Petersgate doesn’t just provide counselling services for mental health. Our counsellors also focus on the person's physical health, their social health and their spiritual health. That's because we recognise that well-being is not simply the absence of illness but a balanced and interconnected state across multiple aspects of a person’s life.

Research and observations have consistently shown that women and men approach seeking emotional or practical support for mental health challenges in distinctly different ways. 

For many, Christmas is a time of joy, togetherness, and celebration. Yet, beneath the festive decorations and cheerful gatherings, this season can be one of the most stressful periods of the year, with a range of stressors that can intensify mental health challenges. From financial strain to social expectations, holiday stress can lead to feelings of overwhelm, anxiety, and even depression. Recognizing these stressors and understanding ways to manage them can help preserve mental well-being through the holiday season.

Contrary to popular belief, age alone is not a determinant of poor mental health. While it's true that certain mental health conditions become more prevalent with age, such as dementia and depression, they are not synonymous with aging itself. Numerous factors contribute to mental health outcomes in older adults, including biological, psychological, and social factors.

The temperatures are dropping, and the days are getting shorter and shorter. This is the time many of us start grappling with the winter blues. The change in seasons can have a profound effect on our mental health, leading to feelings of fatigue, low mood, and even seasonal affective disorder (SAD). With the right strategies and mindset however, it's possible to prepare your mental health for winter and emerge from the colder months feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.

Everyone has mental health in the same way that everyone has physical health. Sometimes, our physical health is good. Sometimes, we notice slight aches and pains, a pinched nerve, a small cut, a random bruise. At times, we may have more significant physical issues, following an accident or the diagnoses of an illness. Much of the time we can share our physical issues freely with others,  “My back is killing me this week” “I have no idea where this bruise came from” “I have a splitting headache; do you have any paracetamol?”. 

Why is it then that we can’t talk about our mental health in the same way?

Here at Petersgate Counselling Centre we hear many different excuses for why clients cancel their appointments. “I have to work”, “I can’t afford it”, “I’m on holiday”, “My cat is sick”. Whatever the stated reason, the real underlying message is that the person does not consider counselling to be that important. They shouldn’t then be surprised if they think that their counselling is not that helpful, or they do not notice any difference in their life. The person is also saying that they don’t believe that their own mental well-being is a priority.

Are you feeling irritable or moody, forgetting little things, and feeling overwhelmed and isolated? Don't worry. We've all been there. You're probably just stressed out. Stress isn't always a bad thing. It can be handy for a burst of extra energy and focus, like when you're playing a competitive sport, or must speak in public. But when its continuous, the kind most of us face day in and day out, it begins to change your brain. Chronic stress, like being overworked or having arguments at home, can affect brain size, its structure, and how it functions, right down to the level of your genes.

What is Social Anxiety Disorder and how you can get help

This is because my resolution is NOT to make a New Year’s resolution. 

Here’s my logic. 

After two years of our freedoms being taken away due to the fear of Covid, the main thing we need now is positivity. As the old song goes, we need “to accentuate the positive”. Therefore the last thing I need is to spend the next three months in a doomed enterprise of self-improvement; the sort of failed mission that merely adds a little self-loathing to whatever problem I was vainly trying to solve.

During Covid, it has been so easy to list all the problems with the world. We watch as wealthy nations protect their own populations, ignoring the experts chanting on the sideline: “no one is safe unless everyone is safe.” We watch as as our brittle societal fault lines, underpinning our systems and institutions, further deteriorate. An under-funded health system, especially within mental health. Institutionalized racism. The cruelty of aged care. The dysfunctional labour market. The degradation of the public sector.

When you think of these things, you find yourself falling into a deep well of negativity. This is because most people focus on the things to worry about rather than those that make them happy. That doesn't make us bad or pessimistic people. It just makes us human. Noticing threats quickly was the key to our ancestors' survival. This continues today. The human brain is better at paying attention to what's bad rather than what's good. We therefore shouldn’t blame ourselves. 

That’s why, this year, I plan to always climb towards the sunlight.

Sleep, both its quantity and its quality, can affect your mental health.

Recent surveys have found that more than one-third of New Zealand adults are unable to consistently get a good night’s sleep, with many having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. And Covid-19 has made things worse, even for those who were previously “good” sleepers.

Remote work gave many people more hours in the day for personal use, but at the same time turned the workday into a 24/7 endeavour, with emails, texts, and Zoom calls occurring at odd and often unpredictable times.

Working parents who lacked child care options or had to help young children with online schoolwork during the day have resorted to late-night or early-morning hours to get their own work done with minimal interruptions. They essentially became shift workers with erratic sleep schedules. Others lost sleep pondering whether their jobs were worth the stress and how they might reshape their working lives going forward.

Everyone wants to have high self-esteem — but attaining it can often be very difficult. 

Part of the problem is that our self-esteem is rather unstable to begin with, as it can fluctuate daily, if not hourly. Further complicating matters, our self-esteem comprises both our global feelings about ourselves as well as how we feel about ourselves in specific areas of our lives such as within our family or our work.  

But when our self-esteem is high, we not only feel better about ourselves, we are more resilient as well. Also when our self-esteem is higher we are also less vulnerable to anxiety.

Here are five ways to nourish your self-esteem when it is low: