By | Maria Dolenc

Frequent connection is made between the role of shame in addiction, eating disorders and co-dependency. Maria’s article on shame and addiction highlights that when the cycle of addiction and self-loathing are acted out without awareness the cycle can never be...

By | Anna Lloyd

Rarely has it seemed truer that every human being on earth is connected to all the others, and that the choices that each of us make do not only impact us, or even just those in our proximate orbit, but...

By | Kylie Beattie

And the families who love them For me personally Anzac Day brings up a lot of memories of my father Major Bradley Richards who sadly passed four years ago this May. His years of service brought many incredible memories, some...

By | Kylie Beattie

Can I still access services? During COVID-19 it is more important than ever for people living with alcohol and drug addiction, trauma and mental health to have avenues to seek help but many are left wondering if Byron Private and...

By | Kylie Beattie

Byron Private is dedicated to the safety and wellbeing of its residents and staff and while we continue to run a comprehensive program we are taking all necessary steps to minimise risk of COVID-19. Byron Private is adhering to the...

By | Anna Lloyd

“I am not looking to change myself anymore. I am fine tuning my listening heart to the lost and wounded parts of me that got buried in shame. They’ve been calling me all along. I just couldn’t hear them. These...

By | Anna Lloyd

Rehab could be considered to be the ultimate gift for everyone involved This week, a week out from Christmas, someone who is dear to me entered treatment, leaving a family behind to celebrate Christmas and usher in the New Year...

By | Anna Lloyd

Feelings, not Food. Connection, not Control. Supporting Your Eating-disordered Loved One This Christmas: “A focus on the food misses the boat completely and locates the problem in the food, when in reality the problem is in the struggle to stay...

By | Kylie Beattie

Byron Private is excited to announce the appointment of Dr Tessa Cookson as Clinical Director of Byron Private Treatment Centre. A Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatry, Dr Cookson leads Byron Private’s clinical team supported...

By | Kylie Beattie

Family Therapy in Recovery - from the experience of a father. No matter if it’s the first time or something you are familiar with, it’s never easy for the family when someone you care about is admitted to treatment whether it be...

By | Anna Lloyd

Ways to offer the help that really helps Helpers often draw a sense of strength, purpose and capability from their helping role, which can make it challenging to strike the right balance between support and loving detachment. One of the...

By | Anna Lloyd

Understanding Enabling Enabling is the word most often used to describe the behaviours of … being over-responsible in another person’s life whilst they are under-responsible.perceiving a loved one to be less capable than ourselves and doing for them what they...

By | Anna Lloyd

Recovery is Possible   Following on from my recent article on Veterans and First Responders with PTSD, below are 5 things that can be helpful to work on if you love one of the brave souls trying to find their...

By | Anna Lloyd

Thoughts from the Frontline of Treatment In recent years I have worked with a number of veterans and first responders whose lives have been all but crippled by PTSD, and whose recovery journeys have touched me so deeply that it...

By | Kylie Beattie

Taking self-worth off the scales World Eating Disorder Action Day A Peace of Nourishment is the raw and revealing story of Kylie Van Der Veer, who has suffered with anorexia and binge eating disorder since she was 15. Part one...

By | Anna Lloyd

‘It’s the Principle of the Thing’ One of the hardest experiences for families to manage is when the principles of one of its members diverge from what the family considers to be their collective family principles. This can happen in...

By | Kylie Beattie

  It was five days out from Christmas and I was facing one of the most painful periods of my life. I had fallen into a deep depression, my relationship had suddenly ended, my eating disorder was out of control...

By | Anna Lloyd

Walking the Tightrope – Tips for Managing Self When a Loved One is Suicidal  Much of what is actually helpful when someone is in the black night of suicidality is wildly counter-intuitive and requires thoughtful, considered responses rather than automatic...

By | Kylie Beattie

– Maria Dolenc 2019 "When I lived in South Africa, someone told me what the longest road in Africa is. It's not the road from Cairo to Capetown, it's the way from your head to your heart, and from there...

By | Anna Lloyd

As R U OK Day and World Suicide Prevention Day rolled past, much was stirred in me around suicide. I have worked with many suicidal people over the years and have brushed up against the looming spectre of it in my...

