Understanding Mental Health
What Is Mental Health?
Anna Freud
An introduction to mental health and why mental wellbeing is something everyone can experience and work on.
About 6 min
Watch
Mental Health Education Library
Understanding yourself is an important part of healing.
Explore these short educational videos to learn more about how your brain, body, nervous system, emotions and mental health work. These resources are designed to help you better understand what you may be experiencing and give you language for what is happening inside you. You do not need to watch everything — simply choose the topics that feel relevant to you.
These videos are provided for general psychoeducational purposes and are not a substitute for individualized assessment, diagnosis or counselling. If a video brings up difficult emotions or memories, consider discussing your experience with your counsellor.
Understanding Mental Health
Starting points — what mental health, therapy and mindfulness actually mean.
Understanding Mental Health
What Is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?
Psych Hub
How thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact, and how CBT can help change unhelpful patterns.
About 4 minRecommended by your counsellor
Understanding Mental Health
What Is Mindfulness?
Psych Hub
What mindfulness is, and how noticing thoughts, emotions and sensations without judgment can support wellbeing.
About 4 min
Your Brain & Stress
What happens inside the brain when it decides something is a threat.
Your Brain & Stress
How Stress Affects Your Brain
TED-Ed
An animated explanation of how ongoing stress can affect the brain, including changes in its structure and functioning.
About 4 minRecommended by your counsellor
Your Brain & Stress
Understanding Your Brain's Stress Response
Children & Families
What happens in the brain when it detects a threat, including the roles of the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.
About 2 min
Your Brain & Stress
Neuroplasticity: Your Brain Can Change
Sentis
How repeated experiences, learning and behaviour can shape the brain over time.
About 2 min
The Nervous System
Activation, shutdown, and the long road back to baseline.
The Nervous System
Fight Flight Freeze — Anxiety Explained for Teens
Anxiety Canada
A short, easy-to-understand explanation of the body's automatic fight, flight and freeze response, and how anxiety can set it off.
About 3 minFor TeensRecommended by your counsellor
The Nervous System
Understanding Your Nervous System
Cleveland Clinic
The autonomic nervous system, the stress response, and how the body returns to baseline.
About 3 min
The Nervous System
Hyperarousal & Hypoarousal
Center for Adolescent Studies
What it can feel like when the nervous system is highly activated, and when it shuts down instead.
About 3 min
The Nervous System
Nervous System Regulation
Therapy in a Nutshell
What regulation actually means, in practical, everyday language rather than jargon.
About 9 min
Window of Tolerance & Trauma
How overwhelming experience keeps speaking through the body.
- Opens on the publisher's site
Window of Tolerance & Trauma
Understanding the Window of Tolerance
NICABM — with Ruth Lanius, MD, PhD and Bessel van der Kolk, MD
Explains the window of tolerance and what can happen when someone becomes hyperaroused or hypoaroused.
Under 5 minRecommended by your counsellor 
Window of Tolerance & Trauma
What Is Trauma?
Psych Hub
An introduction to trauma, and how overwhelming experiences can continue to affect emotional and physical wellbeing.
About 3 min 31 s
Window of Tolerance & Trauma
What Is PTSD?
Psych Hub
An easy-to-understand explanation of PTSD, common symptoms, and how trauma-related distress can continue long after an event.
About 4 min 42 s
Window of Tolerance & Trauma
Understanding Trauma Responses
Kati Morton, LMFT
Fight, flight and freeze responses in the specific context of trauma.
About 10 min
Window of Tolerance & Trauma
Why Do I Get Triggered?
Therapy in a Nutshell
Why an ordinary present-day moment can set off a strong emotional or physical response.
About 4 min
Window of Tolerance & Trauma
Childhood Trauma and the Brain
UK Trauma Council / Anna Freud
Trauma responses are learned protection, not proof that something in you is broken.
About 5 min
Anxiety & Panic
Worry, avoidance and the loop that makes fear louder over time.
Anxiety & Panic
What Is Anxiety?
Psych Hub
Anxiety as a common human reaction, its usual symptoms, and the point at which it becomes a problem.
About 3 min 21 sRecommended by your counsellor
Anxiety & Panic
What Is an Anxiety Disorder?
Psych Hub
How excessive worry and anxiety can begin to interfere with ordinary daily life.
About 3 min 47 s
Anxiety & Panic
What Is a Panic Attack?
Psych Hub
What happens during a panic attack, the common symptoms, and why panic can feel so frightening.
About 3 min 11 s
Anxiety & Panic
What Is Panic Disorder?
