Our Three Level Approach

At Vital Mind Psychology we approach your mental health with the understanding that body and mind work together. Our approach to your mental health addresses the often overlooked underlying factors that can affect your mental health. One way to understand our approach is to bring to mind the way a tree functions.

Level 1: Nutrition and Lifestyle

A tree’s root system is its lifeline. If the root system is compromised or damaged or if the soil it lives in lacks key nutrients the tree will not grow or function optimally. You may begin to see withering of the tree’s leaves and wilting of its branches, an ultimate reflection of what’s happening at the root/soil level. Treatment at the leaf and branch level will often not be enough to address the problems occurring at the root/soil level.

In the context of achieving your Vital Mind, nutritional and lifestyle factors, including eating a pro-inflammatory diet, having micronutrient deficiencies, poor gut health and low quality sleep are often overlooked but critical elements for optimising mental wellbeing. Nutrients fuel the brain and provide the raw material for the manufacture of neurotransmitters (brain chemicals).  Optimising your intake of nutrients as well as your ability to absorb and utilise these nutrients can play a key role in improving and maintaining your mental health.

Level 1 involves assessing and treating the nutritional and lifestyle variables that may be negatively impacting your mental health.

Click here for more information on nutrition and lifestyle.

Level 2: Psychological Therapy

The trunk of a tree is its main support structure, allowing it to stand upright and withstand all that nature throws at it. If the trunk is compromised or weakened the tree will not be able to tolerate stress in an optimal manner.

In the context of achieving your Vital Mind, the combination of your life skills, attitudes and coping strategies are critical to optimising your mental health. These skills, attitudes and coping strategies cover the entire lifespan and influence your capacity to effectively manage your time, maintain a stable mood and sense of self, build effective relationships, manage conflict and effectively adjust to life changes.

Level 2 involves the use of evidence-based psychological treatments to assist you in gaining the insights, skills and strategies to address and optimise your mental health.

Click here for more information on psychological therapies.

Level 3: Optimal Personality Functioning

A tree’s leaves and branches ultimately reflect the health of its root and soil system as well as the strength of its trunk. It’s branches and leaves express the entire tree’s natural beauty.

In the context of achieving your Vital Mind, your ability to engage in valued living with meaning and purpose and through this achieve personal growth and fulfilment becomes possible. This level of functioning requires actively working on understanding and accepting our limitations in a compassionate manner and come to terms with the (often) less than helpful parts of our personality that can act as barriers to fulfilling our human potential.

Level 3 involves gaining insights into your personality style, confronting long held core beliefs about yourself, others and the world and understanding how aspects of your personality can actively block your growth and development.

Click here for more information on personality.