Skip to main content
Loading Explore guides…
Trauma-Informed CBT Techniques · Acedra
Home
Explore
Psychology
Trauma-Informed CBT Techniques
Sign in to save
Chat
If YouTube asks you to sign in, open the video on YouTube.
Watch on YouTube
Reload player
Transcript
304 segments
Copy
Hide video
0:00
CEUs are available at AllCEUs.com/CBT-CEU everybody and welcome to this video on 35 trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy techniques i'm your host dr donnelly snipes
0:10
as the title implies in this video we're going to review 35 cognitive behavioral therapy tools that can be used to help people feel safer and more empowered now if you're looking for a specific tool there are time stamps down in the video notes just fyi because 35 is a lot of tools so that can help you jump around a little bit more if you need to
0:34
in terms of the principles of trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy the goal is to use people's strengths build on what they're already doing help people recognize that they are the experts on their own lives and tools and strategies they've developed in order to cope with stress cope with life until now may not be the most effective may not necessarily be the most helpful like in the case of addictions but they
1:05
were developed to help that person survive help them see the survivor in themselves we want to help them identify secondary effects of trauma like depression anxiety poor communication skills abandonment anxiety you know there's a whole host of things
1:24
help them see how that's maybe related to trauma and promote self-care help them develop tools so they can start moving toward the rich and meaningful life that they envision
1:38
the first and most basic tool is a behavioral one and that is to create safety we need to help people feel like they are safe so their hpa access or their threat response system can take a break we don't want to have them feeling constantly hyper vigilant constantly being on guard and have an exaggerated startle response so if we can help them feel safer and at home in the car anywhere else they spend a fair amount of time it's going to reduce the intensity and
2:15
maybe even the frequency that that stress response system is activated it's going to help their body start to recalibrate and that is wonderful when they start feeling empowered when they start looking at environments at places and saying you know what there are things that i can do to help myself feel safe that is huge now there's a lot of types of safety though and we need to help them create a sense of physical safety from self and others now physical safety
2:47
from others is pretty obvious we want them to not be afraid that they're going to be assaulted or hurt in some way physically by another person but safety from self is also important we want them to feel like they have tools to deal with overwhelming emotions so they don't engage in
3:10
self-injurious behavior or addictive behaviors or other behaviors that could potentially be destructive affective or emotional and cognitive safety from self and others is another type of safety we need to help them develop recognizing that that inner critic in their head can feel very threatening can feel very intimidating a lot of times and can intensify trauma
3:40
helping them figure out how to deal with that inner critic is another aspect of creating safety as well as helping them develop safety from others emotionally and cognitively being able to set those boundaries and say this is how i feel these are my thoughts you don't have to agree but you can't i'm not going to let you take them from me i'm not going to let you invalidate my thoughts or feelings and then environmental safety from self and others
4:14
or from others and environmental safety is different than physical safety physical safety has to do with my body and not letting people injure myself environmental safety means creating an environment in which people don't have to fear for the things that they cherish their belongings they don't have to worry that somebody's going to encroach on their environment that somebody's going to take their environment from them maybe kick them out on the street for
4:44
example so we need to help them look at all aspects of safety and do as much as they can to reduce their feeling of threat and increase their feeling of safety and empowerment
5:01
i believe it's also important that people create a rescue pack to have with them this safety rescue pack can help people feel grounded safer more empowered in a variety of situations because you can't possibly plan for every situation and how you're going to feel safer in you know every single situation so a rescue pack can be helpful in that rescue pack i encourage them to create a thought list that has distress tolerant mantras such as i can get through this
5:35
this will this too shall pass i have friends that can help me whatever distress tolerance
5:43
thoughts that they find helpful usually somewhere between three and ten thoughts that they can have that they can just read over when they're feeling distressed can be very very helpful
5:56
activities is something else they can do to trigger that vagus nerve trigger that relaxation response or sometimes just help them stay grounded or turn their attention completely from whatever is making them feel nervous breathing slow diaphragmatic breathing will help trigger the vagus nerve bubble stuff blowing bubbles blowing up balloons or blowing bubble gum also has the same effect because it slows breathing down and can help trigger the relaxation response
