After enough time sitting across from people in therapy, you start to notice something. The names change, the circumstances change, the stories change. The lessons don’t. The same handful of truths keep showing up as the thing someone needs to work through before life gets lighter. These are some of the most important life lessons from therapy that I know of. None of…
Most people describe a shrinking attention span as something that happened to them, a personal failing, a sign of getting older, or simply "too much screen time." In my view, this framing misses the more useful point. Attention is not a fixed trait. It behaves more like a skill, shaped by daily habits and by a digital environment that is, in many respects,…
Developing a coherent and stable identity is a central task during adolescence. According to Erikson (1968), this period is characterized by a conflict between identity versus role confusion, in which young people begin to consolidate a sense of self by integrating personal values with those modeled by peers and society. However, this period is also a time when adolescents are particularly vulnerable to…
Cognitive reflection is the ability to override intuitive, automatic responses with deliberate, analytical reasoning to make more accurate decisions along with check-list utilization. An important aspect of which is its potential to facilitate awareness, control, and monitoring processes to help identify potential thinking errors and encourage the deployment of alternative strategies. A 2024 Ergonomics study by Mohan et al., provides some compelling results…
“Letting go” isn’t about erasing the past, pretending nothing happened, or admitting defeat; it’s an active journey that rewrites how our memories and emotions hold sway over us. Letting go involves a set of cognitive and neurobiological shifts—experiential acceptance, cognitive reappraisal, and memory reconsolidation. In letting go, there is a process of cognitive reappraisal, which means reframing how you interpret a hurtful event—shifting…
Occasionally, we encounter rare moments of clarity and happiness, where the weight of sadness and anxiety seems to disappear even for a minute. These moments - a quiet summer evening at the beach, recovering from illness, or being moved by art or music makes us wonder whether life could feel less like a burden. What if we could let go of fear and…
Writing is often an integral part of therapy, such as using thought record sheets and mood or activity diaries. Additional therapeutic techniques that involve writing may be helpful at particular times. There are many benefits to writing, including “getting it out of our head”, seeing things from another perspective, a part of exposure work (distressing memories), or externalizing the problem. Just putting words…
Life's challenges, from health concerns to academic pressures, often put our self-esteem and identity to the test. Understanding how to positively respond to these challenges is crucial for our mental and emotional health. The concept of self-affirmation provides a valuable lens through which we can view and manage these challenges. David K. Sherman's paper, "Self-Affirmation: Understanding the Effects," offers a thorough exploration of…
“Living rationally and authentically means understanding that life centrally involves making leaps of faith, both small and large, and that the value of living is to a large extent the value of experiencing your life, whatever that experience is”. – L.A. Paul The concept of a "transformative experience" comes from philosophy, particularly in the work of L.A. Paul, and it refers to an…
When considering our psychological well-being, it may seem peculiar to consider the positive aspects of being unwell. One might argue that there are only downsides to such a condition. However, instead of assuming, as we often do, that our mental illnesses are solely problematic, we can embark on a journey of open-minded exploration. We can dare to ask ourselves: What purpose do my…
Stress can manifest from traumatic events, or from lower intensity but frequent daily hassles. Too much stress is a contributor to mental and physical health problems, even as far as to interfere with our immune system. An immediate solution to coping with stress is to seek social support—emotional resources provided by people who care about us, that genuinely have our best interests at…
What is validation? It feels good to be seen and understood right? Validation is the method of learning about, understanding, and expressing acceptance of another person’s emotional experience unconditionally, without judgement. Why do we validate? Painful feelings that are expressed, acknowledged, and validated by a trusted listener will diminish. Painful feelings that are ignored will gain strength To properly validate someone’s feelings is…
Our breath is a something we always have with us (hopefully), and it can be accessed and utilized in diverse ways to achieve different mental and physiological states. There is a myriad of different breathing techniques available out there to try. Box-breathing, Alternate-Nostril breathing, Sama Vritti and even the “Tummo” method recently popularized by “The Iceman” Wim Hof to increase alertness by making…