Wellbeing
As the national university, we support communities to flourish through transformational research and education. Our research in psychological science helps advance the understanding of human motivation, experience and behaviour, and how these insights can be applied to improve people's lives.
These resources have been developed by the Culture and Wellbeing Team, led by Associate Dean and Clinical Psychologist, Bruce Christensen. They provide evidence-based approaches and offer practical tips and exercises to support wellbeing and mental health.
Our university supports student success. Here you will find a number of initiatives, programs and resources that will support your physical, social, spiritual and mental health to help you to maintain a healthy lifestyle during your studies. Explore further information on helping our students to stay safe and secure on campus.
Resources
Resource
Webinar: Socioemotional tools for maintaining mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic
Strategies to help individuals and families, including how to stay emotionally well, foster connections with others and incorporate play.
Resource
Webinar: The impact of information (and misinformation) on mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic
A practical look at how we consume information, ways we can manage misinformation and explore the associated links between general wellbeing and mental health.
Resource
Mind Seeds Video: Thinking flexibly
Questions we can ask ourselves to help break out of a negative thinking trap.
Resource
Mind Seeds Video: Practicing mindfulness using the five senses
The ‘five sense’ mindfulness activity that can help us be present in the moment using sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.
Pages
Stories
Research story
How group therapy can help reduce social anxiety
People are keen to go to therapy but it can be really difficult to get them in the door. Alysia Robertson wants to make it easier.
News
JCSMR researchers sing to a different tune
The magic of song is helping a group of ANU College of Health and Medicine academics escape the demands of research.
News
Keeping things simple earns ANU researcher top award
Tom Gibbs found a passion interacting with patients one on one, breaking down pathologies in Leyman's terms and bringing them a degree of comfort.
News
Mind Seeds helping communities to flourish
The Mind Seeds program is flourishing with a series of animated videos to help people think flexibly, and to practice self-compassion and mindfulness.
Media release
New mental health treatment withstands lockdown isolation
Experts say a new treatment option for young people with depression and loneliness is showing promising benefits, especially during COVID-19 lockdowns.
News
Insights from young people are key to designing engaging mental health services
ANU Researchers are involving young people with a lived experience of mental ill-health in an effort to ensure more meaningful engagement with mental health services.
Analysis and opinion
Feeling the winter blues? You’re not alone
A combination of reduced sunlight and colder temperatures can lead most of us into a winter hibernation. And whilst that is great for bears, it is not so great for humans.
News
Planting seeds for better mental health with new podcast series
Can you learn to manage stress and uncertainty? Absolutely – according to Bruce Christensen, Associate Dean for Culture and Wellbeing.
News
Social singing lifts dementia blues
A therapeutic music outreach program is improving the mental health and wellbeing of people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
Analysis and opinion
‘I think I might be struggling’: how an eating disorder took over Rosemary’s life
Young Canberra Citizen of the Year, Rosemary Clifford, shares with us her mental health journey.