● Access + Inclusions

Mental Health Resources

Workshops at Shopfront are delivered by experienced arts facilitators, many of whom are trained in Youth Mental Health First Aid. We aim to create a safe environment to improve mental health and well-being for participants aged 8-26 through creative expression and exploration.

Our venue offers break out rooms and quiet spaces during workshop hours, ensuring our members have somewhere to go if they need a little time out.

Shopfront’s Commitment

● Mental Health First Aid Accredited

Many of our Shopfront staff are accredited Youth Mental Health First Aiders, and are available for you to talk to. Youth Mental Health First Aid accreditation is not professional mental health care, but we are equipped and willing to provide you with all the tools to access help if you need it, as well as be a compassionate listener if you want to talk.

● Resources

At Shopfront we care about the mental health and well-being of our members and our wider community.

CHAT TO A PROFESSIONAL OR READ UP

Reach Out is an organisation that supports youth mental health completely online. They have forums (that are moderated by professionals) where young people can chat to each other about what they’re going through, whether it be mental health, hobbies or the stress of being in year 12 etc.

Twenty10 is a youth org who specifically supports LGBTQIA+ young people: LGBTIQA Webchat – Online Counselling – Qlife

Headspace has some great articles with information about how to deal with many different emotions and situations. You can filter by concern and you’ll get information relevant to you. For young people – In category Life issues

If you have a medicare card then all of headspace’s services are completely free! Hurstville | Youth Mental Health Centre & Services.

APPS

Practice your daily meditation and mindfulness exercises from any device.

Smiling Mind is a unique tool developed by psychologists and educators to help bring balance to your life. Smiling Mind App

Calm is a guided meditation app to help reduce stress and enhance wellbeing. The 7-step program teaches you how to meditate, with adjustable nature scenes and relaxing music tracks. Sessions range from 2 to 30 minutes on the topics of focus, creativity, energy, confidence, sleep and more Calm – The #1 App for Meditation and Sleep

EXERCISES

Controlled Breathing

The following steps should all be carried out in the cycle of one breath:

First, let your lips part. Make a whooshing sound, exhaling completely through your mouth.

  1. Next, close your lips, inhaling silently through your nose as you count to four in your head.

  2. Then, for two seconds, hold your breath.

  3. Make another whooshing exhale from your mouth for five seconds.

It’s best to start small with only four breaths this way and work your way up to eight. You can do this at any time, you don’t need to be already feeling anxious!

5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique for Anxiety By: Sara Smith, BSW

Before starting this exercise, pay attention to your breathing. Slow, deep, long breaths can help you maintain a sense of calm or help you return to a calmer state. Once you find your breath, go through the following steps to help ground yourself:

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you see around you. It could be a pen, a spot on the ceiling, anything in your surroundings.
4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can touch around you. It could be your hair, a pillow, or the ground under your feet.
3: Acknowledge THREE things you hear. This could be any external sound. If you can hear your belly rumbling that counts! Focus on things you can hear outside of your body.
2: Acknowledge TWO things you can smell. Maybe you are at school and smell a pencil, or maybe you are in your bedroom and smell a pillow. If you need to take a brief walk to find a scent you could smell soap in your bathroom, or nature outside.
1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can taste. What does the inside of your mouth taste like—gum, coffee, or the sandwich from lunch?