Two Minds Recommends

Based on the 2014 book by the same name, Waking Up, was developed by the neuroscientist, philosopher and New York Times best-selling author Sam Harris.

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Waking Up is designed to be a guide to understanding the mind, for the purpose of living a more balanced and fulfilling life. It provides daily guided meditation sessions, on-demand mindfulness lessons as well as a practice timer.

For inquiring and curious minds, the app also allows you to learn related science, philosophy, and ethics in short audio lessons and extended conversations with Sam Harris and other influential teachers and scholars.

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Free to download in the App Store and Google Play

Offers in-app purchases 

In ACT with Love, therapist and medical doctor Russ Harris shows couples how developing psychological flexibility - the ability to be in the present moment with openness, awareness, and focus, and to take effective action in line with one's values - can help them build more compassionate, accepting, loving relationships. Also included is new information on attachment theory, powerful mindfulness and self-compassion techniques, and assertiveness and boundary-setting skills.

If you're looking to increase feelings of intimacy, love, and connection with your partner, this book has everything you need to get started--together.

Funded by the Australian Government, The Raising Children Network provides free, reliable, up-to-date, and independent information, educational tools, and resources for families raising children in Australia.

Designed for busy families, their content is easy to find and understand, providing answers to hundreds of parenting questions.

Their resources are available for newborns to teens, and provide information for parents and carers to take care of themselves too.

Find out more here: raisingchildren.net.au 

CBT Thought Diary is a journal with a purpose: it uses effective tools from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Positive Psychology to help improve your mood. This free app is a mood journal and thought record that can be used between therapy sessions to:

•  Check in with your moods and track them over time

• Identify common negative thinking patterns

• Challenge and reframe unhelpful thoughts to increase your happiness and wellbeing

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Free to download in the App Store and Google Play

Offers in-app purchases 

Guided by clinical counselor Jamie Marich- - a trauma-informed clinician living with a dissociative disorder herself - this book tells you everything you need to know about dissociation...but were too afraid to ask.

With practical guided exercises like "The Dissociative Profile" and "Parts Mapping," this book is written for those diagnosed with dissociative disorders, clinicians and therapists who treat trauma and dissociation, and readers who are exploring whether they may have dissociative symptoms or a condition like dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Dissociation Made Simple breaks it all down accessibly and comprehensively, with empowerment and support--and without stigma, judgment, or shame.

Created by the Australian Suicide Prevention Foundation, ‘In Tough Times Text’ is a suicide-prevention initiative that provides support for those who may have someone in their life considering suicide.

Designed and endorsed by medical and mental health professionals, In Tough Times Text provides examples of text messages designed and supported by mental health professionals to check-in on your friends and loved ones that can be sent directly from their app, for when you might not know what to say. 

Their website also features testimonials and stories from those with lived experience of suicide and/or self-harm.

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Find out more here: https://intoughtimestext.org/

A free, evidence-based, anxiety management app based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). MindShift aims to help you reduce worry, stress, and panic by following evidence-based strategies. Using CBT tools, you can challenge negativity, learn more about anxiety, develop more effective ways of thinking, be mindful, and relax.

Learn about the different CBT strategies, including writing thought journals, challenging yourself with belief experiments, building fear ladders, and doing comfort zone challenges. Listen to calming audio to reframe your thoughts, practice mindfulness, and stay grounded. Participate in the MindShift CBT Community Forum: share stories, learn about others’ experiences, and provide peer advice in a safe environment.

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Free to download in the App Store and Google Play

“How do you feel when you bite into a pear, wear a feather boa, stand in a noisy auditorium, or look for a friend in a crowd? It's likely that one of these situations would be pleasant for you, and perhaps one would be unpleasant… These different reactions reflect people's individual sensory patterns, which in turn affect the way we react to everything that happens to us throughout the day.

Living Sensationally identifies four major sensory types: Seekers, Bystanders, Avoiders and Sensors… The author helps readers to find their own patterns and the patterns of those around them, and then offers suggestions for harnessing this knowledge to make their lives more in synch with their sensations”

Humans on the Autism Spectrum is an annual campaign that celebrates the personal stories and insights of Autistic people in the I Can Network.

With a focus on highlighting Autistic voices, Humans on the Autism Spectrum showcase experiences, insights, and advice from Autistic members of their team, in which their stories are relevant not only for Autistic peers, but for anyone wanting to understand Autistic lived experience.

