Thrive Family

17/10/2022

Thrive Family is excited to be starting a new round of social skills groups!! If your child is 7-8 years old and needs support to build their socio-emotional skills, we might just have the right opportunity for you! Based on Michelle Garcia Winner's award-winning Superflex Curriculum, the social skills group will provide a fun, motivating way to improve your child’s social and behavioural flexibility, self-monitoring and self-feedback loop through lots of interactive activities! Groups will start weekly Tues 4.30-5.30pm from 1 November 2022. To register/for more info, please contact our assistant psychologists at kristen@thrivefamily.sg or dounia@thrivefamily.sg

11/10/2022

Yesterday was World Mental Health Day and served as an important reminder for us to pause and take stock of our physical and mental wellbeing. The devastating impacts of Covid on mental health has highlighted the need to make mental health a priority and now that the world is returning to a new normal, it’s time to seriously consider how we’ve been taking care of ourselves. In commemoration of World Mental Health Day, Thrive Family is choosing to shine a light on the importance of showing our care and concern to the people around us. Read this blogpiece written by one of our clinicians to find out how we could do so: https://thrivefamily.sg/world-mental-health-day/

26/09/2022

As clinicians, providing our clients with psychoeducation is an important first step in helping them gain more insight into the nature of their chronic pain. Here are some helpful videos and podcasts that shed light on the Connection Between Pain and Your Brain:

What is pain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSgnFIJKY08&t=3s

What Creates pain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=857ujR0p43Y&t=2s

Chronic Pain – Can our brains fix it?
https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/kwh9ll5

15/09/2022

In honour of Pain Awareness Month, we are choosing to shine a light on the issues surrounding chronic pain and pain management. Read this blog piece written by our clinical psychologist, Dr Emma Waddington, who talks about the neuroplasticity of chronic pain and the importance of psychological interventions in treating chronic pain: https://thrivefamily.sg/the-chronic-pain-conundrum/

10/09/2022

Interested in learning about the fundamentals and application of Creative Hopelessness?

Find out more by joining us in our Creative Hopelessness LIVE training on Zoom by Dr Russ Harris. Taking place on Tuesday 18 October 2022, 4pm-6.30pm SGT. This is a short but informative workshop that equips you with the knowledge and application of Creative Hopelessness. For clinicians who have an intermediate or advanced level of understanding in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), this is a workshop you shouldn't miss!

Register for this Creative Hopelessness workshop here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/common-barriers-to-acceptance-and-the-art-of-creative-hopelessness-tickets-409681938707

- Get 20% OFF by using the code TFDISCOUNT20
Contact us at training@thrivefamily.sg for more details.

07/09/2022

Can you still help to address couple distress with only one partner in therapy?

Find out how by joining us in our Individual Therapy for Couple Problems training. Taking place on Friday 7 October, 8.30AM to 4PM SGT, this is a single-day workshop that serves to equip you with skills in Couple Sensitive Individual (CSI) therapy, and carry out relationship work with only one partner in therapy.

Register for Individual Therapy for Couple Problems here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/individual-therapy-for-couple-problems-tickets-342571429367
- Save at least 10% for sign-ups before 7 Aug
- Public sector workers and students are also eligible for additional 15% off. Contact us at training@thrivefamily.sg for more details.

03/09/2022

Sometimes we feel that our friendships are not meeting our needs for connection or perhaps we feel that the relationship isn’t supportive or unbalanced. It can be hard to address this with our friends but not doing so can leave us feeling disconnected and hurt.

Research by Sherri Gordan talks about the importance of practicing kind assertiveness and talks about ways to communicate our personal boundaries in such a way that won’t harm the friendship. Karmen Smith has also conducted a study that suggests how setting healthy boundaries can in fact help protect our friendships.

Read on for a study by Karmen Smith to see her recommendations on how to set healthy boundaries with your friends

29/08/2022

Moments of connection are when two people are having an interaction in which both people feel safe, trusting, and close to the other person...they are both able to share about themselves in an authentic way and they both feel heard and understood deeply. They both are able to make requests and ask for what they need, and they both are responsive to these requests. They both are able to express appreciation and closeness to the other, and to receive it when it is expressed.

Moments of connection are the basis of good friendships, good romantic relationships, good relationships with family members. Sounds difficult? Over the next week, our clinical director, Emma Waddington, will be sharing some exercises to help you build your closeness in your relationship. Try them and see if they work. Research done by Emma Waddington, Jonathan Kanter, Nyein Nyein and colleagues at University of Washington, suggest that these small steps can really help us feel more connected. Why don’t you give one a try?

27/08/2022

Bullying undeniably poses detrimental effects on it’s victims (Lereya et al, 2015). A longitudinal study reveals that being bullied results in a higher risk of being overweight (Baldwin et al., 2015), sleep disturbances (Hunter et al., 2014) and difficulties with lethargy and motivation too. Undoubtedly, bullying also cause individuals to be anxious about their surroundings and will grow to believe that the things the bullies are saying about them is true (Gordon,2021). This can result in low self esteem and social withdrawal (Rivara, 2016).

With bullying posing such detrimental effects on our children’s physical, mental and emotional health, it is important that as parent, guardians, Teachers and others who support children, that we think of what we can we do to help those we suspect are being bullied.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK390414/

24/08/2022

‘Loneliness is a public health issue’

Intimacy, or a close bond and connection, is the best antidote to loneliness (Asatryan, 2016). Without the element of connection or closeness, we may often find ourselves feeling strained in our relationships. A relationship bereft of closeness more often than not leads to us feeling like the other party does not prioritise us which leads us to believe that we are alone in our respective life experiences. We are finding that loneliness is most prevalent in large cities where although there are always people physically around, we don’t invest the time needed to build close bonds with others (Amodeo, 2020). This trend may been attributed to how the fast-pace metropolitan lifestyle has robbed us off the time to understand our friends and loved ones around us (Amodeo, 2020). With initimacy being so vital in our relationships, and to a certain extent, our lives, it is essential to look at ways to build intimacy with those around us.

Achieving this feeling should be the goal, and it's within your power to create.

22/07/2022

As clinicians, it is important to be aware and sensitively attuned towards the racial trauma that minority community groups are often susceptible to. Here is an insightful resource that discusses best clinical practices for addressing racial trauma in therapy:https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56d5ca187da24ffed7378b40/t/61c219132983e86aa793bc3a/1640110362937/21-HHS-BH-2881-Whitepaper-WhatIsRacialTrauma-2-1.pdf

07/07/2022

July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month! As clinicians, we encounter clients from a diverse range of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Being able to sensitively navigate the topic of race is therefore an important facet of effective multicultural counselling. Read this article to learn about how to cultivate a culturally sensitive space in the therapy room:

The inability to honestly dialogue about race and racial issues can serve as a major hindrance to effective multicultural counseling.