They might be the people that you love most on the planet, but the added stress from spending more time with them since the Covid pandemic began may now be showing in increased family tensions and conflict. While some conflict is normal in healthy relationships, the way you manage it now will have a profound effect on those relationships in the future. Today, Clinical Psychologist and trainer Tanya van de Water and Doug Cairns, host of the Let’s Talk Mental Health Podcast series, discuss techniques to defuse tensions and conflict during this season of change and increased stress. Tanya explains what the goal of constructive family conflict should be. She shows us how to set up a proper “fight plan”, with mutually acceptable rules of engagement before conflict arises and how we can communicate better as a family. She describes how we can more easily control our emotions better when tensions get high, as well as how to make the other person feel like they’ve been heard and understood. She also gives us a formula to use for communicating difficult information assertively. We discuss the importance of having a neutral third party in serious conflicts and why we need to take breaks through the conflict resolution process or even revisit the same conflict situations again in the future. Lastly, we discuss the more difficult aspects of conflict: What to do when some family members hijack the rest of the family in inappropriate conflict behavior. Strategies to help different people communicate with each other better.  What to do in situations when domestic conflict becomes dangerous and how to tell when family conflict has become abusive. If you have any questions, or would like to contact Tanya about further support, you may contact her at: [email protected] Links to resources: https://psych.manzinihealth.co.za/rules-engagement-i-statements/ https://psych.manzinihealth.co.za/rules-engagement-design-fight-plan/ https://psych.manzinihealth.co.za/dealing-with-conflict/ Music Credit: Energizing by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5709-energizing License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end.” -  Author Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation The American Psychiatric Association website informs us that depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that will negatively affect how you feel, the way you think and how you act. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease your ability to function at work and at home.  Fortunately, it is a treatable condition – and positive advances in treatment in recent years offer us hope. Today, host of the Let’s Talk Mental Health Podcast, Doug Cairns, spends an evening on Zoom with clinical psychologist and coach, Tony de Gouveia, to discuss a condition that can penetrate us to our cores.  They dig deeper into what depression is and the common symptoms that may point to a depression.  Tony outlines the inpatient versus outpatient recovery options that are used today. He also provides some practical steps that you can take to improve your resilience to avoid getting into a depressed state or improve treatment outcomes for a depression.  As with all the Let’s Talk Mental Health Podcasts, the discussions are Christian orientated. In this episode, we discuss the importance of having a faith and a community to give you a stronger sense of purpose, more experience of hope, love, and a feeling of connection. Lastly, Tony emphasizes the importance of taking some action, if you have a friend or loved one who is depressed. Music Credit: Energizing by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5709-energizing License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The goal of the Let’s Talk Mental Health series is help create awareness of the importance of good mental health and to introduce some strategies on how to manage stress and your own mental health more effectively. According to a Statistics South Africa General Household Survey conducted in 2013, a majority (84.2%) of South Africans described their religious affiliation as ‘Christian’. The 2018 survey reports on the other hand that on average, less than 17% of the population has medical aid coverage.  Many people in this Country will therefore not have easy access to a healthcare professional such as a psychologist or psychiatrist. In times of mental hardship, they will instead seek counselling and guidance from their church and religious beliefs. The series therefore incorporates Christian faith perspectives in discussions about mental health. Conversations with Christian professionals about various aspects of mental health deliberately include references to Biblical stories and the Christian faith when relevant to do so.  However, it is my hope that whether you are a Christian or not, there will be sufficient content to help you think more about how to manage your own mental health more effectively. In the first episode, we talk with Clinical Psychologist and trainer Tanya van de Water about managing our anxiety. Music Credit: Energizing by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5709-energizing License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/