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I wanted to share a bit about my story, because this quote is in fact, my own Positive Cognition that I came to in my own EMDR journey a few years ago.
I came to the first part of the positive cognition a bit earlier than the second half. Life is an experiment.
To me, “life is an experiment” means that everything I do is based on the best information I have available to me right now, and sometimes I have to try and fail. It relieved me of this pressure to get everything perfectly right.
I'm excited to introduce a new 6-week workshop based on Dr. Francine Shapiro's groundbreaking book "Getting Past Your Past." What is Foundations for Healing? Foundations for Healing offers a supportive environment to develop essential skills for trauma recovery. This workshop provides
We cannot judge from the outside what is traumatic. Only the individual experiencing the event—and how their nervous system processes it—determines whether an experience is traumatic.
I frequently see clients who experience symptoms of PTSD, even when their experiences do not qualify as “traumatic” under the DSM-5 definition.
Why is it so hard for me to accept the love and care from my partner and family now? I know that my family of origin didn’t give me the attention and care that I needed, but why can’t I receive it now?
Barbara Myerhoff’s poignant observation, “Unless we exist in the eyes of others, we come to doubt our own existence,” resonates for anyone who has felt unseen or invisible in their journey. Originally written about the lives of abandoned senior citizens, this insight transcends its original context, offering a universal truth about the human need for acknowledgment and connection.
A client reached out to me last week and asked me if I could explain why I don't accept insurance. Here is my answer and my personal thoughts. I am not in network with any insurance companies and below you can read why.
Many times, people feel they are ready for something to change, but they aren't sure if therapy is the right choice for right now. It could be financial reasons, scheduling issues, or just not feeling quite ready to invite another person into what feels messy. If that's you…
I just spent a few days immersing myself in a Somatic Integration and Processing Training. I really loved it, and one of the ideas that kept my brain kept circling back to was how often we accidentally leave our bodies out of the “mental health” conversation. It doesn’t work when we just try to re-train the brain and re-write our thoughts and we leave our bodily felt sense out of the equation.
"What is rewarded gets repeated. What is punished is avoided."
~James Clear from his book Atomic Habits
I enjoyed the book Atomic Habits. I thought it was excellent. I appreciate this quote. But it doesn’t tell the whole story.
Let's talk about what I mean.
You might have been rewarded in ways that aren't obvious.
“But from this moment on, I understood that feelings, no matter how powerful, aren’t fatal. And they are temporary. Suppressing the feelings only makes it harder to let them go. Expression is the opposite of depression.” - Dr. Edith Eva Eger p 178-9 of her book The Choice: Embrace the Possible
Were you really being selfish? Or were you in survival mode without realizing it?
This is a question that I often ask my clients when they say “I feel like I’m being selfish.” In order to understand the question, we need to go into a bit of therapy lingo.
Adaptive Information Processing, or AIP for short (not to be confused with the diet) is the theory behind EMDR.
I have named my blog the REAL-ationship blog because deep down, that’s why most people come to therapy. They want to make their relationships better. This includes both relationships with their loved ones and even their relationship with themselves.
I have a friend who is a Pilates instructor, and it was actually her groups that inspired me to offer my own. She offered a 30-minute virtual group that met weekly for a period of weeks. I joined, and realized I really got a lot out of it. It wasn’t as beneficial or specific as it would have been in a private lesson, but there was still something wonderful about being a part of a group, all focused on growing in a similar way, and all of us joining from our respective homes.