The Antybodies: Resilience and Trunk’s story

Workplace wellbeing, delivered by clinicians — not a call centre.

WA-owned and operated — not a national panel. Clear Health Corporate Services partners with WA organisations to deliver evidence-based EAP, critical incident response, and workplace training — backed by 250+ AHPRA registered psychologists and accredited mental health social workers across 18 clinics and telehealth.

Does your employer have an EAP with Clear Health?

You’re entitled to free, confidential sessions with a registered psychologist — book directly and confidentially, no referral needed.

100% confidential — nothing identifiable is ever shared with your employer

Free of charge — your employer covers the cost

Face-to-face at one of our 18 clinics or telehealth

Our Intake team matches you with one of 250+ registered clinicians

Our locations

With clinic locations across Perth, WA, the psychologists at Clear Health Psychology can provide you with effective and confidential psychology services to support you in dealing with life’s challenges.

Choose between any of our 18 practices across Perth.

Our Team

Clear Health Psychology is Western Australia’s largest psychology practice, with over 200 AHPRA-registered clinical and registered psychologists, alongside a team of experienced social workers and counsellors. We offer immediate availability via nationwide telehealth and in-person sessions across our 18 locations throughout Perth Metro and Southwest WA.

Individual Counselling

Learn new coping strategies and deal with complex issues in a one-on-one session with your psychologist.

Couple & Family Counselling

Seek better communication & support with emotional challenges in a couples or family counselling session.

Resilience for kids is about learning how to manage difficulties, cope with stress and develop problem-solving skills. Resilience is inside all of us as discussed in the previous Antybodies blog. It is stressful time for all as children return to school, and this is also an opportunity to acknowledge feelings, learn skills and build our resilience. The Antybodies has Trunk, the muscle, on their team. A weaver Ant that brings resilience, adaptability and inner strength. Here follows his story:

Trunk the weaver ant

Have you ever heard of the saying, “Dynamite comes in small packages?” These words perfectly describe Trunk, a Weaver ant packed with superpower strength both in his arms, and in his mind.

His story began on one windy day, when the weaver ants were building their new nest in a nearby tree. The ants were all working together as a unit, each with their own special role to play. The weaver ants were hard-working little creatures that worked tirelessly at building strong nests to survive the weather.

Trunk and his friends Marty and Po had just arrived back from collecting leaves, while another twenty ants or so were getting together enough silk to hold the leaves together. Once all the ants had collected their materials, some began the weaving process to build their nest. The wind suddenly started picking up, changing from a gentle breeze to strong whooshes, which shook the large oak. Some of the ants began panicking. The wind was never this bad usually!

The ants had already weaved some of the leaves together, and with a big gust of wind, the existing nest was blown apart. Feeling disappointed, many of the ants thought about giving up for the day.

All except Trunk. With determination, he ran towards the broken part of the nest, grabbed it with all of the strength in his arms and started pulling it back towards the rest of the ants.

The wind blew against his tiny ant body, yet Trunk marched forward, planting his feet firmly on the ground and refusing to give up. Back with the other ants he shouted, “When things get tough, WE ARE TOUGHER!” The ants who were shocked at Trunk’s power repeated and chanted after Trunk.

It wasn’t easy but the ants fought against the wind to build their home. When some pieces broke off, they kept building on. Sometime later, the wind began to calm down and they

were able to finish easily. Trunk taught the ants that day that even when things don’t go according to plan, if you keep pushing forward, you will always come out on top.

How Resilience Can Be Fostered

Resilience is a learnable trait and can be nurtured at home, school, and in the community. Strategies include:

1. Acknowledge children’s feelings, encourage them to express their emotions and validate their experiences rather than dismissing them.

2. Highlight your child’s strengths by recognizing their abilities and their past successes to build confidence. You can start a resilience diary.

3. Encourage problem solving by supporting your child to find solutions without immediately stepping in to fix problems.

4. Modelling coping strategies to your child. Communicate and demonstrate healthy ways to handle stress and setbacks.

5. Connection and support is consistently needed from the parent or caregiver. Maintain strong caring relationships that offer guidance and reassurance.

Trunk is inside all of us, but we have to learn what to do and remember his stories!

Follow me for more antybody stories: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hendrik-uys-72133a10

Stay Strong!

Hendrik Uys

Counselling Psychologist Hendrik is a psychologist who values authenticity, growth, creativity and connection within a therapeutic process based on evidence-based approaches.

Hendrik follows an eclectic approach tailored to each individual, valuing the client’s world view and journey. He completed his training in South Africa, worked in New Zealand and currently is living and practicing psychology in Australia. Outside of work, Hendrik enjoys the simple things in life, exercise and family time.

Hendriks areas of interest and experience include: