2020 Recap: The Skill Collective’s year in review

By Joyce Chong

Goodbye 2020…we’re glad to see you go! It’s been a big year for the world, with bushfires, elections, Black Lives Matter , and this little thing called Covid-19 which changed the world as we knew it. Bring on 2021!

Thank you for your support in 2020! We close on Wednesday 23rd December and re-open on Thursday 7th January 2020, and while our clinic is closed you can always visit us online at our Blog, or Resource Library for tips for better wellbeing, mental health, and performance. And, of course, we’ll still be active on Instagram and Facebook so catch up with us there!

In the meantime, here’s a roundup of what The Skill Collective was up to in 2020. Here’s the brief scoop, but you can scroll down to learn more.

• We launched SPEAKING VOLUMES, our intensive course to help Public Speaking Anxiety.

• We added even more tip sheets to our RESOURCE LIBRARY on wellbeing, mental health, and performance

• We added to our BLOG with a series of posts on Coping with Coronavirus, trauma, grief, and stigma.

• Oh, and we added not one but TWO guides for students - the GUIDE TO STUDENT SUCCESS and the STUDENT LIFE IN CORONAVIRUS GUIDE (to help studying during a global pandemic!).

• Our team expanded, and we offered telehealth appointments as well as ONLINE BOOKINGS.

Scroll down for the details.

SPEAKING VOLUMES

Speaking Volumes, our public speaking anxiety course, launched this year as a one-on-one, six-session short course to kick start working on this common fear. Given how often public speaking features in our lives – speaking up in class and meetings, presenting projects, wedding and birthday speeches, etc. – it’s helpful to get on top of these nerves.

RESOURCE LIBRARY OF TIP SHEETS ON WELLBEING, MENTAL HEALTH, AND PERFORMANCE

This year we’ve added the following tip sheets to our already bursting Resource Library:

• Coping with Coronavirus Anxiety

• 6 Signs you’re stuck in Grief

• Tips for coping with Trauma

GUIDES FOR STUDENTS

This year our Guides were focused on helping students, because we love helping students boost their performance whilst staying psychologically well.

We launched the Student Guide to Success, which is designed to complement our other student resources. This resource is particularly suited to university and college students, or senior high school students planning on entering the workforce. It looks at Planning a path for success in studies and beyond, Essential skills to build in life, and our Go-To resource list. It’s a great complement to Nimble Noodle, which is our online study skills and exam anxiety program.

With Covid-19 we also released the Student Life in Coronavirus Times (with thanks to Nimble Noodle), which looked at tips to help maintain wellbeing and progress during some really challenging times.

BLOG

2020 was a big year here at The Skill Collective, with some very Coronavirus-centric reads added to our Blog:

• Adjusting to change: Why it’s hard (and how to tell when you’re not coping)

• Stuck in Grief? What to do when you can’t move on.

• Coping with coronavirus: Tips to look after your mental health during a pandemic

• Student life in the time of coronavirus: How to stay on track with studies during lockdown

• Stay social whilst social distancing: How to remain connected iso-style

• Finding the feel good factor: How Positive Psychology can help in coronavirus times

• The New Normal: How life has changed due to Covid-19 (and tips to help you cope) (this is the little blog post that could; our GOAT post).

• Hitting reset on 2020: How will your life look post Covid-19?

• How to cope with Trauma after a distressing event

• Breaking up is hard to do: Stages of relationship grief

• About stigma (and why you don’t need to suffer from mental health issues to see a psychologist)

• 5 Amazing Men’s Health Resources

• PERMA: The ingredients for Resilience + Wellbeing

You can read more about them by clicking on the individual links above, or hit the button below to get taken to the blog.

OUR CLINIC + TEAM

This year saw Dr Tara Yewers join our clinical team, bringing her experience and interest in the areas of trauma/PTSD, low self-esteem, ADHD, adjustment, alcohol misuse, anxiety, and depression. And on the admin team Michelle joined us as our Practice manager and Olivia as our Administrative Assistant. Somewhere in between, we also had Caitlin Reddyhough move from the admin team to the clinical team, before heading on to work in the public sector. And we welcomed our second The Skill Collective baby to our team!

There were also changes to our Clinic in 2020, we added Online Bookings (finally!) and Telehealth appointments are now available too! We’re honoured to be in a position to support the wellbeing of our clients through some challenging times this year.

WHAT’S AHEAD IN 2021?

We’re thankful to be able to pause after the challenging year that was 2021. But rest assured, we’ll continue to add even more resources. Keep checking our socials (@theskillcollective) to stay up to date!

See you in 2021!

From the team at The Skill Collective, wishing you a happy and safe festive season!