MVS Psychology Group

MVS Psychology Group MVS Psychology Group is a private psychology practice in Prahran, Richmond and Collins Street City.

Dopamine spikes before the reward, not during it. Which explains a lot about your life.The pull toward the fridge, the n...
24/08/2026

Dopamine spikes before the reward, not during it. Which explains a lot about your life.

The pull toward the fridge, the notification, the next episode, the thing you swore you would stop buying. That is wanting doing its job. Enjoying is a separate system entirely, and it usually arrives late and unimpressed.

Nobody wants to hear that the chase feels better than the having. It makes the whole self improvement aisle look a little silly.

You are not broken for wanting things you do not fully enjoy. You are running on a system built to keep you moving, not to keep you satisfied.



dopamine explained simply, wanting versus liking, dopamine detox myth, habit loop psychology, motivation and reward system, self binding strategies, screen time and mental health, focus and attention psychology, digital wellbeing, behavioural psychology Australia, psychologist Melbourne, evidence based psychology, breaking bad habits, burnout and motivation, MVS Psychology Group

23/08/2026

Dopamine was never the pleasure chemical. It is the wanting chemical, and it spikes before the reward, not during it. Which is why the scroll always feels better than whatever you actually find.

That makes the detox industry a little uncomfortable to look at. It sold abstinence when the real issue was design. Lab rats with blocked dopamine still enjoyed sugar. They simply stopped working for it. Wanting and liking live in different places in the brain.

So you are not weak for reaching for your phone at 11pm. You were engineered to. Change the room, not your character.



dopamine detox myth, habit loop psychology, wanting versus liking, behavioural psychology Australia, screen time and mental health, focus and attention psychology, self binding strategies, digital wellbeing, psychologist Melbourne, evidence based psychology, motivation and reward system, breaking phone habits, workplace focus and burnout, cognitive behavioural strategies, MVS Psychology

People can usually tell when care has been taken, even when they cannot name what they noticed.
22/08/2026

People can usually tell when care has been taken, even when they cannot name what they noticed.

Two chairs facing each other, no desk between them. That was the decision that took longest.Matching seat heights level ...
21/08/2026

Two chairs facing each other, no desk between them. That was the decision that took longest.

Matching seat heights level the room, and people speak more freely when nobody is looking down at them. The glass table keeps a gentle boundary while letting the space stay open. The mirror does quiet work too, returning light and depth so a small room feels wide enough to breathe in, which helps people settle before a word is spoken.

Comfort is not decoration. It is part of the work at our Richmond rooms.



psychology clinic Richmond Melbourne, therapy room design, psychologist Richmond Victoria, mental health support Australia, clinical psychology practice, therapeutic environment, psychological safety, evidence based therapy, counselling rooms Melbourne, patient centred care, environmental psychology, workplace mental health, private practice psychology, seeking a psychologist, MVS Psychology

Every couple ruptures. The difference sits in what happens in the ninety seconds after.Repair is rarely graceful. It sou...
20/08/2026

Every couple ruptures. The difference sits in what happens in the ninety seconds after.

Repair is rarely graceful. It sounds like a half sentence, a hand on the arm, a clumsy attempt at a joke that lands badly. It is not the apology you rehearse in the car afterwards. It is the small interruption you make while you are still upset, when part of you would rather be right.

Conflict is not the threat to a relationship. Leaving the rupture open is.



The line on the graphic is one I drafted for you, so get Max to confirm it in writing before this goes live under his name and title. Once his name and AHPRA registration are on it, it reads as a clinical position he is accountable for.

Most relationship advice gets it wrong. We're told conflict is the threat. But Gottman's decades of research suggests ot...
19/08/2026

Most relationship advice gets it wrong. We're told conflict is the threat. But Gottman's decades of research suggests otherwise...

After tracking thousands of couples, researchers found that healthy relationships aren't distinguished by the absence of conflict. They're distinguished by repair.

By your capacity to return after disconnection. By choosing responsiveness over rightness when it costs something to do so.

Insecure communication thrives in the gap between reaction and reconnection.

