Therapy Blog
Coping strategies for stress, anxiety & addiction.
How to Find an Anxiety Counselor in Spokane, WA
As you start the process of finding a counselor, you may find yourself immobilized by questions that feel impossible to answer. I hope this information will help answer some of those questions and make it a little easier as you start this journey!
Hammers: The destroyer of Self Esteem
Most of the time, we’re not thinking about what we are thinking about. Which can be especially damaging when it comes to self-esteem. Every time you think badly about yourself, it’s like you are taking out a hammer and beating yourself up. Over time, this has devastating effects on your self-esteem…
How to Reduce Anxiety with Optimism
I love being able to share little stories that pack in a big lesson. As the listener of these stories, we’re often able to connect with the message, apply it to our own lives and get new insights. This story is no exception! Here is a story of identical twins. One is a hope-filled optimist who always saw the good in everything and the other is a sad and hopeless pessimist….
12 Days of Self-Care
A fun twist on the traditional song The 12 Days of Christmas what helps us to focus on taking care of ourselves.
Reduce Anxiety by Embracing Mediocracy
As a highly capable individual who is quick to achieve, you’ve been inundated from a young age with messages about your potential and excelling to peak performance. Of course, encouragement in and of itself isn’t a bad thing! Or is it…?
The Basics of Self-Care: Treat Yourself Like a Dog
You’ve heard it a hundred times… YOU NEED TO TAKE BETTER CARE OF YOURSELF! And, you probably agree with that statement. Then all of the ‘yeah, buts’ come flooding in…
Letter to an Advice Column (a.k.a Take Your Own Advice!)
I bet you are amazeballs at giving advice! As a goal-oriented problem solver, you are able to look at a situation and objectively provide the best answer - for others. It’s so much more difficult to do this for ourselves. Read on to learn a strategy that will help you to “take your own advise” …
The Ham Story: Quit doing things that aren’t serving you
Trying to do everything increases anxiety and makes us feel crappy about ourselves because we are constantly failing to meet the underlying expectation of perfection. So, if there isn’t enough time to do everything, we need to be choosy about what we are doing.
Two of the best treatments for Anxiety: MBSR & CBT
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), are two of the leaders. Read on to find a little information about each of these therapies and why they are helpful in the treatment of anxiety.
Silent Meditation Retreat: AFTER
It's been several months since I attended the six-day silent meditation retreat at Cloud Mountain. While I would love to say that I've been meditating daily and that I feel a sense of calm pulsing through my body, that would be a lie…
Silent Meditation Retreat: DURING
The day has finally come... My first silent mediation retreat is to begin in just a few hours! My friend picked me up from the airport and we went to lunch. I will be honest, I freaked myself out a bit and there were tears shed…
Silent Meditation Retreat: Before
I made a commitment to attend my first silent meditation retreat! Over the course of the next three blogs I will be describing my experience. As a result of my mother's influence, I have been intrigued by meditation most of my life. In April 2018, I will be attending a 6-day silent mediation retreat exploring anapanasati at Cloud Mountain…
Is it possible to be too optimistic?
Am I too optimistic? Is it actually possible to be too optimistic? When it comes right down to it, I want to feel happy as much of the time as possible. This requires me to be aware of my thoughts (perceptions) in every situation I find myself. Would you like to increase your capacity for positive emotions? Read on techniques to help you increase optimism in your life...
How To Create Behavior Change: Story of Two Wolves
We get to chose every single day which wolf we will feed. Think about your goals - where you want to be. Every time you make a decision that is in line with and moving you closer to that goal, you are making the decision to feed the good wolf, which makes him stronger!
You're not lazy. You need the tools to create DETERMINATION.
Do you find yourself saying, "I know what I need to do. I'm just too lazy to do it." Maybe it's not laziness. There are skills we can practice in order to increase the likelihood that we'll follow through with the goals we set. Read on to find out how...
What Intention Will You Set for the Upcoming Year?
With the new year upon us, many people are setting resolutions; however, resolutions often set us up to beat ourselves up when we don't reach the goal. A more strategic idea is to pick a word that will create intention for your year.
Grounding Techniques: Helping you deal with large events in a society filled with mass shootings.
Is news of mass shootings making you nervous to venture out? Read on to learn a technique to help you to keep living your life in a time that feels uncertain and unsafe.
Tired of Feeling Like a “HOT MESS”? Check out these tips!
We’ve all been there… Way too much to handle, head spinning, nothing seems to be going right, and feeling like a failure on most fronts. Because we will never be able to make all aspects of our lives run smoothly, here are a three tips to help you get your feet firmly planted on the ground so you can get back to being amazing...