Self-help training
Self-help training is the practice of solving one's problems by joining or forming a group designed to help those with a particular problem. In contemporary parlance, the term self-help is associated with actions and interventions that a person can take on their own or with guided literature, as opposed to working with a clinician. Self-help can help you think about your goals with a big picture view. It encourages you to, for example, outline your short-term and long-term goals, and whether they are realistic and achievable. Self-help can also help you be more systematic in the way you approach the changes you want to see. For starters, making a list of the benefits of achieving your goals can be motivational, and setting a timeframe for meeting both short-term and long-term goals helps, too.
Self-help involves:
Accessing your inner strengths and skills to build resilience
Self-education around your brain, body, thoughts, emotions and behaviours
Trying new ways of thinking or behaving, to cause positive life changes
Self-help is all about positive change. Our brain has ‘established neural pathways’ (emotions, thoughts and behaviours we use all the time). These are mostly automatic and are our ‘default’ setting. You can apply self-help to any aspect of your life – sports, religion/spirituality, life skills, managing your emotions, changing behaviours or habits, and many more! You can self-help in lots of different ways. Reading a book, watching a ‘how-to’ video on YouTube, and even reading Kids Helpline website articles is a form of self-help! For example, recent research during the Covid-19 pandemic suggested that a self-help intervention was successful in reducing the symptoms of anxiety in university students by helping them to monitor their emotions and manage stress.
Kidshelpline. (2020). What is self-help? Retrieved from: https://surl.li/vpslrb.
Town, R., Hayes, D., March, A., Fonagy, P., & Stapley, E. (2023). Self-management, self-care, and self-help in adolescents with emotional problems: a scoping review. PMC. Retrieved from: https://surl.li/xbgzhm.
Psychology Today. (n.d.). Self-help. Psychology today. Retrieved from:https://surl.li/iegdju.
Collins Dictionary (n.d.). Self-Help. Retrieved from:https://surl.li/whrfxx.