I have to be honest. My general feeling about the holidays usually leaves me wanting to go to sleep around Thanksgiving and wake up after New Year’s. Thanks to the pandemic, those feelings have only intensified this year. That being said, I’m going to take some of my own advice … Expect to feel a...
I’d like to talk about the term “Choice Point.” It comes from the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT model. A Choice Point refers to a moment in time when you can choose behavior that moves you toward your values or behavior or one that moves you away from them. In the most simplistic terms,...
A client of mine had the greatest metaphor for her obsessive compulsive disorder. She said that when she came to see me, she had been singing “OCD’s song” for 50+ years. Through our weekly sessions and A LOT of work between sessions, she was able to learn “a new song which gave her freedom.” A...
I often tell my clients to practice being “sure enough.” While this might initially sound a bit negative, it’s quite the opposite. It’s less about the ho-hum “the best you’re going to get” and more about making a choice that helps lower your anxiety. Here’s the thing. Anxiety wants you to seek out certainty, a...
There are a lot of anxiety myths out there. In my last blog post, I dispelled 3 of them. Here are the final 4. Myth: Thought stopping (or replacing, suppressing) is an effective anxiety management technique. I think these were techniques used in the 80’s or sometime, because I still get the random client who...
There are a lot of anxiety myths out there. In my next 2 blog posts, I dispel 7 of them — and give you better solutions for dealing with excessive worry or anxiety. Myth: Anxiety is bad. Anyone who’s been reading my stuff knows the answer to this one. False! Anxiety is neither good nor...
I really try not to be offended easily, and truly, I’m not. But as someone who treats patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, there’s something I need to say. Even in this unprecedented, high-stress, we-have-to-wash-our-hands situation, it is not ok to associate “crazy” with “germaphobe” as I heard a very well-respected reporter say. It’s not ok...
Ever since the OCD conference last month, I’ve been thinking so much about the idea of willingness. it’s not a new concept for me, but something Dr. Jonathan Abramowitz said landed perfectly. He said “we’re going to use exposures to get better at having anxiety.” For anyone who hasn’t been reading my posts, an exposure...
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could control our worries? Sometimes. But all is not lost. Worry is a temporary feeling just like joy or anger, and it, too, serves a purpose. While we can’t control the initial thoughts that may have evoked the worry, we can control how we respond to the thoughts. The...
I just came back from the Annual OCD Conference in Austin. Something I kept hearing over and over again was anxiety and fear tolerance over anxiety and fear reduction. As a therapist specializing in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and anxiety, this notion is something I know and impart often. But the conference speakers...