By | Kylie Beattie

As I scrolled over the media surrounding Women’s Health Week in anticipation of adding to the discussion, I felt an unease wash over me and wondered how I was going to contribute when what I saw didn’t ignite within me...

By | Anna Lloyd

“Alcohol is the anaesthesia by which we endure the operation of life."  ~George Bernard Shaw ~ Those of us who love alcoholics do them a profound service if we can refrain from defining their problems for them and instead make a...

By | Kylie Beattie

I have always wanted to attend The Byron Writers Festival (BWF) but had somewhere along the line made up a story that it was for the special group of book writing people and thoughtful intellects who could debate about politics...

By | Anna Lloyd

“This capacity leads us to the very heart of what makes recovery sustainable, and life worth living, because almost everything that human beings deeply crave lies on the other side of avoiding discomfort.” Very often, people come to treatment expecting...

By | Kylie Beattie

Byron Private recently made a written submission to the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the provision of drug rehabilitation services in regional, rural and remote NSW. We were privileged to then be invited as one of just two private operators in...

By | Kylie Beattie

For many, Easter represents a time of connection with family and friends, enjoying a few too many Easter eggs and simply taking a break from our busy lives. For those however that are struggling with eating disorders it can be...

By | Anna Lloyd

“I used to think a drug addict was someone who lived on the far edges of society, wild-eyed, shaven-headed and living in a filthy squat. Then I became one.” What kind of people go to rehab? Well, it’s pretty obvious...

By | Kylie Beattie

Considerable research has been conducted attempting to explain the causes of addiction in particular the arguments for both the medical and moral models of explaining addiction. The clear difference between these models are the causes they attribute to drug and...

By | Anna Lloyd

“It is on the very ground of suffering that we can contemplate well-being.It is exactly in the muddy water that the lotus glows and blooms.”~ Thich Nhat Hanh ~ A family member’s descent back into alcoholism/addiction can raise the emotional...

By | Kylie Beattie

Meditation 101: Equanimity.   Radical permission to allow, accept and feel. Can’t sit still for 2 mins? I hear you. In fact, when it came to starting a meditation practice, this was my main barrier to entry until I realised what was...

By | Maria Dolenc

Abundance IS who we are. It is how we value ourselves, and how much we appreciate both who we are and what we have. If one focuses on external validation and comparison, then we will always be empty and in...

By | Anna Lloyd

“Each morning we are born again. What we do today matters most”.~ Buddha ~ Every year as the new year rolls around I hear lots of talk about what people’s new year’s resolutions will be, and what kind of year...

By | Anna Lloyd

I am always struck by the paradox of Christmas. We seem to have largely agreed as a society that Christmas is all about love and hope and new life and family and togetherness, and yet what many of us actually...

By | Kylie Beattie

As someone who is passionate about organic food I often hear people say “but it is so expensive” and yes it does cost more, at the point of sale perhaps but what about the costs we don’t account for at the...

By | Maria Dolenc

Interrupted Reaching Out Movement (IROM) Interrupted Reaching Out Movement (IROM) is a simple label for a complex dynamic. IROM stems from a disruption in the flow of love in the relationship between parent and child and can lead to a...

By | Anna Lloyd

THE FAMILY SYSTEM IN CRISIS There are few things more distressing than watching someone we love head down a seemingly self-destructive path. Families and friends of those caught in the cycle of destructive behaviours often struggle to make sense of...

By | Kylie Beattie

What we eat and how it is produced has an incredible impact on our health and also the environment. The way in which we consume and produce all food but particularly meat, dairy and eggs is costing us our health, the environment...

By | Kylie Beattie

This blog post on the cultivation of self-compassion was originally posted on www.jodiegale.com It is shared here with permission. What we love about this article is the simple steps to cultivate self-compassion, a crucial but often missing ingredient for healing from addictions...

By | Kylie Beattie

The initial discovery that a family member is using illicit drugs is commonly met with a range of strong emotions including anger, shock, guilt and dismay.  Most studies have shown that the most common response is to try to contain...