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Find out more here: https://icannetwork.online/humans-on-the-spectrum/

Two professionals on a quest to normalise the dialogue around mental health. Hosted by Kat a Registered Psychologist and Aimee a Registered Psychotherapist and Counsellor.

From trauma to anxiety to relationships, we dive deep into the wonderfully complex world of psychology.

Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts.

myCompass is a free online tool created by the Black Dog Institute that can help you identify unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and learn strategies to deal with them.

myCompass offers a customised experience and can recommend learning activities that best match your needs. Alternatively, you can select from fourteen interactive learning activities that most interest you. The myCompass mood tracking features allows you to track your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours in four areas – depression, anxiety, stress, and sleep. In addition, it provides graphical feedback to help you better recognise the patterns and triggers that impact your mental health, both positively and negatively.

myCompass is free to use. To find out more and sign up, visit: https://www.mycompass.org.au/

iBobbly is a Social and Emotional Wellbeing self-help app for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians aged 15 years and over.

Completely private and confidential, it helps by showing you ways to manage your thoughts and feelings, as well as how to decide what is important in your life.

Ensuring that iBobbly is culturally informed and safe, everything that is seen, heard and experienced in the app is shaped by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members.

Developed in partnership between Black Dog Institute and ALIVE & Kicking Goals!, iBobbly was first tested with young people in the Kimberley’s. Positively, they said they felt much better after using the app.

So, if you’re not feeling your best, give iBobbly a try, it might just be the support you need to get yourself feeling deadly again.

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Free to download in the App Store and Google Play

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Huberman Lab discusses neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. We also discuss existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works.

Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. His laboratory studies neural regeneration, neuroplasticity, and brain states such as stress, focus, fear, and optimal performance.

Episodes cover information related to issues such as sleep, pain, anxiety, alcohol use, trauma, anger, and memory.

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Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts.

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Beyond Blue developed the ‘Beyond Now’ app to help you make your own safety plan to support you through times of sadness or grief. You can make it on your phone and carry it with you to access anywhere and anytime.

The app guides you through, step-by-step, with suggestions at each stage if you get stuck. You can work through this process by yourself, but it’s better if a family member, an Elder, health professional or support person works with you to make your plan. You can update it anytime and easily share it with others if you want.

Free to download in the App Store and Google Play. Also available online.

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‘Be Okay’ is an iPhone app developed to help users cope with panic and anxiety attacks through calming techniques.

‘Be Okay’ aims to create a personal comfort zone to assist you to:

• Regain control of your breathing with selected deep breathing exercises

• Listen to nature sounds in a calming and relaxing atmosphere

‘Be Okay’ is available for free in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

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Free to download in the App Store and Google Play

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What often blocks people from feeling capable in life and from having greater success with finances, health or relationships is how they handle unpleasant feelings. Psychologist Joan Rosenberg unveils the innovative strategy and surprising keys for experiencing the challenging emotions that lie at the heart of confidence, emotional strength, and resilience.

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This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organised by a local community.

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View this video here: https://youtu.be/EKy19WzkPxE

Volcanoes. Trees. Drunk butterflies. Mars missions. Slug sex. Death. Beauty standards. Anxiety busters. Beer science. Bee drama. Take away a pocket full of science knowledge and charming, bizarre stories about what fuels these professional -ologists' obsessions.

Humorist and science correspondent Alie Ward asks smart people stupid questions and the answers might change your life.

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Our favourites include episodes on fear and ADHD.

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Available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts.

The Happiness Trap is a best-seller and has something for almost everyone. Updated and expanded in its second edition, this empowering book presents the insights and techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Learn how to clarify your values, develop self-compassion, and build a rich and meaningful life. Russ Harris employs a combination of metaphor and rich real life stories. The book provides guidance to support us to notice and gently shift our relationship with unhelpful thoughts and painful emotions, and work towards living lives in line with our values

Gratitude journalling is a powerful positive psychology tool that is believed to assist with managing stress and increasing optimism, self-efficacy and happiness. According to researchers at the Harvard Medical School, “Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” Grateful was created to make expressing gratitude in your life both easy and fun. The app has a simple interface and provides daily prompts to help with journalling.

In Parenting from the Inside Out, child psychiatrist Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., and early childhood expert Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., explore the extent to which our childhood experiences shape the way we parent.

Drawing upon new findings in neurobiology and attachment research, they explain how interpersonal relationships directly impact the development of the brain, and offer parents a step-by-step approach to forming a deeper understanding of their own life stories, which will help them raise compassionate and resilient children.

