need to explore further.

The questions are based on a scale from 0 -5:
0 = not at all
5 = all of the time

Thinking about your last 2 weeks how much were you:

1. felt cheerful and in good spirits
2. felt calm and relaxed
3. felt active and vigorous
4. woke up feeling fresh and rested
5. my daily life has been filled with things that interest me

Take you time to reflect as you choose your answers -

How did you feel doing this exercise?
What stood out for you?
Anything you would like to improve/feel differently about?
anything that this exercise highlighted for you that you were not aware of?

As always, I`m here to walk alongside you - make meaning in emotions and experiences, and support any changes you would like to implement for yourself.

Hope you all have a meaningful week!

06/03/2025

05/03/2025

Self-Compassion in Action: How to Stay Kind to Yourself in Uncertain Times?

I received this email today (Centre for Mindful Self-Compassion) which was a timely reminder for myself to practice gratitude and self compassion as tools to bring inner peace, sense of control and acceptance.

I'm hoping you will find this relevant to your day as well:

In a world that feels increasingly uncertain—whether from work stress, relationship challenges, or global unrest—it’s easy to turn our struggles inward, meeting them with self-judgment instead of understanding. Self-compassion helps us to see these inner conflicts and respond with support rather than self-criticism.

By practicing self-compassion, we quiet the battles within and create space for inner peace—so that no matter the chaos around us, we remain allies to ourselves. Research shows that self-compassion reduces stress, builds resilience, and enhances overall well-being. But how do we apply it when life feels overwhelming?

Start Your Day with Intention
* Morning Check-In: Place a hand on your heart and ask, “How am I feeling? What do I need?”
* Affirmations: Self-affirmation reduces stress and builds resilience. Try, “I will treat myself with patience and understanding today.”
* A Gentle Start: A few moments of deep breathing or stretching can promote calm and self-compassion. “I give myself permission to slow down and start the day with ease.”

Throughout the Day
* Take Self-Compassion Breaks: Pause, acknowledge your emotions, and offer yourself kindness. “This is a tough moment, but I am not alone. I deserve kindness, just like everyone else."
* Reframe Mistakes: Instead of self-criticism, remind yourself, “Mistakes are part of learning”.
* Seek Support: Self-compassionate people are more likely to ask for help, strengthening relationships. "I don’t have to do this alone—it's okay to ask for help and receive support."

End the Day with Self-Kindness
Instead of focusing on what went wrong, close your day with self-compassion.
* Acknowledge Your Efforts: “Every small action I took counts.”
* Release Self-Judgment: Remind yourself, “I am doing my best, and that is enough.”
* Practice Gratitude for Yourself: Reflect on moments where you showed resilience or kindness."I appreciate myself for showing up, trying, and growing each day."
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Wishing you kindness and ease as you navigate each day. As always, I'm here if you want to learn more about these skills and implement them in your day to day experiences or uncertain moments.

03/03/2025

Hello everyone!

I'm super excited to announce that I expanded my private practice to a face-to-face setting!

I'm based at Macquarie park and have availability to take on new clients/supervisees.

Please feel free to share with anyone who may benefit from seeking counselling or clinical supervision.

As usual, I'm continuing to offer online and after-business-hours sessions upon request 🌸

I am an experienced mental health clinician and clinical supervisor with a passion for fostering professional growth and delivering high-quality psychological support. I’ve been in practice since 2011. I utilise mainly the strengths-based and client-centered modalities as I also integrate Acceptan...

13/02/2025

The Third Space in action

Towards the end of last year, I was asked to meet with a team who was interested to explore the impact of their work together as a group.
I was privileged to meet a dedicated group of specialists, who work tirelessly to provide high quality of service to internal and external agencies, as well as to the community.
In our time together, I learned about their challenges. The 2 challenges that stood out were: (1) being understaffed, experiencing high volume of immediate and urgent requests (2) being exposed to confronting and distressing materials with the potential to cause vicarious trauma.

In our conversation, we highlighted individual and group self care activities that could alleviate some of the stress symptoms (taking breaks away from their desk, taking a short walk outside the building, exercise, etc). However, when discussing their work-life balance and the ability to “leave work at work”, the team was able to identify the impacts work had on their relationships with partners, children, friends and family.

As we looked at different strategies to manage these effects, the team resonated with the Third Space theory and practical tools.

