December 2025 Edition

Daniel Page
Dec 17, 2025
16 min read

animation-seeking-to-answer-your-questions-regarding-mental-health

Hello!

Welcome to the final edition of Psyche Insights for the year. As we approach the end of 2025, we offer you space to reflect, reset, and refocus. Whether you celebrated a milestone year or were simply glad to see it finish, this issue is full of tools to help you pause meaningfully, cope gently, and plan wisely for the coming year.

Now, as we move into 2026, let’s look ahead with intention and fresh perspective, using what we’ve learned to shape what comes next.

This Edition's Highlights:

Step-by-step practical tools to help you pause at year-end, reflect meaningfully on your experiences, and conduct a thorough self-assessment for personal and professional development
A closer look at our expanded TouchPoint Sessions, now covering more psychological topics, and our custom offerings tailored to organisational needs using real-time assessment data
The launch of the Psyche AI Companion: how this innovative tool is already transforming personalised mental health support and empowering users with tailored insights and guidance
Psyche: Mental Health now available on tablet and web, making it easier than ever to access supportive tools, track well-being, and stay connected wherever you are
International impact: A spotlight on the LifeMatters program in Belgium, featuring a successful two-day Train-the-Trainer event at Queen Fabiola Children's University Hospital and its influence on child and family mental health services
A roundup of this year’s most popular expert webinars and resources, including key takeaways and on-demand access for your continued learning
Comprehensive, step-by-step guidance on setting effective and achievable goals for the new year, including the latest exercises and frameworks inside the Psyche app

Before we dive into what’s next, let’s take a moment to look back.

If you’re stepping into 2026 with a team to support or clients to guide, we’ve also made it easier to explore what that support could look like.

Start 2026 with a stronger, healthier team. If you want practical, evidence-based mental health support that fits real workplace pressures, we’d love to help. Book a short discovery call to explore Psyche: Mental Health, our expanded TouchPoint menu, and custom sessions shaped by your team’s real-time needs.

Support your clients through the holiday stretch and into the new year. If you want structured tools for check-ins, skill-building, and goal setting that extend care between sessions, let’s chat. Book a quick call and we’ll show you how Psyche can strengthen your client work and help you start 2026 with clarity and momentum.

Reflecting & Concluding the Year

When life moves fast, we rarely get a clean moment to ask, “How am I really doing, and what do I actually need next?” The end of the year creates a natural pause point, but it can also stir guilt, pressure, or the sense that you should have done more. This section is here to turn reflection into something kind, grounded, and useful, so you can carry what worked, release what didn’t, and enter the new year with more clarity than self-criticism. With that in mind, this time of year offers a powerful opportunity to reflect, not only on what went right, but also on what felt hard, unfinished, or surprising.

Stay present with these reflections, rather than getting stuck in worry about the past or future. By paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and body sensations in the moment, you can reduce mental noise and create space for calm, honest insight as the year ends.

As you look back, treat yourself with the same kindness you’d offer a friend. Instead of judging yourself for what didn’t happen, you can acknowledge effort, imperfection, and growth with a softer inner voice.

If this year has felt particularly demanding, notice how stress and rest have shown up across your life - your mood, focus, relationships, and body - and guide you towards small changes that support recovery and balance.

Not sure where to start? You can use the Psyche Scale alongside these skills as a light, non-judgemental “mental health report card” on areas like mood, stress, connection, and energy.

A quick check-in can highlight where you’re doing better than you think - and where a little extra care could help you move into the new year feeling more grounded and supported.

TouchPoint Expansions – More Topics. More Tailored Support.

Workplace mental health support is often either too generic to matter or too complex to implement. Teams are dealing with real strain, from burnout to focus and performance challenges, and they need practical, evidence-based sessions that meet them where they are. Our expanded TouchPoint menu and new custom options are designed to make support more relevant, more timely, and easier to align with real organisational needs. TouchPoint Sessions are evolving and we’re excited to share what’s new.

In 2025, we expanded our live, expert-led group sessions to cover an even broader range of psychological topics. Whether you're looking to improve sleep, tackle procrastination, or strengthen team performance, our latest offerings are built to meet the real needs of modern workplaces.

