Here is a thing that I’ve learned about my mother – she periodically feels the need to escape and to start over. The belief in the clean slate is strong in her. She will find herself withdrawing from everyone she knows and from organizations that were once important to her and then she will startContinue reading “Urge to escape”
Tag Archives: DBT Skills
Mastering a new kind of back-to-school…
My youngest had several zoom orientation sessions for her school year, which starts tomorrow. She’s entering sixth grade, which in Texas in middle school, and is at a new school. Learning to manage a new school, trying to meet other kids at a new school, and trying to understand the expectations and processes of virtualContinue reading “Mastering a new kind of back-to-school…”
I’m catastophizing
Those are some powerful words that I work to teach many of my clients. They’re powerful because they can take you out of the spin of anxiety and depression and help you to step back and see how the worst thoughts you have are not necessarily the only or most likely thoughts to be trueContinue reading “I’m catastophizing”
Like Riding a Bike
On our most recent vacation travel, I found myself riding a bike for the first time in a number of years. I’m not actually aware of the last time I had reason to ride a bike, much less of the last time I was confronted with the opportunity. But on this trip, in this place.Continue reading “Like Riding a Bike”
Vulnerability and self-disclosure
I’ve been writing parent questionnaire responses for Number 71’s middle school applications. It’s actually my favorite part of the process – getting to sit down and really think about how to encapsulate a person I love so well in a way that allows others to love her too. It’s a lot like writing a celebrityContinue reading “Vulnerability and self-disclosure”
Anger and shame
When I’m working through an emotional diagram with clients, we start with the facts of the situation, then we identify the emotion they were feeling. Often the first emotion they identify is anger, frustration, or annoyance. It’s only when pushed that they can move beneath the anger to the emotion they actually felt first –Continue reading “Anger and shame”
Stickier emotions…making life worth living
Sadness, worry, embarrassment, guilt. These are all ordinary emotions that all of us experience almost every day. We experience them to varying degrees and cope with them in various ways. The emotions themselves are not good or bad. They just are. It’s not bad to be sad when something terrible happens. It’s not wrong toContinue reading “Stickier emotions…making life worth living”
A dream is a wish your heart makes…
I believe that I’m doing the best that I can. I also believe that in order to change I have to do things differently – better. How do I do better if I’m already doing the best that I can? I need to keep learning. I need to keep trying. I need to keep growing.Continue reading “A dream is a wish your heart makes…”
What’s with today, today…
Happy Monday! Mondays are a long ay for me at work. Sometimes, when scheduling kid activities, I forget this and over commit for after work on Mondays. Orthodontist at 3:30? Of course, no problem. I don’t know why I didn’t remember that we have piano on the other side of town at 4 on MondaysContinue reading “What’s with today, today…”
Emotion Modeling
I’ve been working with several of my clients lately to diagram their emotions. I think about emotional reactions as reasonable (in that the client has reasons for reacting the way that they do) and rational (meaning the reaction makes sense if you see things the way the client is seeing them) in most situations. ByContinue reading “Emotion Modeling”
Running for Disney 