What is the Third Space?
The Third Space concept became familiar during the first Covid lock down, when many people suddenly had to work from home and learn new ways to separate work from their personal lives and to regulate without the ability to leave the house, such as go to the gym or listen to music while commuting home.
According to by Dr Adan Fraser, the Third Space is a new approach to stress management and work-life balance that no longer focus on trying to reduce the volume of work but rather look at how we transition between the different tasks, environments and roles we fulfil.

The third space is a transitional gap in between the First and Seconds spaces.

What we do in the transitional space between work and home will determine how we show up when we enter the home environment. Alternatively, it is also a transitional space between different tasks and environments within our workday. For example, how do I want to show up to a meeting with colleagues after a tense conversation with my manager.

The Third Space can be broken down to 3 main actions:
1. Reflect – The reason we need the reflect phase is due to our highly developed brain. Our ability to produce complex thought can lead us to reflect in an unhealthy way and create unwanted baggage. This phase is a way to help overcome and transition out of an emotional experience. Its about consistently looking at what you are doing well and understanding why it went well so that you can repeat that behavior. Therefore, once you left the first space, notice what you are feeling, what thoughts are coming up and what is your interpretation of the situation. Focus on:
* What went well?
* What have you learned from this experience?
* What have you achieved?
* What was helpful?

2. Rest – to prevent burnout and improve wellbeing we need short, regular and frequent moments of stillness. give yourself a moment to stay still and be present. This can be a quick minute before rushing to the next meeting, an hour with a good book or a weekend away. This phase has two main focuses:
(A) slow down your breathing so that you have long, slow, controlled breaths. Box breathing can be a good strategy to implement.
(B) focus your mind on the present moment. Any mindfulness activity will serve this purpose. Consider:
* Engaging with your 5 senses - what can you see, hear, smell, touch and taste right now
* Stretching your body or practising progressive muscle relaxation (For more details: Progressive Muscle Relaxation: Benefits, How-To, Technique).
If the rest period extends beyond a minute, you may want to introduce various relaxation techniques to keep your mind focuses on the present moment.

3. Reset – This is where you prepare yourself for the Second Space you are transitioning into. To use this phase to develop awareness on your current behavior and concentrate on the behavior you want to exhibit in that next space. Reset helps you clarify your intention for the next space and ensures that your behavior aligns with this intention. Ask yourself before entering the Second space:
* How will I show up?
* What are your intentions? What is our purpose?
* How do you need/wish to behave?
* What are your values you would like to bring to this new environment?

You can imagine that even after a stressful day, these questions ground the mind and body, helps connect with what is in front of you and helps to shift the mindset. This method can increase sense of control and choice.

We can go through many emotions throughout the day - frustration, excitement, boredom, anxiety, empowerment, etc. The Third Space gives us the gift of feeling the range of these emotions without letting them drive our behavior with the important people in our lives or in another commitment that deserve our full attention.

This short video narrated by Dr Adam Fraser is worth listening to - its filled with examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpk_dssZXqs

Feel free to share with anyone who may find this helpful managing their busy lives.

It's not what you do -- it's what you do in-between what you do -- that really matters! The Third Space is that moment of transition between one role or task...

30/01/2025

Hello lovely people!
What a wonderful opportunity to “speak” with you all.

How many times have you heard the term “resilience”? how many times have you heard that you need to demonstrate resilience in your work environment? Have you ever felt your emotions so strongly it got you to believe you are not resilient as you thought you were? Have you ever found a job or a working relationship to cause you stress, which made you doubt your resilience? Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the workload and thought you are the only one who can`t catch up and be on top of everything?
You can imagine that by raising these questions, this means you are probably not alone.
The interesting thing about resilience, is that we tend to think that resilient people don`t feel painful emotions, discomfort, stress, worry or vulnerability. The truth is resilience refers to the ability to overcome adversity, to bounce back from hardship. The reality is, life involves pain.
There’s no getting away from it. As human beings, sooner or later we all will come face-to-face with a crisis, disappointment, and failure. This means that in one form or another, we are all going to experience painful thoughts and feelings.

So what makes resilient people? The most common factors include: (1) They are resourceful and have good problem-solving skills (2) They are more likely to seek help (3) They hold the belief that they can do something that will help them to manage their feelings and to cope (4) They have social support available to them (5) They are connected with others, such as family or friends.

This is good news! although we can’t avoid pain, we can learn to handle it much better — to make room for it, rise above it and create a life worth living.

* Reflecting on this, what did you observe?
* What did you learn about yourself and the people you care about?

I`m always here to chat if you want to share your insights, ask more questions or if you are curious about more tools you can incorporate in your daily life to benefit your wellbeing.