Psych Hub
How the fear of having another panic attack can quietly build avoidance and isolation.
About 3 min 59 s
Anxiety & Panic
Understanding the Anxiety Cycle
Therapist Aid
Trigger, anxious thought, physical sensation, avoidance, brief relief — and why the loop tightens.
About 4 min 36 s
Anxiety & Panic
Anxiety vs. Panic Attack
TED — Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter
The difference between everyday anxiety, an anxiety disorder, and a panic attack.
About 5 min
Depression & Mood
Why depression is not sadness, and why doing anything feels so heavy.
Depression & Mood
What Is Depression?
World Health Organization
Why depression is something other than simply feeling sad.
About 4 min
Depression & Mood
Depression Is More Than Sadness
TED-Ed — Helen M. Farrell
Low motivation, fatigue, lost interest, isolation, sleep and appetite changes, irritability and difficulty concentrating.
About 4 min 29 s
Depression & Mood
Understanding the Depression Cycle
Therapist Aid
Low mood, withdrawal, less activity, fewer good moments — and how the spiral turns.
About 4 min
Depression & Mood
Why Depression Can Make Everything Feel Hard
Psych2Go
Why you can know exactly what you need to do and still be unable to begin.
About 5 min
Emotions & Emotional Regulation
Emotions as information — including the ones that feel unacceptable.
Emotions & Emotional Regulation
What Are Emotions?
Marsha Linehan — BorderlinerNotes
Emotions give us information. They are not instructions we are obliged to follow.
About 2 min
Emotions & Emotional Regulation
Understanding Emotional Regulation
Dr. Tracey Marks
Regulation is not never getting upset — it is recognising, tolerating and responding well.
About 9 min
Emotions & Emotional Regulation
Anger: Understanding the Emotion
TED — Ryan Martin
Anger is not a bad emotion. It usually signals something unfair, hurtful or over a line.
About 13 min
Emotions & Emotional Regulation
Healthy Anger vs. Unhealthy Anger
Dr. Gabor Mate
Separating the feeling of anger from behaviours that harm — yelling, threats, intimidation.
About 5 min
Emotions & Emotional Regulation
The Anger Iceberg
The Anxiety Therapist
What often sits underneath anger: hurt, fear, shame, rejection, grief, helplessness.
About 7 min
Thoughts, CBT & Overthinking
Thinking patterns, the inner critic, and the difference thoughts make.
Thoughts, CBT & Overthinking
Thoughts Are Not Facts
AboutKidsHealth — SickKids
Having a thought does not make the thought true.
About 4 min
Thoughts, CBT & Overthinking
The CBT Triangle
The Lukin Center
How thoughts, feelings and behaviours keep feeding one another.
About 6 min
Thoughts, CBT & Overthinking
Cognitive Distortions
Therapist Aid
All-or-nothing thinking, catastrophising, mind reading, fortune telling, overgeneralisation and more.
About 5 min
Thoughts, CBT & Overthinking
Overthinking vs. Problem Solving
Dr. Tracey Marks
The difference between working a problem and circling it — and how to tell which you are doing.
About 7 min
Thoughts, CBT & Overthinking
The Inner Critic
The School of Life
Where self-critical thinking is learned, and why it sounds so convincing.
About 5 min
Thoughts, CBT & Overthinking
Self-Compassion vs. Self-Criticism
Dr. Kristin Neff — Greater Good Science Center
Why self-compassion is not letting yourself off the hook — and generally works better.
About 6 min
Common Mental Health Conditions
Clear, stigma-reducing explanations of diagnoses you may have heard.
Common Mental Health Conditions
What Is OCD?
Psych Hub
Obsessions, intrusive thoughts and compulsions, plus an introduction to treatments such as ERP.
About 4 min 50 s
Common Mental Health Conditions
What Is ADHD?
Psych Hub
How ADHD can affect attention, organisation, impulsivity and everyday functioning.
About 4 min
Common Mental Health Conditions
What Is Bipolar Disorder?
Psych Hub
Bipolar I, bipolar II and cyclothymic disorder, and the difference between manic, hypomanic and depressive episodes.
About 3 min 13 s
Common Mental Health Conditions
What Is Schizophrenia?
Psych Hub
A clear, basic explanation intended to reduce stigma and aid understanding.
About 4 min
Relationships & Boundaries
Boundaries, communication styles and how we learned to relate.
Relationships & Boundaries
What Are Boundaries?
Therapist Aid
What a personal boundary is, and what it is not.
