Dean Mighell - Psychotherapist

07/11/2025

What's your Attachment Style and how does it impact your relationships? What is not in our awareness that could result in negative impacts in our life. With good therapy support, we can become a better version of ourselves. I can help.

Attachment theory suggests that our early childhood experiences shape how we approach relationships throughout our lives. People with an anxious attachment style often experience a heightened fear of abandonment and a constant need for reassurance. This attachment style can have a significant impact on romantic relationships, creating challenges that both partners need to navigate.

Anxious attachment typically develops when a child experiences inconsistent caregiving. The caregiver might be loving and available at times, but distant or unpredictable at others. As a result, the child becomes hypervigilant about their caregiver’s availability, seeking constant attention and reassurance to feel secure. While this attachment style can manifest in any relationship, it often becomes most pronounced in romantic partnerships. And it look like the following:

1. Need for Constant Reassurance
2. Fear of Abandonment
3. Difficulty with Boundaries
4. Jealousy and Insecurity
5. Emotional Rollercoaster

Strategies for Improvement

While this attachment style presents unique and complex challenges for relationship building, with the right strategies, these dynamics can be managed and even improved. Here are some key approaches to help build healthier connections:

1. Prioritise Communication: Open and honest conversations about emotional needs, triggers, and boundaries are essential. Regular check-ins can ensure both partners understand each other’s emotional worlds and reduce the risk of miscommunication.
2. Practice Self-Regulation: Learning to manage anxiety and emotional responses is key. Techniques like mindfulness, grounding exercises, or journaling can help individuals with anxious attachment stay centered and avoid overreacting during stressful moments.
3. Seek Professional Support: Couples therapy or individual counselling can be incredibly helpful in addressing the underlying causes of anxious attachment. A therapist can support both partners in recognising unhealthy patterns, working through emotional triggers, and developing healthier relationship strategies.
4. Build Trust Gradually: Trust takes time to develop. Small, consistent actions of reliability, reassurance, and support can help reduce anxiety and lay a secure emotional foundation for both partners.
5. Set Healthy Boundaries: Understanding and respecting each other’s boundaries is crucial to avoid emotional overwhelm. Both partners should work together to create a safe space where each can express their needs without fear of rejection or abandonment.
6. Self-Awareness and Reflection: For individuals with anxious attachment, reflecting on past experiences and identifying recurring patterns can help address insecurities. Building a strong sense of self-worth and independence can lessen the need for constant reassurance.

Dean 0418354362

Call now to connect with business.

04/11/2025

Narcissism is so difficult for people who have not experienced it to ever understand.

We don’t think like they do and their can be so very confusing and leave you bewildered and overwhelmed.

These days, the term ‘narcissism’ is thrown around carelessly. If you have been through narcissistic abuse, I am here to help you. I know it well and can help you.

Please reach out.

The scariest things about a narcissist

29/10/2025

Attachment theory is so very important. By working with a trained psychotherapist, I can help you work through this. Getting awareness of our attachment issues can be transformative. It’s awareness about things in our subconscious that can bring for the first time, the ability to make informed choices about a better life.

29/10/2025

Hello Friends and Colleagues,

I have decided that in addition to my work at Path of the Horse, I would offer my services as Psychotherapist (gestalt) and Clinical Counsellor (PACFA). Not everyone wants to do equine assisted psychotherapy and I want to help and support as many people as possible in my community.

There is a shortage of mental health supports and they can be expensive and wait lists can be long. I want to provide a professional and confidential therapy service that supports those seeking better mental health.

I am a registered Psychotherapist (Gestalt), Clinical Counselor and Equine Assisted Psychotherapist. I am a member of the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA) and member of Gestalt Australia and New Zealand and the Victorian Association of Gestalt Practitioners.​

My professional qualifications include a Post Graduate Certification as a Psychotherapist (Gestalt) along with extensive training on trauma, anxiety, depression, achieving better relationships along with indigenous men's trauma practice (We-Ali),

My additional training includes neurodiversity - ADHD and Autism and related conditions (Kings College London).

My work with clients is very relational, empathetic and holistic and I am passionate about supporting people from all walks of life. Much of my work has supported with people with Post Traumatic Stress Injury and Complex Post Traumatic Stress. Proudly, my work with many military and emergency service workers and their families who are impacted with Post Traumatic Stress Injury and related conditions, is highly respected in the veteran and first responders community.

I place a strong emphasis on learning self regulation techniques and mindfulness and can leach clients many useful skills

I like to work holistically with clients. After all, we are a sum of our entire lived experience and we often need professional support to help us discover the themes and patterns in our lives that do not serve us well. This 'awareness' now gives us choices.

I like to work somatically to support clients.

Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm. Other times strictly by prior appointment only.

Sessions can go for 1 hour or more by arrangement and the cost is $140 per hour plus GST if applicable.

I will work with clients who are on pensions, disadvantaged or experiencing financial duress to make my work as affordable and accessible as possible.

Please call if you wish to make a booking of have any questions.

Warmest regards,

Dean

23/10/2025

This is so helpful. Seeking support to understand this and how to progress is the first step to managing our trauma.

03/09/2025

12/08/2025

01/08/2025

So important.

27/07/2025

We can’t heal the effects of trauma but we can learn to manage it and live good lives.