New topics include:

Assertiveness
Authentic Living
Burnout
Commitment
Concentration
Habit Tracking
Happiness
Mindfulness
Performance
Procrastination
Sleep

We also launched TouchPoint Custom, unique sessions designed using data from your organisation’s Psyche: Mental Health assessments. This means your team gets exactly what it needs, when it needs it.

Need something unique? Request a tailored TouchPoint Custom Session now.

Psyche AI Companion – Mental Health Meets Innovation

Personalised mental health support is something many people want, but it is often hard to access consistently and in the moment. When stress spikes or motivation dips, it’s hard to know what to focus on, which skill fits, or how to make progress feel manageable. The goal has been to remove that friction and help users move from insight to action with clarity and care. The Psyche AI Companion was released and it’s changing the game for personalised mental health support.

You asked. We built it.

Integrated directly into the Psyche: Mental Health app, the AI Companion helps you:

🧠 Measure your well-being using the Psyche Scale

📚 Learn psychological skills tailored to your current needs

🎯 Set structured goals with helpful nudges

📓 Reflect through AI-assisted journaling

💬 Explore your mental health journey in your own words and time

Whether you use the app alone, in therapy, or with others, Psyche AI adapts to your needs, without pressure or judgment.

Open the app and start using your AI Companion now.

Want to see how Psyche AI can support your team or practice? Click here to book a discovery call or explore how our tools can transform your approach to mental health.

App & Web Access – Now Available Everywhere You Are

When support only lives on one device or one format, even the best intentions can fade under real-life time pressure. This update is about making our tools easier to reach in the moments you actually need them, at work, at home, or while travelling. Mental health support should fit your lifestyle, not the other way around.

We’re proud to announce that Psyche: Mental Health is now available on:

Tablet – A sleek, touch-friendly experience with bigger visuals and smoother navigation
Web – Full access to your favourite tools, directly in your browser. No downloads, no barriers.

Whether you’re checking in from your desk, on your commute, or curled up on the couch, the Psyche experience is now just a tap - or a click - away.

Download the iPad or Android tablet app now for seamless mental health support anywhere.

Access Psyche instantly through your browser - start here, no download required.

🌍 Mental health, anytime, anywhere.

LifeMatters in Belgium – A Global Mission in Action

When evidence-based tools can be taught across disciplines and still feel practical, something is working. Child and family teams need frameworks that are structured, human, and easy to integrate into real-world service delivery. LifeMatters continues to grow because it meets that need with skills that translate beyond borders and professional silos.

In November, Dr Daniel Page travelled to Belgium to deliver a two-day LifeMatters Train-the-Trainer programme at Queen Fabiola Children's University Hospital in Brussels.

Over the weekend, a passionate multidisciplinary team - paediatricians, psychologists, dietitians, physiotherapists, endocrinologists and more - came together to explore LifeMatters, the psychological skills framework rooted in Daniel’s PhD research from the University of Queensland.

LifeMatters blends CBT, sport psychology, and positive psychology to deliver accessible, evidence-based psychological skills that can be used across disciplines. The energy in the room was electric, and the feedback was deeply moving. Many participants plan to integrate the tools into their daily practice with children and families.

A heartfelt thank you to Kawthar for her vision, Cécile and family for their hospitality, and the entire hospital team for their dedication to young people’s mental well-being.

Want LifeMatters at your site?

A Year of Experts

The mental health landscape is changing quickly, and staying current can feel like a job in itself. Professionals and organisations need learning that cuts through the noise and delivers practical takeaways grounded in real context. This roundup is here to help you revisit the sessions that resonated most this year, and to make it easier to share high-quality resources with your teams and communities.

Adolescents in Crisis: Trauma Across Contexts

In October, we hosted the webinar "Adolescents in Crisis: Trauma Across Contexts" as part of Mental Health Month. Daniel Thomas Page and Clinical Psychologist Wiehan Basson led a powerful conversation that went beyond clichés and focused on what truly works to nurture adolescent well-being in a turbulent world. The session featured clear science, lived context, and real take-home interventions for professionals, educators, and anyone supporting young people.

