ONE LIFE - Mental Health and Wellbeing

30/11/2025

What does your 💩 say about your health?
As you may well know, I spend a lot of time focusing on gut health alongside mental and physical well-being, and there is good reason for it!

If you only produce 🫘a few times a week, this can significantly impact your overall health. Likewise - opposite isn't great either!

""If stool sticks around too long in the gut, microbes use up all of the available dietary fiber, which they ferment into beneficial short-chain fatty acids," says Johannes Johnson-Martinez, a bioengineer at ISB.

"After that, the ecosystem switches to fermentation of proteins, which produces several toxins that can make their way into the bloodstream."

"How often do you p**p?" might sound like a very personal question, but your answer could reveal quite a lot about your overall health.

26/11/2025

The fabulous Julia Rucklidge, being interviewed by the Doctor's Kitchen on Nutrients for Anxiety.

Do multivitamins actually work? Coming into this podcast, my opinion was that they were pretty pointless, whether that’s for general wellbeing, cardiovascula...

22/11/2025

This was an unexpected find...

(Excuse the gardening fingers and table 😁)

17/11/2025

"Borrow their lens until you can soften your own"

This beautifully written blog,
"How Do You Love Your Body When You Have a Chronic Illness?

(And do you even have to?)

https://www.ainsleydscreative.com/blog/how-do-you-love-your-body-when-you-have-a-chronic-illness?

Loving your body while living with chronic illness is complicated and often overwhelming. This post breaks down practical, realistic ways to rebuild body acceptance when your body feels unfamiliar or unpredictable. From reconnecting with yourself gently to using photography as a tool for self-compas

11/11/2025

🤩 It's difficult for people to post reviews on Google when they are seeking mental health support. Mental wellness is still a very private topic, and people don't necessarily want to share the fact that they have been seeking support.

(Although, if I were a gym, I don't think people would have an issue!)

But I get it. It's private, personal and sacred.

So.... I'm sharing some of the responses I get privately.

People have the choice of (anonymously) completing a feedback form after they have had a session or sessions with me.

These are some of the questions, and the results.

When I look at these, I am reminded why I do my job.

I am also reminded of the diversity of the people I see. Everything from work stress to marriage problems to anxiety and general health.

Love my work and all you humans who seek help.

10/11/2025

What is Life Coaching?
Coaching is a strength-based & future-focused process. Although your past is an important part of who you are - coaching is interested in where you are headed. Life coaching is about designing a purpose-filled life.

What is Mental Health Coaching?
Mental health coaching encompasses life coaching with a focus on guiding individuals to develop mental resilience. It supports individuals in building strength and resilience, enabling them to recover from difficulties. Mind Health isn’t simply about the absence of mental illness - it’s about loving the life you have, despite its challenges.

A Holistic approach to mental health
When it comes to mind health, we can not separate the mind from the body. What happens in the body is reflected in the mind and vice versa. We also know that there are many reasons why you may be struggling mentally, and therefore many ways we can support your mental health.

My approach to mental health & life coaching incorporates many aspects of physical and mental health, alongside a life coaching framework. With this approach, we can address many areas in your life that you might be struggling with - stress, anxiety, depression, low mood & energy or feelings of overwhelm.

For this reason, a ‘whole-body’ approach is taken to mental well-being. This may include addressing dietary, nutritional and lifestyle factors alongside conventional medication and talk therapy

Each one of these components can support mental health and well-being recovery.
https://www.onelifenz.com/mental-health-coaching
,

Integrative mental health practitioner. Helen is a registered clinical nurse specialist in psychiatry and life coach who applies a holistic approach to mental health & well-being counselling, Pukekohe, Auckland, New Zealand. In-person and online available. Supporting recovery from depression,

10/11/2025

Last week, I zoomed up to Auckland to present to RTLB teachers in South Auckland.

The theme of the talk was 'Finding the Pause: Mindful Action in Leadership'.

Pausing, taking a moment, can allow us to check in with ourselves.

- How am I feeling right now?
- What am I bringing to this space?

It can also give ourselves space to:
- think
- gather our thoughts
- notice the moment
- give thanks
- be present with another

It can, as Viktor Frankl suggested, allow space between the stimulus and the response, and in choosing our response lies our freedom.

09/11/2025

I've been fascinated by the microbiome for many years.

Years of microbiome testing on adults have given me fascinating insight into people's gut health.

(I'm doing less of these nowadays, as often we can sort out the issues without stool testing)

Here is an article about the microbiome of newborns and how it can influence future health.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20251103-what-a-babys-first-poo-can-tell-you-about-their-future-health?

Research is unveiling the surprising, lifelong impact of what enters a baby's gut in the days after birth.

09/11/2025

For those of you interested in the final outcome from the government in regards to DENs, the link is below:
https://selectcommittees.parliament.nz/view/SelectCommitteeReport/ea9ae78e-25e0-4e5a-7b28-08de12a2143d

01/11/2025

Why talk therapy might not be the answer

When I struggled with my mind health a few years ago, I went to talk therapy. It was great. I loved the person I was seeing, and she helped me get back on my feet.

Over the years, I have had a couple of ‘go-to’ people to do talk therapy with, and this has been invaluable.

But what if the reason why you are not feeling great isn’t because of a break-up, a trauma, work or life stress?

What if you don’t know why you’re feeling miserable?

What if it’s not in your head (or heart)?

Not all mind (or mental) health issues come from your head

Sometimes, when our mind health is not great, it might be coming from our body.

(When I say mind health, I’m referring to ‘not feeling your optimal self’. This can be your thinking, brain function, mood, mental state, concentration, energy levels and behaviours that aren’t in line with who you want to be.)

You may have heard this before, but let me remind you:

Many things can impact your mind health.

https://www.onelifenz.com/blog/2025/11/why-talk-therapy-might-not-work

Read more on the blog

You see, when we have so many things that might be impacting our mind health, why would we think that talk therapy and medications are the only answers?

Why not talk therapy? What if the reason why you are not feeling great isn’t because of a break-up, a trauma, work or life stress? What if you don’t know why you’re feeling miserable?

01/11/2025

A reminder about this, if you're looking for a light read. 🙏

29/10/2025

Sometimes we just get stuck.

We are doing the best we can, trying hard, pushing ourselves more and more.

But we feel tired, confused.

Maybe you have the same negative thoughts going around in your head.

Maybe you have this underlying anxiety you can't get rid of.

Maybe you have brain fog, a low level of feeling 'blah' a lot of the time and struggling with the feeling of wanting to hide under the sheets.

I am not one for 'pushing' yourself more.

I am for exploring why you might be feeling the way you do and looking at that.

❌ No energy? What might be going on?
❌ Brain fog? What is causing this?
❌ Gut issues? What's changed to cause this?

Is it physical? Is it mental? Is it due to other things in your life?

This is a space where we get to explore and ask questions. We dig a little deeper. We look at how you are living your life. What can we improve? How can we do things better (not harder!) What tips, tricks and tools can help you get to the person you want to be?

What future do you want to be living? How do we get you there?

We work together to help you live the life you want to be living. ❤️

You can see me face-to-face or online.
Let's do this!