Author: MWP

Pam is a registered Psychologist with areas of expertise in: Anxiety and Depression, managing stress in the workplace, workplace issues, Grief and Loss, Parkinson's Disease, Psychological distress in relation to Ageing and Disability

NDIS Psychology service

Pam has extensive experience working with people living with a disability and their carers. She has worked in various government and not for profit settings before establishing her own practice delivering support to older people and people living with a disability.

Fees – Melbourne West Psychology is currently an approved service provider under NDIS and charges at the scheduled rate.  Reports can be provided at the NDIS scheduled rate.

Legislation policies and guidelines

As a Victorian approved NDIS provider, Melbourne West Psychology ensures that services are provided in compliance with all applicable Victorian and Australian Laws.

Positive psychology

What’s positive psychology all about? Is it about happiness?

Some of the findings of positive psychology seem like common sense.

  • Wealth is only weakly related to happiness both within and across nations, particularly when income is above the poverty level (Diener & Diener, 1996).
  • Activities that make people happy in small doses – such as shopping, good food and making money – do not lead to fulfillment in the long term, indicating that these have quickly diminishing returns (Myers, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000).
  • People who express gratitude on a regular basis have better physical health, optimism, progress toward goals, well-being, and help others more (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000).
  • Trying to maximize happiness can lead to unhappiness (Schwartz et al., 2002).
  • People who witness others perform good deeds experience an emotion called ‘elevation’ and this motivates them to perform their own good deeds (Haidt, 2000).
  • People who are optimistic or happy have better performance in work, school and sports, are less depressed, have fewer physical health problems, and have better relationships with other people.  Further, optimism can be measured and it can be learned (Seligman, 1991; Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, 2005).
  • People who report more positive emotions in young adulthood live longer and healthier lives (Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001).
  • Physicians experiencing positive emotion tend to make more accurate diagnoses (Isen, 1993).
  • Healthy human development can take place under conditions of even great adversity due to a process of resilience that is common and completely ordinary (Masten, 2001).

Positive psychology is not just about happiness nor is it just about thinking positively.  Neither is it new, positive psychology has many distinguished ancestors including Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, who founded Humanistic psychology which emphasises the goals for which people strive their awareness of this striving, and the importance of rational choice in this process.

What would happen to you if you performed small acts of kindness every-day? Performing five kind acts a week, especially all in one day, creates a measurable boost to levels of psychological well-being. Giving not only makes you feel good about yourself, it enhances your connection with others and can bring you positive feedback from others.

(Source:https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu)

Easy steps to bring positive psychology into your life

Positive psychology

What’s positive psychology all about? Is it about happiness?

Some of the findings of positive psychology seem like common sense.

  • Wealth is only weakly related to happiness both within and across nations, particularly when income is above the poverty level (Diener & Diener, 1996).
  • Activities that make people happy in small doses – such as shopping, good food and making money – do not lead to fulfillment in the long term, indicating that these have quickly diminishing returns (Myers, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000).
  • People who express gratitude on a regular basis have better physical health, optimism, progress toward goals, well-being, and help others more (Emmons & Crumpler, 2000).
  • Trying to maximize happiness can lead to unhappiness (Schwartz et al., 2002).
  • People who witness others perform good deeds experience an emotion called ‘elevation’ and this motivates them to perform their own good deeds (Haidt, 2000).
  • People who are optimistic or happy have better performance in work, school and sports, are less depressed, have fewer physical health problems, and have better relationships with other people.  Further, optimism can be measured and it can be learned (Seligman, 1991; Lyubomirsky, King & Diener, 2005).
  • People who report more positive emotions in young adulthood live longer and healthier lives (Danner, Snowdon, & Friesen, 2001).
  • Physicians experiencing positive emotion tend to make more accurate diagnoses (Isen, 1993).
  • Healthy human development can take place under conditions of even great adversity due to a process of resilience that is common and completely ordinary (Masten, 2001).

Positive psychology is not just about happiness nor is it just about thinking positively.  Neither is it new, positive psychology has many distinguished ancestors including Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, who founded Humanistic psychology which emphasises the goals for which people strive their awareness of this striving, and the importance of rational choice in this process.

What would happen to you if you performed small acts of kindness every-day? Performing five kind acts a week, especially all in one day, creates a measurable boost to levels of psychological well-being. Giving not only makes you feel good about yourself, it enhances your connection with others and can bring you positive feedback from others.

