BRONTE SPICER spent 20 years searching for ways to sit with depression and found that one way was within her the whole time.
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The Bendigo teacher and mindfulness mentor will talk about what when she launches her new book It's Okay to Cry - The Gentle Way to Dissolving Depression on Saturday.
"These are tools that do work and what I offer is a body-based approach to improving mental health," she said.
"So it's a little bit different to a lot of the tools that are out there and it's all backed by the latest neuroscience on trauma, the body and the brain."
Ms Spicer spent two decades trying every option available to treat depression including talk therapy with psychologists.
She found many strategies useful but also came across advanced mindfulness techniques that she described as helping her "feel her feelings within my body".
"You're learning to feel safe with the intense emotional reactions that you have in your body," Ms Spicer said.
"They are derived from your nervous system."
Ms Spicer said that in some ways people had lost their understanding of how to be in their body.
"We often have negative thoughts that go with physiological responses," she said.
"We think that it's our thoughts that need changing but what I found was that learning how to feel safe with reactions of my body was how my depression dissolved."
Ms Spicer's book includes practical steps to taking the body-based approach and shares some of her own experiences of what has worked for her.
Parents and teachers can also use the book to help young people and friends on their mental health journey.
"The rates in which our children are experiencing serious mental health challenges are confronting," she said.
"With the challenges of the pandemic, they need explicit instruction for resilience, mental health and wellbeing."
Saturday's launch will take place at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion at 3pm.
"We will hold it in the Peace Park", she said, referring to grounds set aside for people of different faiths to find and celebrate harmony.
"So it's a perfect place to do it."
She encouraged anyone who would like to come to the launch or purchase a copy to head to www.brontespicer.com
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