Embracing Radical Acceptance: A Path to Inner Peace
Radical acceptance is both a concept and skill that involves acknowledging and embracing reality as it is, even when the reality is difficult or painful. Radical acceptance is a concept utilized in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) as a distress tolerance skill. Understanding and implementing this skill does not mean that we approve of the blunt reality - we may hate it! What it means is that we are willing to lean in to the blunt reality in order to allow ourselves to more quickly and resiliently move on to focus our internal and external resources towards more values-consistent behaviors.
A Therapist’s Top Three Recommended Resources
If you happen to be on a journey of personal growth and self-empowerment, here are three titles I highly recommend to help you along the way.
How to “Ground” Your Child
While you won’t be getting any discipline tips, the mindfulness and grounding techniques for kids presented here pose many benefits for you and your child, including allowing your child to be more present especially when becoming behaviorally or emotionally dysregulated.
Turn to Face the Change: How Therapy Helps People Make Positive Change Daily
One of the most important factors of making change with therapy is the therapeutic relationship. The therapeutic relationship is the trust you have with your therapist. It is what makes you feel comfortable with him/her as you come frequently without judgment of what you have going on.
Emotionally Focused Therapy: A Compassionate Approach to Reducing Shame
Shame is a complex and powerful emotion that can have a profound impact on our lives. From the perspective of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), shame is often intricately connected to our sense of self and our relationships with others. In this blog post, our focus will be on understanding how shame arises when we perceive ourselves as different from those in our environment, and how embracing the principles of EFT can help individuals reduce shame and foster a sense of connection.
How to Help a Loved One Grieve
Losing a loved one is difficult, painful, and lonely. Watching someone you love grieve is also a difficult place to be in. This is for you if you’re trying to help your spouse through grief or a loved one who is grieving. Here are a few tips to remember when helping your grieving loved one.
Are We Compatible? Relationship Advice For How Couples Can Fight Fair
If you’ve ever wondered if your conflict is normal, the truth is healthy couples have conflicts. Follow this relationship advice to learn how to fight fair in your marriage and create a better bond and relationship.
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and How Can It Help You?
ACT is one model of psychotherapy that is considered a “third wave” approach, or branch off, of CBT. Most of us have heard of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and look for therapists who use CBT to treat a variety of mental health concerns. The ACT model aims to help individuals achieve psychological flexibility.
Am I an Empath?
An empath is often described as one who identifies with another person’s emotions as if they were their own. This personality trait goes beyond the usual definitions of relating to others. For example, being sympathetic is merely understanding another’s experience. Empathy moves beyond this definition, where somebody feels for or with another person.
The Power of Listening Part II: Friends, Family, and Partners
Giving one another our attention is powerful. It signals that we are interested. It invites the speaker to continue to engage with us. It communicates that we are interested not only in their story, but in them. It is a subtle sign of acceptance, of inclusion, and of worth. It doesn’t mean we agree with the speaker, but it does mean that we see them.
4 Reasons Why Successful Men May Make Horrible Husbands
You can’t change yesterday, but you can certainly change today. And more importantly, tomorrow and your future by being home and totally “present” tonight!
Beating the Winter Blues: A Social Worker's Guide to Embracing Light and Wellness
As the days grow shorter and the darkness descends earlier, many individuals find themselves grappling with the emotional weight of seasonal depression. As a social worker, I understand the impact that changing seasons can have on mental health. In this post, we’ll explore 7 effective and practical tips to help you and your child navigate the challenges of the winter blues and emerge stronger, happier, and healthier.
5 Ways Psychodynamic Therapy Can Benefit You
Rooted in psychoanalytic theory, psychodynamic therapy focuses on helping clients become aware of their unconscious processes. More specifically, how feelings, impulses, and defense mechanisms may be influencing your current behavior and personality, and why those mechanisms were created in the first place.
What is Movember and How Does it Relate to Mental Health?
Movember is primarily to bring attention to various medical and mental health issues that men often face or go unspoken, and to promote longer healthier men’s lives. Movember examines mental health from a perspective tailored to men, emphasizing preventative measures, early intervention, and the promotion of well-being.
Antidepressants Aren’t Always Medications
Did you know that depression can be influenced by a loss of connection? What areas in your life are you feeling disconnect? Perhaps it’s at work or with people, maybe you feel disconnected from joy as you seek after achievements. It’s possible to disconnect from the past, especially if you have experienced traumatic events. Disconnect can also arise in the face of inequality. Maybe a lack of movement is disconnecting you from your body or the world around you.
Songs For Pregnancy and Infant Loss Month
Sometimes there are no words that can help ease pain experienced in our lives. The only thing we can do is ride the waves of emotion. Sitting with emotions can be really uncomfortable and even scary. I’ve found that music can help me feel the feelings I need to feel in a controlled way so I can move with the wave until it subsides and I can feel my feet under me again.
Tips for Parents of LGBTQIA Youth
If you are a parent of an LGBTQIA youth moving towards accepting your child's identity read this to learn the importance of familial support to LGBTQIA youth as well as practical actions to support your child through this moment.
Fellow Clinicians: Self-Care Will Not Save us From Pain
I am a therapist and some of my favorite clients are also clinicians. Some come to therapy to work on their own stuff and others come because they are experiencing work related problems like secondary trauma stress, burnout or a loss of compassion satisfaction. When I work with other clinicians, I love the instant camaraderie I feel; without saying a word, we have a shared understanding about the joys and pains of the job.
Exploring Faith Transition Through the Lens of Cognitive Dissonance
Thinking about faith transition through the social psychological lens of cognitive dissonance can help us understand the painful process of changing beliefs.
What is EMDR?
What is EMDR? This is a common question that people have when they see EMDR listed as a specialty in a therapist’s bio, as many of us can be unfamiliar with psychology lingo. Jamie Kelly, CSW, is trained in EMDR and will help answer some questions about EMDR, with a helpful handout that gives a basic rundown of what this therapeutic technique looks like.