
This course has been written and developed by Ashley Gilmour. She is a fully-qualified Clinical Psychologist and has had over 15,000 hours experience working directly with clients to help with their range of mental health and wellbeing needs. Ashley is passionate about helping people to heal and empower themselves on their journey to wellbeing.
This is a self-help course for depression, whether your mental health provider has advised you are experiencing a clinical depression (i.e., a Major Depressive Episode) or you know you just have some nagging depression symptoms that you want to resolve or learn how to better manage. This course consists of 6 modules that will walk you through helping you to better understand and identify depression including what can typically cause depression, as well as teach you many different strategies that may help you to more effectively manage and overcome symptoms of depression. These strategies range from helping you to:
Each module is designed to be completed over one week each, however this is a self-paced course so you are welcomed to take more than one week for each module as you require. The important thing is not how quick you finish the course, but making sure that you keep working through the modules to completion. This course also includes several worksheets, audios of guided exercises such as breathing techniques, mindfulness exercises, and sleep meditations, in addition to informational videos about depression and overcoming depression. There are also quizzes to assess various aspects of your depression which will be measured over various time points throughout the course so that you can see your improvements or progress as you work through the course modules. So as you can see, this is quite a comprehensive course in helping you or a loved one to work through and improve your depression.
Who this course is for?
This course is suitable for those who
• Those whom have been experiencing depressive symptoms and want to learn more about depression and overcoming depression, or those whom want such information to learn how to help a loved one with depression
• Have an open mind to improving the way they feel through making inner and lifestyle and behavioural changes
• Are aged 14+ years
• Any gender
Requirements:
This course involves the following requirements
• An average of approx. 20-60 minutes daily
• Daily access to MindFit Lab via any form of device
• A printer (optional)
Disclaimer: This Overcoming Depression course and all other courses provided by MindFit Lab is not a psychological service. Courses of MindFit Lab are for educational and entertainment purposes only. Whilst this Overcoming Depression course may benefit some people's mental health and or wellbeing, MindFit Lab cannot determine that this course will necessarily benefit and/or be safe for your mental health or wellbeing. This course or any other courses or resources provided by MindFit Lab have their limitations and are not a substitute for direct individual or personalised mental health services, including those provided by a Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist, Psychiatrist, General Practitioner, or any other mental health professional. If you have any concerns about the impact of this course on your wellbeing in anyway, it is your responsibility to directly consult with a registered qualified mental health professional to obtain personalised advice about whether this course or any other courses or resources of MindFit Lab are appropriate to your presentation and needs. Read our full Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy before purchasing this course or using our resources.
This test assesses various symptoms of clinical depression. It will give you an indication if you are experiencing any symptoms of depression and if so, to what severity, as well as provide you with some recommended courses of action from here. Important note: This test cannot provide you a formal diagnosis of depression and is not a substitute for seeing a Clinical Psychologist or Psychiatrist for diagnostic assessment and treatment.
This PDF worksheet allows you to identify which symptoms of depression you are currently experiencing. Print it off and place a tick next to each symptom that you have been experiencing. You are welcome to print this worksheet off again and repeat it at any time to see how your number of symptoms change.
The Nutrition Diary is a PDF document. Print this out and complete for each day's nutrition intake of both food and beverages. Include what type of food you ate and the amount of it. Also include what your overall mood was that day and the intensity of that mood out of 10 where 0=not at all and 10=very much (e.g., depressed), and then add in any relevant comments relating to your food intake of either eating not enough, eating too much, or eating certain types of foods.
Instructions: the Sleep Chart is a PDF document. Print this out and complete this every morning about your sleep you had the night before. You are welcome to complete this sleep chart for as long as you wish; just print as many of these sleep charts as you need to keep going. Use the information from this sleep chart to look at where you can improve your sleep habits to improve your overall sleep quality and sleep quantity.
Below is a worksheet for you to complete about what your wellbeing goals are for your depression. This might be something you have not yet thought much about, so now is a good time to print off this PDF and have a think about what you would like to achieve in terms of wellness and write this down. Having wellbeing goals is important because they help to give you direction and keep you focused on why you're doing this course in the first place.