Published in 2017, Change Your Thinking by Sarah Edelman is a bestselling guide that many find helpful.

Change Your Thinking is aimed at helping you manage upsetting emotions by learning to think in a balanced way. It provides practical strategies for overcoming unhelpful thoughts and feelings.

Change Your Thinking is based on the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), the evidence-based psychological approach employed by many clinicians. Sarah Edelman explains CBT in a clear and compassionate way.

The third edition also contains a chapter on mindfulness, demonstrating how mindfulness techniques can be integrated with CBT strategies.

Head to Health can help you find the right Australian digital mental health and wellbeing resources, for yourself or for someone you care about.

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Head to Health has more than 500 digital resources to support your wellbeing and mental health. 

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For more information visit: https://www.headtohealth.gov.au/

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking is a 2012 non-fiction book written by Susan Cain. Cain argues that the strengths of introverted individuals tends to be misunderstood and undervalued in Western culture. This is a useful read to aid with understanding and celebrating the introverts in your life.  Cain cites research in biology, psychology, neuroscience and evolution to demonstrate that introversion is both common and normal, noting that many of humankind's most creative individuals and distinguished leaders were introverts. Cain urges changes at the workplace, in schools, and in parenting; offers advice to introverts for functioning in an extrovert-dominated culture; and offers advice in communication, work, and relationships between people of differing temperament.

THIS WAY UP is an Internet-based learning program for anxiety and depression. Courses are based on the principles of evidence-based treatments, including cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and mindfulness.

For more information, visit: https://thiswayup.org.au/

Dr. Brene Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past 12 years studying vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. She is well known for her Ted Talk titled The Power of Vulnerability where she shares insights from her research on human connection. 

Rising Strong follows two bestsellers, Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection. This particular self-help book aims to provide a personal and practical guide to embracing fear and failure and creating a more courageous life. It provides an accessible process for managing challenging emotions (like hurt, fear, and pain) and overcoming mistakes insightfully and effectively.

"When it comes to mental health, we all have our own unique stories to tell. But no matter what we are going through, there are other people experiencing it too."

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Not Alone is a podcast from Beyond Blue. Hosted by Marc Fennel, everyday Australians are invited to talk about their mental health journey.

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Visit the Beyond Blue website for more information.

Smiling Mind is a meditation app developed by a team of psychologists. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to help manage stress, resilience, anxiety, depression and improve general health and wellbeing.

Designed for a range of ages. Smiling Mind now also includes programs in a number of Aboriginal languages.​

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Free to download in the App Store or Google Play

Everyone has worries pop into their head from time to time, but sometimes they won't go away and start to impact your everyday life.

ReachOut WorryTime interrupts this repetitive thinking by setting aside your worries until later, so you don't get caught up in them and can get on with your day. This means you can deal with worries once a day, rather than carrying them around with you 24/7.

Key features:
- decide on a time, place and length of time to deal with your worries each day
- when you notice yourself worrying about something, add it to WorryTime and get on with your day
- use your WorryTime to review the worries you've added and ditch the ones that no longer matter to you.

Produced in consultation with the Centre for Clinical Interventions, ReachOut WorryTime is based on cognitive behavioural techniques that are used by health and wellbeing practitioners to assist people with anxiety and stress.

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For more information visit the ReachOut website.

Children can often act out or shut down when faced with a setback or a tricky issue like homework, food or screen time. This is what acclaimed parenting experts Dr Siegel and Dr Bryson call the ‘No Brain’ response. But you can help your child develop the ability to cope, solve their own problems and thrive by nurturing their ‘Yes Brain’.

Drawing on their successful work with thousands of parents and children from all backgrounds, Dr Siegel and Dr Bryson provide the advice, tools and activities to help parents with children of all ages.

Teaming up with one of Australia’s most successful comedians, Ryan Shelton, and his very talented brother Josh van Cuylenburg, Hugh van Cuylenburg (from The Resilence Project) has put together a podcast which is all about how perfectly imperfect we all are.

Constantly comparing ourselves to others can not only be exhausting, but extremely harmful. However, when we share our struggles, we start to realise that everyone, no matter how successful, has something they are battling with. In this podcast, Hugh chats to a variety of interesting people who bravely share their struggles and imperfections. Ryan and Josh then join him to discuss some valuable take-aways we can all apply to our own imperfect lives.

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Visit the Resilience Project website for more information.