5 Essentials for Real Mental Health Growth
With the federal election bombarding us, and all the noise and point-scoring politicians love to focus on, it’s easy to lose sight of what really matters, genuine discussion and meaningful change. I thought it might be good to take things back to basics. What is it that we really need for growth? I’m so tempted to use my usual plant metaphor, but today I’m sticking with what we actually need as humans. Mental Health support needs be more than just talking, it’s a process of rediscovering, reconnecting, and realigning with yourself. At Connecting Mental Health, we honour the uniqueness of every person and business. We believe mental health support should be healing, empowering and deeply individualised.
Here are five key elements that make mental health support truly work and how different approaches can support each one:
1. The Therapeutic Relationship: Your Healing Connection
A strong therapeutic connection is the main key of effective long lasting therapy. The therapeutic bond is the trusting, caring connection between a practitioner and you. It’s like the feeling of being truly heard, understood, and supported by someone who’s there to help you without judgment.This bond helps you feel more open and willing to explore tough stuff, which is why it’s such a powerful part of mental health support, sometimes even more important than the techniques being used by the practitioner.
When you feel emotionally safe with your practitioner, your nervous system relaxes, allowing deeper parts of your psyche to emerge for healing.
In practice:
- Exploring our inner parts: In Internal Family Systems (IFS), we begin by noticing and “getting to know” different parts of you, perhaps an inner critic, a protective part, or a wounded younger self. This process happens with your therapist as a calm, attuned co explorer. Feeling truly seen by another helps you begin seeing and accepting yourself.
- Limited reparenting, Schema Therapy technique: where the practitioner provides consistent empathy and validation, helping to meet emotional needs that were unmet in childhood. This builds a corrective emotional experience in real time.
2. Language That Speaks to You
A good practitioner translates complexity into clarity with language you understand. Supporting the therapeutic connection helps when the practitioner uses words, metaphors, and frameworks that resonate with your lived experience, whether you’re more visual, sensory, logical, or emotional in how you understand the world.
In practice:
- Schema Therapy: We map out your life themes using schema names (like Abandonment, Defectiveness, or Unrelenting Standards), but we never leave you with labels. We explain how these patterns developed and how they show up today in simple, compassionate terms.
- Acceptance Commitment Therapy: You’ll learn to say things like “a part of me feels anxious” instead of “I am anxious,” which gently separates the feeling from your identity and empowers you to respond with curiosity rather than shame.
3. Pacing Led by You, Not a Clock or Agenda
You deserve to feel in control of your healing journey. A good practitioner follows your lead, not the other way around. Sessions unfold at a pace that honours your nervous system, your history, and your readiness.This may also include the practitioner holding you up at times to ensure we are not racing too quickly.
In practice:
- IFS: We frequently check in with your internal system. Are parts feeling overwhelmed? Are protectors worried we’re going too fast? This gives space for you to stay in the driver’s seat while gently progressing.
- Post-Session Grounding: Practitioners should never rush you out the door. We use grounding techniques like breathwork, sensory anchoring, or brief imagery to help you leave the session feeling safe and integrated.
4. The Setting: Your Sanctuary for Change
The space we do mental health support in matters. It should soothe, not stress. A calm, welcoming environment helps our body relax, which lets our mind open up. It can be worthwhile asking where the practitioner’s office is located, surroundings. Practitioners may also offer a variety of settings to meet your requirements and needs that range from calming therapy rooms to gentle walks in nature or the suburbs.
In practice:
- Many practitioners may integrate outdoor sessions, natural soundscapes, somatic, or gentle movement to help you connect with your body and the world around you.
- Mindfulness Space Work: In session, we may also guide you to visualise an internal safe space: a forest, a beach, a warm room for your parts to rest, recharge, or explore.
5. Feedback & Adaptability: Because we’re all unique
Your mental health support should change with you. The practitioner should check in regularly: What’s landing? What’s not? How are you feeling about the direction of our work? You should be invited to give feedback and practice asserting your needs, this is the growth work.
In practice:
- IFS: Giving feedback often activates parts of us that fear being “too much” or “difficult.” We explore those parts gently, so you can practice advocating for yourself without guilt or fear.
- Schema Therapy: We tailor techniques and emotional intensity week to week based on your current mode, activated Schema. Are you in a vulnerable child mode today, or a detached protector? The work shifts accordingly.
At Connecting Mental Health, we believe in therapy that feels alive, collaborative, and uniquely yours. Connecting Mental Health practitioners are deeply passionate, trauma-informed and here to help you reconnect with your values, understand your inner system, and grow into a more mature, balanced version of yourself.
You don’t have to do this alone.
Book a session with a Connecting Mental Health practitioner who gets you, and let’s take the next step together.
Article written by Jono Derkenne, Accredited Mental Health Social Worker
https://aifs.gov.au/resources/short-articles/counselling-effectiveness-and-therapeutic-alliance?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735824001557?via%3Dihub