Catch up on this impactful session - watch the October webinar recording now and share it with colleagues committed to youth mental health.

From Awareness to Action: Suicide and Support Systems

In September, Antoinette Maluka and Dr Daniel Page delivered a vital webinar exploring how communities in South Africa can better respond to suicide through awareness, education, and effective linkage to services. The session unpacked the importance of early intervention, the barriers to mental health education, and practical strategies for connecting people to the support they need.

If you missed it, take action - watch the September webinar and learn how you can make a difference in your community.

Beyond the Hour: Extending Care Between Sessions

Claire van Dyk and Dr Daniel Thomas Page hosted a practitioner-focused discussion on extending care beyond the therapy session. They shared insights on how Psyche: Mental Health can complement therapy, offering evidence-based support for both clients and clinicians between sessions. The conversation centred on balancing structured support with genuine human connection and building a community of growth-minded practitioners.

Watch the recording to discover actionable ways to support clients between sessions and strengthen your practice.

Health Tech Tools: Fad or Future for Practitioners?

With Dr Kieran McLeod and Dr Daniel Page, our webinar "Health Tech Tools: Fad or Future for Practitioners?" examined how technology can empower mental health professionals without replacing them. The discussion covered reducing burnout, boosting client engagement, and the importance of privacy, ethics, and clinical evidence in health tech.

Don’t miss this essential conversation - revisit the webinar and equip yourself for the future of mental health practice.

Science of Support: The Guide to Psychological Skills

In June, Dr Daniel Balva and Dr Daniel Page presented "Science of Support: The Guide to Psychological Skills." This session equipped mental health professionals with evidence-based tools and practical teaching methods to enhance client care and personal well-being.

Watch on demand to deepen your understanding of psychological skills and transform your support approach.

Better Support for Clients, Smarter Tools for Practitioners

May’s webinar, led by Dr Daniel Page, tackled real-world challenges and digital solutions for mental health professionals. The session shared findings from our practitioner survey and practical strategies to boost engagement, support clients, and maximise your impact.

See what innovation looks like in action - catch up on the May webinar and bring new ideas to your practice.

Mental Health Literacy: Global Experts

We convened leading researchers and trainers from South Africa, Belgium, and Slovenia for a truly global conversation on Mental Health Literacy (MHL). This webinar revealed why MHL matters, shared strategies to reduce stigma, and offered actionable tips to embed mental health support across sports, workplaces, and education.

Watch the global experts webinar to learn how you can champion mental health literacy in your setting.

Well-Being at Work: NPO Focus

In April, Dr Daniel Page, Chadley Muller, and Taryn Rae joined forces for a panel on mental well-being in the nonprofit space. The session explored how NPO staff, volunteers, and communities can reduce burnout, foster supportive environments, and build organisations that thrive.

Make a difference in your organisation - watch the April recording and bring wellness strategies to your team.

New Year, New Goals

To kick off the year, Dr Daniel Page and Dylan Benyon hosted a practical goal-setting webinar for 2025. Participants learned how to create SMART goals, stay motivated, and use psychological insights to build lasting habits for personal and professional growth.

Start your journey anytime - watch the goal-setting webinar to launch your year with clarity and purpose.

Psyche Skills

Most people are not short on intention. They are short on simple tools they can repeat when life gets busy. Skills that are clear, practical, and grounded in real behaviour change make the difference between knowing what helps and actually doing it. That is why we keep expanding and refining the Psyche skills library across all eight domains.

This year, we continued to grow our library of psychological skills and deepen the tools that support your daily life. Each one is designed to help you build small, repeatable habits that support your well-being across the eight Psyche domains - connection, flourish, focus, mastery, mood, peace, physical, and resilience.

