Posted May 16, 2018 05:18:03 A new way to teach personal trainers has been revealed, with the first results from a pilot study of its use in Melbourne.
Dr Mark Taylor and his colleagues at Melbourne University found that the program improved training outcomes for people with low self-esteem.
The findings have been published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Psychology.
The new way involves working with the participants to develop a ‘self-awareness’ skill.
Participants work to identify themselves and recognise themselves in the mirror, while another person holds a mirror to them.
The two then share information and work together to identify other people who are also feeling low self esteem.
After two weeks, the participants’ self-awareness scores improved by 20 per cent.
“The goal of the research was to explore the potential of self-care to increase self-confidence and reduce depressive symptoms,” Dr Taylor said.
“As a therapist, this approach could be especially beneficial for people who have low self awareness or who are struggling with depression.”
The new method has been developed by Dr Mark E. Taylor and colleagues at the University of Melbourne, who found that self-disclosure training improves self-worth.
Dr Taylor is part of a team that is testing the effectiveness of self awareness training in people with depression.
He said self-scrutiny of the study is “pretty basic”.
“It’s a little bit like the ‘I’m sorry I did that’ part of self examination.
You know, ‘I know I did it, I can’t believe it happened to me’.” Self-awareness training helps people to recognise their own feelings of depression, and can help them to identify others who might be feeling the same, Dr Taylor explained.
“It gives you a little more confidence, you’re a little less stressed, and you’re not looking at your own self in the mirrors and worrying about it,” he said.
‘Positive self-help’ For Dr Taylor, self-knowledge is the foundation of self confidence.
“People tend to be quite shy about acknowledging their own mental state and feelings of self worth and worthiness,” he explained.
He also emphasises that self awareness and self-containment training can be beneficial for those who are depressed, and people who need help with social anxiety and substance abuse.
“You can work with the people in your community and have these training sessions, and then you can do a very simple self-talk to yourself about how you’re feeling about yourself and your life and how you feel about others around you,” he noted.
“If people are able to talk to themselves and acknowledge their feelings, then that’s going to be helpful for their mental health.”
