-
How is COVID affecting your mental health?
At this point, I do not believe that anyone can deny that COVID has dramatically affected their lives. I hear of stories of adult children who are unable to visit their elderly parents in nursing homes. I know of another family whose mother was hospitalized, and they were unable to visit her during the hospitalization. Visits via online options like…
-
CliftonStrengths
CliftonStrengths was previously called StrengthFinder. This is an extensive assessment to determine a person’s five top strengths out of 34. Well, you can purchase the entire report for a little more money. Strengths include terms like Achiever, Strategic Thinking, Restorative, Harmony, Adaptability and many more. A person cannot have a poor set of top five strengths! All of them are…
-
What does it mean to be values driven?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy – ACT has six main components. I find that I begin using ACT with clients on the hub of “values.” Why do I find this a good place to start? Well, for me, beginning with “values” leads quite easily then to setting goals, referred to in ACT as “committed action” and then examining the limiting thoughts…
-
More about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT involves six processes: Values Committed Action Cognitive Defusion Being Present Self as Context Acceptance For the official description of these processes, Contextual Science is the place to go. ACT uses a number of metaphors to explain and describe and work through these six processes. So, I’m going to give you some examples to illustrate what…
-
Grounding Box
Physical Grounding Box I’m going to give you two suggestions, a physical grounding box and a virtual grounding box. With a physical grounding box, find a box to contain items like this: small smooth rocks textured fabrics small sculptures fidget toys like fidget spinners, blocks, magnetic sculptures therapuetic putty or play dough or silly putty squishy ball squishy string essential…
-
Stress Reduction Techniques
Here are a few of my stress reduction techniques – of note… I don’t include alcohol :)!!! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – Notice 5 things you can see, 4 things you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, 1 thing you can taste. If you need a printable document, click the link. Notice 5…
-
Addiction, Anxiety, Coping Skills, COVID, Depression, Mindfulness, Postnatal, Pregnancy, Trauma, Uncategorized
COVID-19 Response for Georgia
In my Marietta office, we are seeing clients face to face. Cleaning procedures are informed by the best practices described by the state of Georgia and the American Psychological Association (APA.) I clean the room in between each sessions which means I need to maintain a 55 minute session time. We do not require a form to be filled out…
-
Addiction, Anxiety, attachment, Coping Skills, Depression, DID, Dissociation, Mindfulness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Somatic, Stillbirth, Trauma
What does “bottom up processing” mean?
A lot of effective therapy is considered “top down.” As in we talk, using our brain, cognitive work. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a tried and true and effective method for therapy. I happen to use “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT ( pronounced like the work “act”) to do this cognitive work. But we know from research (in fact the more…
-
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: ACT (pronounced like the word “act” is a cognitive behavioral approach of therapy. I will write more about why I use ACT in working with clients. More to come…
-
What does somatic mean?
Well, soma means referring to the body. So I use “somatic” tools at times with clients. That means I pay attention to the body, to a client’s breathing, their posture, if they’re leaning in or pulling back, their eye contact, their voice if it gets more pressured or softer and more difficult to hear. And, we might do some “experiments”…