Mental health, her forte

Since a very young age, my strong passion for the field of mental health motivated me to fulfill my ambition of becoming a mental health practitioner with the aim of helping individuals reach their full potential. Witnessing the lack of mental health resources in my own country further inspired me to work towards shattering mental health stigma and creating more awareness. I was first introduced to Psychology as a school student during my A/Ls at Gateway College, Colombo, which heightened my curiosity and interest in the subject. Once I graduated from school, I did not have any second thoughts on the field which I wanted to pursue my higher studies on as my immense passion in Psychology drove me to commence my Bachelors in the same year. In the year of 2018, I completed my Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Psychology at the Colombo Institute of Research and Psychology (CIRP) which is affiliated with Coventry University (UK) and graduated with a First-Class Honours.

Udara Jayawardena

In the year of 2020, I graduated from Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia upon the completion of my Masters. At present, I am a registered Psychotherapist/Counsellor who is registered with the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia/PACFA (Registration number: 27494). I hope to work in the field for a while and pursue my PHD in Australia as I would like to widen the knowledge and experience which I have gained. I am currently residing and working in Australia. However, I have a strong need and desire to contribute towards a positive change in my own country from what I have learned. Therefore, as a first step, I combined two of my passions which are Psychology and writing and started my own writing blog on mental health content. My writing blog focuses on addressing stigma surrounding mental health, psychoeducation and creating more mental health awareness in the country. Even though I did not expect it at first, I received a great number of positive responses for the articles which I wrote and published, especially for my latest article on “Are You Managing Your Emotions or Avoiding Them?”. This article mainly highlights on emotional suppression and the consequences of it.

Although I have worked with individuals from diverse backgrounds throughout my journey in the past years, working as a part of the wellbeing team at Brentwood Secondary School, Melbourne, provided me with a great level of new experience in the recent year. Especially with the ongoing pandemic, I received the opportunity to support many adolescents in identifying and achieving their goals through a number of different approaches and strategies. As a mental health practitioner, I believe that my vision is to reach out, educate and make a notable change in terms of mental health support which will not only benefit the society we live in but also the future generations to come. Courtesy medium.com.