Posts by Grace Porter
The Power of “And”
I recently had a client come to session talking about the power of the word “and”. I’ll be honest and say I’m not sure if those are her words or something I once said that resonated with her. And I don’t suppose it really matters except in my desire to give credit where credit is…
Read MoreKnowing When to Stop
Hello! Grace here. What do you do when you feel done but you also know you could push yourself and do more? How do you know where to draw the line and set the boundary? Many of us have beliefs about ourselves that tell us to push ourselves and always do more so how do…
Read MoreTrading Discomforts
I think most of us have the belief, or maybe the hope, that if we do the right thing everything will feel good. The reality is that while it tends to feel better in the long run, Right Action, at least at first, often means trading one discomfort for another.
Read MoreNote 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 More