Secure communication is your nervous system choosing to return, mid-activation, to the person in front of you. Not because you were right. Because they matter more than being right.

When you're flooded, your body has already left. Repair is the willingness to step back in anyway. For many couples, this shift in awareness becomes the turning point.

Attachment theory and secure attachment patterns, couples counselling and relationship therapy, emotional communication skills, nervous system regulation, attachment styles assessment, conflict resolution in relationships, anxious and avoidant attachment, relationship psychology, therapeutic repair attempts, emotional safety and trust building, relational dynamics, couples therapy approaches, relationship counselling strategies, psychological attachment research, healthy communication patterns

You will tell your therapist things you have never said out loud, to a stranger, in a room you have never been in before...
18/08/2026

You will tell your therapist things you have never said out loud, to a stranger, in a room you have never been in before...

So what actually makes that safe?

Not the office and not the website. It is the part you never see: supervision logged after a long day, accreditation renewed quietly, boards run by volunteers who are not paid for any of it.

Here is the uncomfortable bit. Anyone can call themselves a therapist, and training and oversight are what separate a profession from a personal brand.

Ask who holds your therapist to a standard, because you are allowed to.



clinical psychology Melbourne, EMDR therapy Australia, how to choose a psychologist, accredited psychologist, psychologist credentials, AHPRA registered psychologist, therapy standards, clinical supervision, EMDRAA accreditation, trauma informed care, evidence based therapy, first therapy session, is my therapist qualified, mental health support Australia, MVS Psychology Group

Last week, our Director, Maxim von Sabler , completed the ’ Governance Foundations for Not-for-Profit Directors, in his...
17/08/2026

Last week, our Director, Maxim von Sabler , completed the ’ Governance Foundations for Not-for-Profit Directors, in his capacity as a board director at the .

You cannot check your psychologist’s training. You cannot sit in on their supervision or read their accreditation file. You have to trust that someone, somewhere, is holding the profession to a standard.

Someone is. Organisations like EMDRAA set what training an EMDR clinician must complete and what supervision they must maintain. It is a not-for-profit, run by passionate clinicians and volunteers who give their own time to it.

16/08/2026

The quietest relationships are not always the safest ones.

Silence often gets mistaken for peace, but avoidance and calm look identical from the outside. Insecure communication is rarely loud. It lives in the topic you both quietly agree not to raise.

There is a physiological reason repair feels so hard in the moment. Once heart rate climbs past roughly 100 beats per minute, access to reasoning and empathy narrows sharply. You are not being difficult. Your body has already left the room.

Security is not saying the right thing. It is coming back after the wrong thing.



secure communication, insecure communication, attachment styles in relationships, emotional regulation, conflict resolution in couples, repair attempts, relationship psychology, nervous system flooding, psychologist Melbourne, couples counselling Australia, healthy communication skills, emotional safety, avoidant attachment, anxious attachment, relationship breakdown patterns

Fight, flight, freeze. Most people know those three. Pete Walker added a fourth: fawn.Fawning is appeasement as a nervou...
15/08/2026

Fight, flight, freeze. Most people know those three. Pete Walker added a fourth: fawn.

Fawning is appeasement as a nervous system response. Saying yes when you mean no. Apologising to defuse tension that was never yours to manage. It often forms where the environment was unpredictable and keeping the peace was protective. Physiology, not personality.

In adult relationships it looks like agreeableness, like being easy to be with. Underneath, preferences and needs quietly disappear so the system stays stable.

Resentment is usually the first marker. The work isn't becoming difficult. It's letting your no exist in the room.



fawn response, conflict avoidance, trauma responses, fight flight freeze fawn, people pleasing, nervous system response, complex trauma, Pete Walker, relationship patterns, boundaries in relationships, resentment in relationships, appeasement, childhood environment, clinical psychologist Melbourne, MVS Psychology Group

Address

Suite 1, Level 7, 350 Collins Street
Melbourne, VIC
3000

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 7pm
Tuesday 8am - 7pm
Wednesday 8am - 7pm
Thursday 8am - 7pm
Friday 8am - 6pm

Website

,

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when MVS Psychology Group posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Featured

Share

Category