Clinic Address: Unit 3, 36-42 Auburn St, Wollongong NSW | Monday to Friday by Appointment Only
Clinic Address: Unit 3, 36-42 Auburn St, Wollongong NSW | Monday to Friday by Appointment Only
Self-Soothing is when you engage in activities designed to help you reduce your distress or overwhelm by using the five senses to calm yourself down.
Think about when a baby is overtired and gets worked up. What do we do for it? Swaddle it, feed it, sit in a dark room and cuddle it while we rock it to sleep with shushing noises. We reduce the stimulation and use strategies designed to calm the senses so the baby can settle and sleep. For adults, we use modified strategies, like a weighted blanket instead of a swaddle (though if you want to turn yourself into a burrito, go right ahead).
Self-Soothing needs to be carefully used so that it doesn’t turn into Detached Self-Soothing. This skill is not permission to eat a tub of ice cream and watch TV for 12 hours, but it is permission to stop and engage your Soothe System so you can unwind and destress.
To do this, we use the five senses.
Here are some examples:
It will be easier for you to use this skill if you have everything you need ready to go before you need it.
To help with this, we have made some Self-Soothe kits for you to purchase that include some of the items we mentioned above. Head over to our
Resources page to check them out.
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We offer actionable resources and teach real skills to help people make meaningful change in managing mental health issues through different modes depending on people's learning preferences including infographics, text, worksheets, handouts and video.
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We offer actionable resources and teach real skills to help people make meaningful changes in managing mental health issues. View resources here.
We hope you enjoy reading this blog post.
We offer actionable resources and teach real skills to help people make meaningful change in managing mental health issues.
It is our aim to offer actionable resources and teach real skills to help people make meaningful change in managing mental health issues, especially for those who can’t access other help.