Mindskills Core Values

Mindskills has four important core values that will be expressed throughout this course

1. Mental health is personal and experienced differently by everyone. What this means is it is not our role as mental health helpers to tell people what they should do, or find fault with others.
   
2. Human brains are complicated and have evolved for thousands of years to be what they are. We take the point of view that human brains, at their very core, want to feel safe and happy. The things people do to achieve these goals will depend on their environment and learned behaviour. So, if someone is experiencing problems with their mental health and as a result withdraws from others, uses a substance, or anything else, that’s okay. We hope to show other ways of managing mental health symptoms, but everyone is doing the same thing as everyone else – trying to feel safe and happy.
   
3. Culture plays an important role in mental health. Psychology as a science ‘grew up’ in a period dominated by European males, and people involved in the early psychology research much of the field is based on were mostly from Western cultures. We will explain a bit about psychology as a field, but also highlight the importance of other ways of treating mental health problems.
   
4. Connection is life-sustaining. Humans evolved to be social. Finding someone who ‘gets it’ is an important part of recovery for many people.