Seeing Failure as an Opportunity
January is the month of goals. New Year, New You! Screw that. There’s so much pressure to make big, sweeping changes. No wonder most resolutions only last 2 weeks. While
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7 Tips to Get Through the Holidays
It’s December. It’s not my favorite time of the year. Here in Northeast Ohio, the days are shorter, leaving us in darkness more often. It’s cold. And, of course, there
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder vs. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
I’ve been a therapist more than 20 years, and I can still get tripped up teasing out generalized anxiety disorder from obsessive compulsive disorder (and many times people have both).
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10 Things to Know About Therapy
I’m going to preface this article with making sure we all know my perspective. I’m a licensed therapist who specializes in treating adults with anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder.
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7 Ways to Practice Building Your Distress Tolerance
As we continue our journey into distress tolerance, I want to give you actions that help illustrate what it means in everyday life. Most anxiety relief tips actually give you
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What Are You Teaching Your Brain?
In your brain, there’s this area called the amygdala. Understanding the amygdala is important when we talk about anxiety and OCD because this little cluster is your body’s alarm system.
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Imposter Syndrome: Men Feel It Too
The concept of imposter syndrome was originated by psychologists Pauline Rose Clance, PhD and Suzanne Imes, PhD in 1978. They called it “imposter phenomenon,” and their study focused on women
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3 Ways to Flex Your Distress Tolerance Muscle
Here’s a little story for you. I thought I was fairly distress tolerant … until we had to do rowing time trials at the end of a grueling workout. I
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What Is Distress Tolerance? (And Why It Matters.)
Recently I’ve become a bit obsessed with the idea of distress tolerance. It’s “An individual’s perceived or actual ability to withstand negative emotional or physical states” (Brown, Lejuez, Kahler, Strong
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Distraction: Love It or Leave It?
In my last article, I talked about Dr. Sally Winston’s notion of the “while.” Essentially, Dr. Winston suggests that we feel the feelings WHILE we take the action. You don’t
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Why You Want to Feel Anxious, and Do It Anyway
I can’t remember where I first heard Dr. Sally Winston talk about “the while,” but I do remember the light bulb going off. I was so excited because it made
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Urge Surfing: How to Ride Out an Urge
Coined by Dr. G Alan Marlatt, PhD, “urge surfing” is a term meant to help people ride out the desire or urge to do something that they really don’t want
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