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…
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You might be surprised when you take a look at yourself from a new perspective Patti here. Sometimes it’s important to ask for help. And sometimes that’s a hard lesson to learn. It can be easier to trundle through life without changing, assuming you know what is true about situations without considering that you might…
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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 MoreI just got some clarity recently on something I’ve been puzzling about for a long time. Years ago, I read in the Tao Te Ching that “the masters accomplish everything by doing nothing.” I believed that Lao Tzu was reporting honestly about what he was witnessing about the behavior of the masters, I just couldn’t…
Read MoreI 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 MoreMy parents signed me up for swim lessons when I was starting first grade hoping I would learn to cooperate during hair washing time. I have to admit washing my hair entailed an almost bloody, ridiculously noisy battle that nobody won. I took my blood curdling screams to the pool and after a couple years…
Read More“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 MoreThe 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 MoreImagine 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.
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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?”
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