(Source:https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu)

Understanding positive psychology

 

Chronic stress enhances cancer spread through lymphatic system – animal study

ABC Science

By Bianca Nogrady

Updated 2 Mar 2016, 7:28amWed 2 Mar 2016, 7:28am

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-02/chronic-stress-enhances-spread-of-cancer-through-lymph-system/7211536

Stress acts as a “fertiliser” for cancer, helping it to spread through the body’s lymphatic system, according to a study on mice.

Key points

  • Stress hormones ramp up lymphatic system, promoting spread of cancer in mice
  • Effect may be blocked by blood pressure drug
  • Trials have started to see if drug can reduce spread of tumours in humans

The research, led by Australian scientists, also showed that a well-known blood pressure drug may reduce the risk of the cancer spreading.

In a paper published today in “Nature Communications”, those scientists report how exposure to chronic stress not only increases the number of lymphatic vessels draining from the tumour, but increase flow in existing vessels.

“So not only do you get new freeways out of the tumour but the speed limit is increased and so the tumour cells can flow out of the tumour much more rapidly,” said one of the study’s authors, Dr Erica Sloan from the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Previous studies have shown that stress hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline can influence blood vessel formation, which is important in the spread of disease.

The lymphatic system — a vital part of the immune system that comprises a network of tubes throughout the body that drains fluid from tissues back into the bloodstream — can also promote the spread of cancer, but whether this can be influenced by stress had been unclear up to now.

“That was one of the key findings of this study, because we can identify that it’s adrenaline acting through particular receptors on cells, and that tells us what drugs we should use to block these pathways,” Dr Sloan said.

This suggests that stress not only affects patient wellbeing but also gets into the body and affects how the tumour progresses.

Dr Erica Sloan

To test this, researchers used a drug called propranolol to block the action of adrenaline in the stressed mice.

A type of drug called a beta-blocker, propranolol has been used widely for nearly half a century to treat blood pressure.

When the stressed mice were treated with the drug, it stopped their stress hormones from remodelling the lymph vessels inside the tumour, and reduced the risk of the cancer spreading through the lymph nodes.

Because propranolol and other beta-blockers are already in widespread use around the world, Dr Sloan and her colleagues looked at data from nearly 1,000 breast cancer patients in Italy to see if any were taking beta-blockers and, if so, whether it showed any effect on their risk of metastases.

“When tracked over about seven years, it turned out that those that had been taking beta-blockers also showed far less evidence of tumour cells moving into the lymph nodes and then disseminating to other organs like the lung, so it provides clinical support for what we see in the mice,” said Dr Sloan.

Pilot study on women with breast cancer

The team are now conducting a pilot study in a group of women with breast cancer to see if treatment with propranolol will reduce their risk of the tumour spreading to other parts of the body.

Dr Sloan said a link between chronic stress and cancer spread — but not new cancer — has now been shown in several studies, particularly in individuals with early stage disease, which highlights an opportunity to reduce both stress and the risk of metastases or secondary tumours.

“Not for a minute are we suggesting that someone who’s just been diagnosed with cancer should not be stressed, because that would have to be one of the most stressful situations,” she said.

“But rather how do we look after cancer patients, because this suggests that stress not only affects patient wellbeing but also gets into the body and affects how the tumour progresses.”

Medical oncologist Associate Professor Elgene Lim, from the Garvan Institute, said the study provided a possible mechanism to explain the observation from many previous studies that stress was associated with poorer outcomes in cancer.

“What also makes this study exciting is the affordability of [possible] interventions,” said Professor Lim, who was not involved in the research.

But, he emphasised, the blood pressure drug needed to be tested in clinical trials to see if it reduced the spread of cancer in humans.

 

 

Sent by APS – Psychologists in Oncology Interest Group – National Committee

 

About Psychology

What problems can I see a psychologist for that Medicare funds?

There are a wide range of issues you can see a psychologist for including:
  • Alcohol use disorder
  • Anxiety disorders
  • Adjustment disorder
  • Bereavement disorder
  • Co-occurring anxiety and depression
  • Depression
  • Panic disorder
  • Sleep problems

For further information click on this link Mental health rebates

What is a mental health plan?

Mental health plans are written by GPs and provide patients to Medicare rebated psychological treatment.  For further information click on this link Fact sheet for patients