Mindfulness counselling in Melbourne

For over a decade I have had numerous parents bring their children into our Melbourne practice for counselling to deal with issues such as poor behaviour, hyper-activity and struggles at school due to their inability to focus. Why is it that every single year the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) gets greater and greater and why is it that the most common presenting issue in relationship counselling is communication breakdown?

One obvious answer to all of this is over-stimulation. I remember many years ago reading some research on a theory called ‘Optimal Stimulation Theory’. I will attempt to explain this for the next paragraph or so without being too clinical and to avoid creating  under-stimulation and then lack of focus or desire to read more. Our Optimum Stimulation level is basically what characterises how we respond to external stimuli. The research explains that we all have an ideal optimum level of how much stimulation we require in order to best be able to focus. However, when the environmental stimulation (often defined by its novelty, complexity and ambiguity) is below our optimum we will attempt to increase our stimulation often taking our attention somewhere else. The attempts to adjust stimulation can be called ‘exploratory behaviour’. I hope I still have you on board…

Now let us think for a moment about the age of technology. As society supposedly advances in ways where we can do so much more (multi-tasking) in much quicker time, we should question what this is doing to our Optimum Stimulation Levels. In other words, socialising, playing a game on our phones, listening to music and doing a daily task all at the same time might be what causes so many to struggle with concentration in other ‘less stimulating’ environments. Studies continuously are telling us that prolonged exposure to rapid image changes during the first years of critical brain development preconditions the mind to expect high levels of stimulation. This, in turn, leads to inattention in later years. They also prove that the more kids watch TV before the age of three, the more likely they are to have attention problems in school.

It is therefore no wonder that the school classroom environment or a casual conversation with your partner is never going to match the stimulation being received as compared to so many other areas of our lives. This will only cause the person who is meant to be focussing, to consciously or unconsciously seek out higher levels of stimulation and hinder ones capacity to actually concentrate or listen. Is it any wonder then that as I write this article as I sit in a café, I can see many parents handing over their phones or iPads to their children to calm them down and keep them entertained. Imagine the playing up of behaviour if our children were to focus on the wonderful food they were eating or conversing with the family and friends around them at the table.

The irony of this all is that in my counselling sessions with clients with depression, anxiety, stress and the like, one of the greatest difficulties discussed is their inability to stay present in the moment as opposed to having an overactive mind that drifts everywhere else rather than the here and now.

While this article does not negate the existence of learning disabilities or ADHD for that matter, it does suggest that perhaps there is a real problem on the rise that we may be able to address. So what can you do to help your overstimulated self or your children?

• Embrace the practice of mindfulness and living in the moment
• Attempt to have family meals with the focus being on the food and conversation minus the technology
• Engage in more exercise and outdoor or board game type activities, as opposed to excessively over-stimulating technology-based activities
• Encourage more reading
• Introduce practices such as yoga and meditation within the family.

If we can at least get ourselves and our family members to become less dependent on over-stimulation, not only will we be able to find different aspects of life much easier but we may actually experience the most simple things in life in ways we could never possibly imagine.

If you would like to learn more about mindfulness, please contact our Melbourne psychologists.