About 6 min
Relationships & Boundaries
Healthy vs. Unhealthy Boundaries
Put The Shovel Down
Practical examples of boundaries that hold, and boundaries that don't.
About 10 min
Relationships & Boundaries
Assertive vs. Passive vs. Aggressive Communication
The Counseling Group
The three styles, and what each one tends to cost.
About 3 min
Relationships & Boundaries
People Pleasing
Psych2Go
Difficulty saying no, fear of disappointing others, and where the habit usually begins.
About 6 min
Relationships & Boundaries
Attachment Styles
The School of Life
Secure, anxious and avoidant attachment in plain language — patterns, not verdicts.
About 7 min
Self-Esteem, Shame & Self-Worth
Where harsh self-judgement comes from, and what shifts it.
Self-Esteem, Shame & Self-Worth
What Is Self-Esteem?
The School of Life
How self-esteem forms, and why it moves around so much.
About 4 min
Self-Esteem, Shame & Self-Worth
Self-Worth vs. Self-Esteem
HealthyPlace
One is earned by performance. The other isn't.
About 3 min
Self-Esteem, Shame & Self-Worth
Negative Self-Talk
University of California — Fig. 1
The voice that narrates your day, and whose words it is using.
About 4 min
Self-Esteem, Shame & Self-Worth
Shame vs. Guilt
Brene Brown — 60 Minutes
"I did something bad" and "I am bad" behave very differently.
About 3 min
Self-Esteem, Shame & Self-Worth
Perfectionism
The School of Life
Why the standard keeps moving, and what it is protecting against.
About 4 min
Self-Esteem, Shame & Self-Worth
Comparison & Social Comparison
Helpful Professor
What comparing does to mood, and why the feed makes it worse.
About 3 min
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
The cost of running on empty, and why sleep sits underneath everything.
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
What Is Stress?
Braive
Stress as a response, not a personal failing.
About 3 min
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
Acute vs. Chronic Stress
Demystifying Medicine, McMaster University
Short surges the body is built for, and long ones it isn't.
About 8 min
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
What Is Burnout?
Sprouts
Exhaustion, cynicism and reduced capacity — and how it creeps in.
About 4 min
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
Stress and the Body
TED-Ed — Sharon Horesh Bergquist
Digestion, immunity, muscle tension, pain and the physical bill of stress.
About 4 min 43 s
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
Why Sleep Matters for Mental Health
TED — Sleeping with Science
What sleep does for mood, memory and emotional tolerance.
About 4 min
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
Sleep and Anxiety
Therapy in a Nutshell
Why anxiety gets loudest at night, and how the loop maintains itself.
About 8 min
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
Sleep and Depression
FOX 2 — sleep specialist interview
Sleeping far too much, far too little, and never feeling rested.
About 4 min
Stress, Burnout & Sleep
Sleep Hygiene
Therapy in a Nutshell
The small, unglamorous changes with the strongest evidence behind them.
About 8 min
Coping & Self-Soothing
Practical, evidence-informed ways to bring the system back down.
Coping & Self-Soothing
Healthy vs. Unhealthy Coping
TED — Andrew Miki
Every coping strategy worked once. Some cost more than they give now.
About 10 min
Coping & Self-Soothing
Grounding Techniques
The Partnership In Education
Bringing attention back to the present when the body has left it.
About 4 min
Coping & Self-Soothing
Breathing and the Stress Response
Therapy in a Nutshell
Why a longer out-breath reaches the nervous system faster than reasoning.
About 4 min 30 s
Coping & Self-Soothing
Mindfulness
Jon Kabat-Zinn — Greater Good Science Center
Attention, on purpose, without judgment — and what it is not.
About 2 min
Coping & Self-Soothing
Distress Tolerance
Travis Goodman, LMFT
Getting through the worst of a wave without making things harder.
About 6 min
Coping & Self-Soothing
Self-Soothing
DBT Skills from Experts
Using the five senses to settle a system that will not hear words.
About 3 min
Coping & Self-Soothing
Emotional Regulation
Self-Help Toons
Skills for noticing, naming and riding out strong feeling.
About 9 min
Coping & Self-Soothing
Avoidance and Why It Can Make Anxiety Stronger
Through The Waters
Relief now, a smaller life later — the arithmetic of avoidance.
About 5 min
Not sure where to start?
If you're not sure which videos are right for you, that's okay. You can explore based on what you're currently experiencing, or ask your counsellor which resources may be most helpful for you.
You can also read the Learn pages or browse the worksheets.