Monday, September 1.

A new week.

A new month.

A new season.

And Spring nonetheless. New beginnings beckon. Growth is possible. Renewal is a certainty.

The fresh start effect is a psychological mindset that offers the chance to leave the past behind and hit the re-start button. It's Monday, a new week, and a new season - nothing can stop me finally getting it all right. Or so I like to convince myself.

To overcome the mental obstacles and inner chatter that hinder my aspirations and goals, I've enlisted the help of psychotherapist and author, Tammi Miller, to lead a Wellbeing Spring Clean session. This session is essential for me and many others who face similar barriers and resistance to progress.

Tammi is the founder of BARE Therapy and aims to provide her clients with practical counselling techniques to improve mental wellbeing. She is passionate about improving mental health literacy for all and helps facilitate a happier, healthier, more mindful you through her practice.

Her book, Paperback Therapy: Therapist-approved tools and advice for mastering your mental health, is designed as a resource to set a foundation of mental wellbeing by offering tips and the tools she uses with clients. Released initially in Australia in early 2024, it's gone on to be acquired around the world such has been the reception and impact on these shores.

Working in jobs focussed on societal and planetary health is taxing work. To carry the weight of bending back the forces of market-based ideologies that seem intent on degrading life is a heavy load to carry. Headlines of planetary boundaries being crossed and a doomsday clock ticking ever closer to midnight, or knowing the injustices and suffering of people in vulnerable and disempowered circumstances takes a toll on all of us. Finding the time and space plus the tools and techniques to address our own fears and resentments can feel like a luxury, something to do after whatever the next potential success or milestone may be. Doing that though, we run the risk of burnout and breakdown.

This session offers you the opportunity to discover the tools and techniques you can apply in your own life, explore what's burdening you at the moment and the pressures you feel, reframe your approach and understanding of balance, re-connect to your values and set clear intentions for the Spring ahead.

We all need help, and Tammi has a wisdom and set of tools applicable to all of us to guide as we navigate the perils and pitfalls of work without end*.

Work without end is an expression that I believe applies to our work as agents of change in pursuing futures that are healthier, more safe and more just for all living creatures.