“The secret to getting ahead is getting started.” -Mark Twain
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” -Benjamin Franklin
“The [person] who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” -Chinese Proverb
Category Archives: narrative
Life Legacy Interview
Do you want to capture an aging or dying loved one’s legacy? The art of interviewing can seem intimidating. Fortunately, the Legacy Project offers questions you may ask in order to deepen your connection and understanding. Many of my favorite questions are in the “Identity” and “Life Lessons and Legacies” sections.
Greater Good Videos
The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California Berkeley curates videos, articles, and podcasts about happiness. The short videos are presented by prominent researchers, therapists, business leaders, and educators. They include a wide range of topics such as “How to check in with Yourself” and “The Biology of Mindfulness and Compassion.” There are hundreds of happiness videos here. The information is not a substitute for therapy–a process that can investigate specific traumas and the complexity of a person’s unique life. However, the videos can help people remember their wisdom and encourage action.
Innovative Research
If you have a history of suicidal thoughts or know someone who died by suicide, you may want to look into a new research project called Our Data Helps by Qntfy. You can donate social media data (from online activity) and/or fitness & sensory data (from wearable devices) to help researchers learn more about why suicides happen and how they can be prevented. The project will analyse the language, physical data, and media patterns of people who sign up to help the project.
Technology-Assisted Treatment
Many psychology researchers, including the Veterans Administration, are studying the effects of mental health applications. While indiscriminate screen time is widely known to reduce peoples’ focus, some research indicates that consistent, intentional use of some mental health apps tends to boost self-awareness; effectiveness; and happiness. The Veterans Administration is specifically studying the app PTSD Coach, which I would like to use with a client. Please let me know if you would like to participate in that process! Here are some applications I already find useful with many of my clients:
- Narrative Therapy Questions: helps the participant conduct a deep self-interview about their preferred life direction and related obstacles
- Calm: 100+ guided meditations to choose from. The app will track the dates and lengths of of your meditations
- Relax: helps practice diaphragmatic breathing, which is good for nervous system regulation and panic-attack prevention
- Mood Tracker: charts symptom severity/remissions/patterns based on pre-programmed OR customized data schemes
Sexuality Education
I attended two great conferences related to the intersection of sexuality and mental health:
- the LGBT-Affirmative Therapist Guild annual conference
- 5th Annual Sexuality conference at KU Med
Both conferences included great panel presentations: Race Relations Under the Rainbow; Identity Development and the Therapeutic Alliance; Eating Disorders and Sexuality; and Being HIV+ in Today’s World.
Daring Greatly
I am currently re-reading the wonderful book Daring Greatly, by Brene Brown. If I only had a single therapeutic tool or paradigm, Dr. Brown’s work may be the one. Dr. Brown examines yucky problems like scarcity, shame, and defense mechanisms with finesse and humor. For those of you who have not seen her first viral video, here it is: vulnerability .
Lessons from Improv
I am currently taking an introduction to Improvisation Comedy class. Improv is a fun way to practice…
- awareness: it’s hard to keep people’s attention if your own attention is wandering
- listening: respond to a group story rather than one’s own preoccupations
- acceptance: in improv, you working as a team–and other people have some weird ideas
- healthy risk-taking (AKA healthy vulnerability): it gets the dopamine going; it builds competence and resilience
Externalizing Anxiety
An anxious computer programmer reprogrammed his anxiety. First, he outlined his worries into a computer program. Then, the program emailed him anxious messages throughout each day. The programmer read the messages–as if they were comical spam messages. This process helped him emotionally distance from worry and deconstruct anxiety in real time.
The original audio story can be found here: here
Sensation-Seeking
I recently completed a training with Dr. Ken Carter about Sensation-Seeking behavior. We explored healthy and/or problematic sensation-seeking constructs like adventure & thrill seeking; novelty & unique experiences; disinhibition; and boredom susceptibility. Some emerging research indicates that healthy sensation-seekers reduce anxiety through their sensation-seeking and are less likely to experience PTSD in their lifetimes. However, unhealthy sensation-seekers may be more prone to addictions.