Activation Control: Managing your energy level (feeling “too flat” or “too wired”) so you can adjust up or down for different situations and perform closer to your best.
Active Listening: Fully paying attention when someone speaks—focusing on their words and meaning and “throwing the ball back” with thoughtful responses to show you understand and care.
Anger Management Skill: Understanding what you feel when you’re angry and practising healthier ways to manage and express anger so it doesn’t harm you or your relationships.
Authentic Living: Being true to yourself by understanding who you are, what you value, and where you want to grow, so you can live in a way that feels more confident and meaningful.
Burnout Skill: Recognising burnout as more than “just being tired” – it’s deep physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion – and understanding what causes it so you can start addressing it.
Concentration Skill: Strengthening your ability to focus your “mental flashlight” on what matters, so you can think clearly, complete tasks more efficiently, and feel more in control.
Conflict Resolution: Finding helpful and peaceful ways to handle disagreements by understanding needs, listening, and working towards solutions that bring people “to the bridge in the middle”.
Empathy Skill: Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, understanding how they might feel, and responding with care to strengthen trust and relationships.
Goal Setting: Planning for your future by setting clear goals and breaking them into smaller steps, making it easier to stay motivated and move towards what matters to you.
Happiness Skill: Building lasting happiness by doing things you enjoy, nurturing relationships, and developing a more positive mindset beyond quick bursts of pleasure.
Help-Seeking: Learning to reach out to others for support, information, or guidance, and seeing help-seeking as a strength that strengthens connection and opens up new options.
Identifying Thinking Traps: Spotting common unhelpful thinking patterns where your mind “tricks” you into unbalanced views, so you can recognise and start to step out of those traps.
Learned Optimism: Training your brain to notice what can go well (not just what can go wrong), using a more hopeful, realistic thinking style that can be learned and practised.
Managing Procrastination Skill: Understanding why you put things off (often to avoid discomfort, not because you’re “lazy”) and learning simple strategies to start tasks and keep going.
Mindful Eating: Paying attention to what, how, and why you eat so you can enjoy food more, listen to your body’s signals, and build a kinder, healthier relationship with food.
Mindfulness Skill: Paying attention on purpose to your thoughts, feelings, and body sensations in the present moment, helping you reduce worry, calm your mind, and refocus.
Movement & Exercise: Using physical activity (from sports to walking or dancing) to support both physical health and mental well-being, including mood, confidence, and resilience.
PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation): Tensing and relaxing different muscle groups to release physical tension and help your body and mind let go of stress.
Self-Compassion: Treating yourself with the same kindness and understanding you’d offer a friend, especially when you make mistakes, and using simple steps to be less harsh on yourself.
Self-Reflection Skill: “Taking a selfie for your mind” by checking in with your thoughts and feelings so you can better understand yourself, your patterns, and how you relate to others.
Sleep Habits: Creating routines and an environment that help you fall asleep and stay asleep more easily, supporting your energy, mood, focus, and physical health.
Stress Management: Understanding healthy vs unhealthy stress and using practical strategies to reduce the negative impact of long-term stress on your mind and body so you can cope better under pressure.
Suicide Spotting: Noticing when someone might be in emotional pain (even if they don’t say it directly), recognising warning signs, trusting your gut, and taking caring action to get them support.
Time Management Skill: Planning how you use your time, protecting it from distractions, and adjusting to challenges so you can get important things done and feel more in control of your day.
Weight Management: Making realistic, healthy decisions about eating and movement, without chasing a “perfect body”, to support a sustainable, healthy weight and overall well-being.

Wellness & Coping Strategies for the Holidays

December can be full of connection and joy, but it can also amplify stress, grief, fatigue, financial pressure, or complicated family dynamics. When the emotional load rises, people often default to coping habits that provide quick relief but leave them feeling worse afterward. This section brings together the most supportive, realistic tools for this season, so you can steady your nervous system, protect your energy, and find small moments of ease.

The Mindfulness Skill focuses on paying attention to what is happening right now - your thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the present moment. It can help you reduce stress, manage your emotions, improve focus, and appreciate your life by shifting your attention from stressful thoughts to those that are calm and relaxed. Over the holidays, activities like My Grounded Garden, Deep Breathing, and Leaves on a Stream can help you ground yourself when your mind is racing or family plans feel overwhelming.

