Welcome to Sunflower Mental Health and Wellbeing, your gateway to personal growth and overall well-being. Our mission is to create a nurturing space where individuals can express themselves and be compassionately understood without judgment. Beyond merely alleviating symptoms, our focus is on aiding each person in healing their concealed wounds, reclaim their function, rediscovering their authentic selves, and flourishing as they were meant to.

 

At Sunflower Mental Health and Wellbeing, we blend Eastern wisdom with Western expertise to help you break free from the chains of complex trauma and discover true inner peace. Our holistic approach, led by certified Schema Therapist Snow Chen, focuses on unraveling maladaptive patterns to guide you towards a life of genuine self-fulfillment. Rather than viewing mental health conditions solely from a pathological perspective, we take a comprehensive standpoint. Our goal is to empower every individual on their unique journey toward personal growth and fulfilment.

 

We specialize in addressing intricate mental health challenges, with a particular focus on complex trauma and personality disorder. Whether grappling with personality disorders, depression, or anxiety, our insights reveal that complex trauma significantly contributes to the manifestation of these symptoms. Many individuals find themselves dependent on external validation for happiness, navigating through challenging people-pleasing patterns, often without realizing that these behaviours trace back to childhood trauma or other impactful traumatic experiences.

 

Tracing back to early life experiences, particularly during childhood, individuals who have had traumatic experience, such as experiences of constant criticism, neglection, abandonment, rejection, bullying or abuse, may have developed coping mechanisms centred around seeking external validation and approval. These individuals may have learned to inhibit their own emotion and emotional needs but prioritize the needs and expectations of others over their own, believing that conforming to external standards is the key to acceptance and safety.

 

As a result of such early conditioning, various maladaptive schemas may take root in the individual's psyche. Common schemas include a fear of rejection, feelings of defectiveness or shame, unrelenting standards, co-dependency, subjugation, and self-sacrifice. Underneath those self defeating schemas, we notice that the internalised "inner critic" plays a tricky role perpetuating the behaviour patterns, such as people-pleasing behaviour pattern, approval seeking pattern, social avoidance, high standard and the other mal-adaptive coping behaviours. These schemas become ingrained, shaping the person's perception of themselves and their interactions with the world. The self defeating behaviour patterns, such as people-pleasing behaviour pattern, approval seeking pattern often emerges as a survival strategy, driven by an ingrained fear of negative judgment or abandonment.

 

The impact of the people-pleasing pattern and the other mal-adaptive survival behaviour patterns on mental health can be profound. Individuals trapped in those patterns often struggle with low self-esteem and a diminished sense of self-worth. The constant need for external validation can lead to chronic anxiety, as individuals worry about how others perceive them and whether they are meeting the expectations set by others. Moreover, the reliance on external approval for happiness can contribute to feelings of emptiness and dissatisfaction, as the individual may neglect their own needs and desires in the pursuit of pleasing others. Over time, this pattern can result in recurrent relationship issues, heightened stress levels, and even manifest as symptoms of depression or anxiety. Breaking free from the people-pleasing pattern and the other mal-adaptive survival behaviour patterns often involves a journey of self-discovery, addressing underlying schemas, developing self compassion, heal the inner traumatised child and building healthier, more authentic relationships.

 

Breaking free from the complex trauma induced mal-adaptive behaviour patterns is paramount to paving the way toward a more fulfilling life. Schema therapy emerges as an effective model, diligently aiming to unveil underlying patterns and address unmet emotional needs, ultimately liberating individuals from the entanglements of people-pleasing behaviour and the other mal-adaptive behaviour loop. 

 

Sunflower Mental Health and Wellbeing draws inspiration from both Oriental and Western cultures, providing trauma informed humanistic person-centred therapy. Our genuine care is evident in our passion for supporting the healing journey of each unique individual.

 

We understand that seeking professional mental health support can be daunting, but we are here to ensure you feel comfortable and safe throughout your therapeutic journey. Together, we will work towards discovering a brighter, more vital version of yourself at Sunflower Mental Health and Wellbeing. Your well-being journey starts right here.