Posts by Grace Porter
Note to Self: Keep Breathing!
“Do you know you aren’t breathing?” This is one of the most important questions anyone has ever asked me in my whole life.
Read MoreWhy I Love the Tools
The Seven Tools create a shared vocabulary and a structure to think and talk about the inner process. They sound pretty straight forward when you talk about them so the ideas are easily taught/learned. I can drop a line here and there in therapy without having to do a whole psychoeducational sidebar and the point is conveyed.
The application of The Seven Tools, however, gets you into the same ooey gooey process as therapy. I have found that when I use the Tools with my clients that they are able to actively engage in the therapeutic process more quickly because we have a shared vocabulary and framework for thinking about the work.
Read MoreIt Is Hard to See Others Hurting
Imagine you are sitting with a friend and they share with you a problem they are having in their lives.If you are anything like me, you listen empathically and offer support, and there is a part of you that wants to jump in to fix it for them but that isn’t usually what they need.
Read MoreAm I Going to Cry Forever?
I once had a student ask me, with tears streaming down her face, if she was going to cry forever. We had gotten to the part of the Taming the Bear class where I asked the question “What is a belief that you do not currently hold, but that if you held it, you would feel less stress?”
Read MoreThe Good, the Bad, and the Complicated
I break a lot of bad news to clients. Well, it isn’t actually bad news but it sometimes feels like it in the moment. The “bad” news I break is that they are going to have to feel their feelings (all of their feelings) if they want to move through them.
Read More‘Tis The Season of (Over) Giving
https://the7tools.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/IMG_0636.m4v The season of giving sometimes turns into the season of over giving. And if we are being honest, over giving has become a way of life for some of us humans. It is something I hear about a lot in the office, and for transparency’s sake, it is something I have done a lot…
Read MoreThe Longest Run-On Sentence
I’ll be honest and say that I am borrowing this exercise (with permission of course) from a past student. I have taken to calling it The Longest Run-on Sentence, although she usually refers to it as the And, And, And, Acceptance Exercise. I am sharing it with you because A) it is such a helpful…
Read MoreI’m Right There With You…
I teach people how to be healthy with their feelings and guess what? Sometimes I feel all kinds of uncomfortable stuff. That’s right. Even when you know how to be healthy with your feelings you still have uncomfortable feelings. Why am I telling you this? I am taking the time to write this out because…
Read MoreRelax to Receive
My dear dear ones, I will speak for myself when I say that sometimes when I become aware of a problem, or something that isn’t working for me, my inclination is to jump in to fix it. Or to work really hard to make things be different than they are. And sure, there are…
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