Pivot Psychology

01/04/2025

14/03/2025

It was great to spend time with the Eduvos Psychology students today. I’m so impressed with their setup. Thanks Tercia and Busie for the warm welcome and beautiful flowers and gift bag. ❤️

13/02/2025

Thanks to Ryan at Hanya House for capturing a snippet of my story. Loving my new home!

05/09/2023

18/06/2023

19/08/2021

Aha moment for August

Dan Siegel is one of my gurus. I love his work and I especially love how he makes complicated neuroscience accessible and understandable to us all.

In this short video he shares two steps to help us help someone (child or adult) who is experiencing intense emotions. Using his ‘handy brain model’ he explains how we must first

‘Connect and redirect’ and then
‘Name it to tame it’.
Dan explains how this process is working at a biological level by “squirting soothing neurotransmitters” in the brain. So when your ‘downstairs brain’ is feeling overwhelmed, anxious or fearful, use your ‘upstairs brain’ to calm it down. Such an important life hack for us all to know and use – especially during these challenging times.

How can you help a child who is having an emotional melt down? Learn brain-science basics and the two simple steps to calm a child who is experiencing inten...

17/07/2021

Aha moment for July

So many of us are dealing with high stress levels, resulting in high cortisol in our bodies. This is not good for us on a long-term basis. To bring these levels down, it is helpful to know about the ‘stress bucket’ analogy. This video uses the bucket analogy to give an understanding of the various sources and effects of stress and coping skills we can use to better regulate stress.

What is the size of your bucket? What ‘false taps’ do you use? What healthy coping mechanisms can you add to keep the water at a healthy level?

During this level 4 lockdown, please make a real effort to ‘Keep Calm and Stay Safe’.

This video uses the bucket analogy to give you an understanding of the various sources and effects of stress, and coping skills you can use to better regula...

17/07/2021

Aha moment of the month for June

The theme and power of gratitude continues!

Christina, a psychology instructor and researcher, has long studied, taught and believed in the healing aspects of practising gratitude. In her talk, she shares putting the theory into practise as she lives with (doesn’t fight with) a brain tumour. Such a real and human talk. Loving your body doesn’t have to be conditional and we can use our brains to build resilience.

So… go ahead, ‘kiss your brain’ and thank it for all it does for you. Harness the power of gratitude.

Psychology instructor and researcher Christina Costa was working on her PhD when she was referred to get an MRI and discovered a large brain tumor in her rig...

03/06/2021

A useful reminder...