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Instructions: have a read through the Worksheet “16 Good Sleep Habits” and take note of the ones that you do not practice and thus would be good for you to implement. You can circle these that apply to you. Start by picking 1-3 to implement initially, and then once these become more of your usual habit, pick a few more to implement until you have them all down pat. You should start to see an improvement with your sleep within days of starting to implement these, especially if you kickstart with some meditation and breathing practice of an evening!
Below is the PDF and mp3 files for the Mindfulness of the Five Senses guided meditation. You are welcome to listen to the mp3 file within the browser, or download it onto your device to listen to it at any time you wish (downloading it is recommended).
Below is the PDF and mp3 files for the Observing Thoughts Floating By guided meditation. You are welcome to listen to the mp3 file within the browser, or download it onto your device to listen to it at any time you wish (downloading it is recommended).
Below is the PDF and mp3 files for the Observing the Breath guided meditation. You are welcome to listen to the mp3 file within the browser, or download it onto your device to listen to it at any time you wish (downloading it is recommended).
Below is the PDF and mp3 files for the Observing the Body guided meditation. You are welcome to listen to the mp3 file within the browser, or download it onto your device to listen to it at any time you wish (downloading it is recommended).
Below is the PDF and mp3 files for the Observing Your Emotions guided meditation. You are welcome to listen to the mp3 file within the browser, or download it onto your device to listen to it at any time you wish (downloading it is recommended).
This test assesses various symptoms of clinical depression. It will give you an indication if you are experiencing any symptoms of depression and if so, to what severity, as well as provide you with some recommended courses of action from here. Important note: This test cannot provide you a formal diagnosis of depression and is not a substitute for seeing a Clinical Psychologist or Psychiatrist for diagnostic assessment and treatment.
Open the attached PDF worksheet titled Negative Thoughts Record Form and print off a few copies for you to complete. Start to practice awareness of what negative thoughts go through your mind as explained in Module 4, and record these negative thoughts down onto the worksheet. Record the thoughts and emotions that you experienced, the intensity of the emotions out of 10 (0=not at all intense, 10=very intense), and also write down the physical feelings you felt in your body with those emotions, and your behavioural response you did as a result of thinking and feeling that way. Then have a think about what the triggering situation was that triggered you to think and feel the way you're feeling in that moment. Once completed this, then refer to the Thinking Traps worksheet and pick which thinking traps apply to your negative thoughts. It would be good to try and complete 5-10 instances of having negative thoughts and feelings being triggered. Then review these entries you've recorded and see if there is a pattern to how you're thinking and feeling. Are there any particular themes of negative thinking such as feeling not good enough, not worthy, or worrying that something bad will happen? And is there any themes of which types of thinking traps you tend to engage in?
Print off this PDF of Thinking Traps; a list of unhelpful thinking styles that we can get ourselves into which cause emotional distress such as feeling, anxious, stressed and depressed. As you become aware of your thoughts, take note of which thinking traps that you tend to engage in, and these will be the ones that would be helpful for you to work on reframing to more helpful perspectives.
Open this PDF worksheet attached and you will find the Challenging Negative Thoughts form. Print off a few copies of this worksheet for your practice, because here we are going to challenge and reframe negative thoughts you have been experiencing in a step-by-step process as outlined in the worksheet.
This questionnaire asks you various questions about your lifestyle habits and how often you engage in various behaviours. Read each question and rate from Never to Always how often you have been engaging in each activity over the past one month.
Instructions: the Sleep Chart is a PDF document. Print this out and complete this every morning about your sleep you had the night before. You are welcome to complete this sleep chart for as long as you wish; just print as many of these sleep charts as you need to keep going. Use the information from this sleep chart to look at where you can improve your sleep habits to improve your overall sleep quality and sleep quantity.
This test assesses various symptoms of clinical depression. It will give you an indication if you are experiencing any symptoms of depression and if so, to what severity, as well as provide you with some recommended courses of action from here. Important note: This test cannot provide you a formal diagnosis of depression and is not a substitute for seeing a Clinical Psychologist or Psychiatrist for diagnostic assessment and treatment.