Our Stress Management Skill is all about using healthy techniques to reduce the negative impact of stress on your mind and body, so you can cope better under pressure. It helps across all eight domains of life - supporting your relationships, your ability to focus, your mood, your sense of calm, your physical health, and your resilience. The Stress Awareness and Managing My Stress activities guide you to notice what stresses you, how it affects you, and how to build a plan using tools like mindfulness, asking for help, taking short breaks, spending time in nature, and practising deep breathing or positive self-talk.

If you find yourself coping with end-of-year pressure by turning to quick fixes - like emotional eating, excessive screen time, or even excessive spending - the Managing My Stress activity helps you identify these as unhealthy stress management strategies and gently shift towards healthier ones that leave you feeling more in control.

You can also lean on Sleep Habits to support your energy and mood. Healthy sleep routines - like going to bed at the same time, creating a calm sleep environment, and building relaxing pre-bed rituals - help you feel calmer, improve your mood, sharpen your focus, and give your body the chance to rest and recover. This can make holiday gatherings and year-end tasks feel more manageable.

For those supporting others or feeling emotionally stretched, the Self-Compassion skills remind you that caring for yourself is not a luxury, it’s a skill. They encourage small steps like checking in with how you’re feeling, using grounding techniques such as deep breathing or stretching, and treating yourself with the same kindness you’d offer a friend. This builds emotional strength so you can show up for yourself and others without burning out.

Together, these skills are there to help you navigate the holidays with more calm, clarity, and care - so you can enjoy what matters and recover from what doesn’t.

For organisations and companies

If you are seeing your staff arrive at year-end exhausted or stretched thin, we can help you turn skills like these into practical support at scale. Book a short discovery call and we will work with you to design a 2026 wellbeing plan that fits your organisation and gives your people real tools, not just another campaign.

For mental health practitioners

If you are holding space for clients through the holidays and into the new year, Psyche can give you structured tools to extend care between sessions. Book a quick call to explore how our skills, Holiday Coping Toolkit, and goal setting features can support your clients now and help you start 2026 with a clearer, lighter workload.

Looking Ahead & Goal Setting

The new year carries hope, but it also carries noise and unrealistic expectations. Many people set goals with genuine intention, then lose momentum because the plan is too big, too vague, or too harsh. This section is about choosing goals that feel meaningful and sustainable, and using structured tools that turn motivation into a realistic path forward.

The Goal-Setting Skill in the app is designed to help you turn your intentions for 2026 into clear, practical plans. The SMART Goals activity teaches you how to make your goals Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-bound, so the effort you put in actually moves you closer to what you want. For example, a SMART goal might be to improve your mindfulness skills by completing the Mindfulness Skill and practising the Deep Breathing activity every day for a set period of time.

Within the Goal-Setting Skill, activities like Best Future Self, Goal Ladder, and SMART Goals help you reflect on the areas of life you want to improve, break big ambitions into smaller steps, and define the actions you’ll take. This makes even daunting goals feel more manageable and keeps you motivated as you move through the early months of the new year.

You can combine this with skills like Mindfulness, Stress Management, Time Blocking, and Sleep Habits to support your goals in daily life. Mindfulness and stress tools help you handle pressure as you make changes; Time Blocking helps you set aside specific time for your most important tasks and includes built-in breaks and fun activities to keep things from becoming overwhelming; and healthy Sleep Habits support your focus, mood, and resilience so you can stick with your plans over time.

As you move into 2026, you can use these skills to choose a few meaningful goals, structure them with SMART principles, and support them with everyday habits - one small, realistic step at a time.

A Thank You From Us

Mental health progress is rarely dramatic. It’s usually quiet, consistent, and deeply human. This year, your engagement, feedback, and trust helped us refine what we build and how we support individuals, professionals, and organisations. This closing note is our way of acknowledging the shared work behind every update, every skill, and every step forward.

To our users, clients, and community - thank you.

Behind every skill and update is a simple mission: to make mental health support more human, accessible, and practical. And behind that mission is you - showing up to reflect, to learn, to support others, and to keep trying, even when life feels heavy.

From all of us at Psyche Innovations, thank you for your trust, your feedback, and your willingness to grow with us this year.

Thank you for reading this edition of Psyche Insights!

See you next quarter,

Psyche Innovations