6:31
keeping a phone with them which most people have now so that's not too outlandish is also important so they have the ability to reach out to a friend to reach out to someone who can listen who can provide support who can help them feel safer in the event that they don't have anybody then making sure they have the number of the local crisis line so they have somebody that they can reach out to
7:03
and narration is another activity that can be really helpful when people are feeling unsafe if they narrate what they're doing it can help them stay grounded avoid dissociating and be more aware of what's going on and how they are safe in the moment and sensations essential oils or wax tarts are wonderful because sometimes just smelling something that promotes a sensation of relaxation or brings back a positive memory can help trigger that relaxation response
7:40
and that can be really helpful likewise having something that they can smell that can displace a
7:50
trauma trigger a smell that triggers their trauma can also be helpful so if there's a particular cologne that triggers memories of their trauma when they're in the store if somebody walks by they have that cologne on then the person can reach into their rescue pack and get one of those essential oils or wax tarts or whatever out and smell that so it displaces that it turns their attention to something else if they want to for people who have a lot
8:25
of especially olfactory sensory triggers they may consider using something like fix vaporub
8:33
or some other type of rub that lotion or something that is scented and rubbing it right below their nose so they are smelling that pleasant scent the whole time and they're not waiting until they might be triggered keeping an anchoring object with them something they can hold something they can feel whether it's a you know those little tiny um stuffed animals i don't know what to call them that kids used to attach to their backpacks when i was in school
9:05
those can be helpful because you can stick those in a purse or something a worry stone or prayer beads or something else that the person can hold they can feel that helps them feel anchored can be very very helpful sometimes jolting yourself if you will out of a particular memory is can be really helpful you can splash cold water on your face now i wear makeup so i am not inclined to go into the bathroom when i'm feeling stressed and throw
9:40
cold water on my face because that's going to make my mascara run that's not a good thing ice packs can be helpful and this was one that you probably aren't going to use a whole lot because they're not reusable but the instant ice packs can be used if you can't access cold water to put on your wrists on your neck or splash on your face to help jolt you out of a particular distress spiral some people have particular music that they like to listen to or playlists that they listen to
10:14
that help them feel empowered that help them feel safer that help them calm down whatever feeling they're looking for and on the other end of the spectrum sometimes noise-canceling headphones can be really helpful if for example one of their triggers is the sound of ambulance sirens you can't make ambulances not run therefore if they are feeling particularly stressed
10:43
having noise cancelling headphones can be helpful to block out the sound of that particular trigger i know the other morning something was going on in our town and it was early morning so sound was traveling but no joke for 30 minutes it was just siren after siren after siren
11:06
and for somebody who's triggered by sirens that would have been pretty pretty intense for them
11:14
the next cognitive behavioral technique is distress tolerance and if you're familiar with dialectical behavior therapy you're probably familiar with distress tolerance i have distilled the stress tolerance activities down from accepts and improves which is what linehan uses and they're wonderful but i've simplified it because a lot of people have difficulty remembering all of those tags thoughts distress tolerant thoughts we've already talked
11:43
about those and having people develop a list of distress tolerant thoughts that can help them feel safer and more empowered activities to reset the hpa axis and improve vagal tone that is to trigger the rest and digest to trigger the relaxation response that can be that diaphragmatic breathing that you do just breathing or blowing bubbles or blowing up balloons it can be through a vagus nerve massage where you're massaging one finger behind the ear
12:20
one finger right on the tragus the little flippy flop thing on the ear and just gently massaging
12:27
yawning is another thing and now that i rubbed my tragus i'm getting ready to yawn
12:33
yawning is another activity that stimulates deep breathing but it also triggers the relaxation response guided imagery is another tool in the distress tolerance
12:50
toolbox if you will and you notice on the recovery pack that we just talked about on the rescue pack i had thoughts activities and sensations but i didn't have guided imagery because when people are feeling threatened when they're needing that rescue pack they're not wanting to check out they're not wanting to use guided imagery they're not going to feel safe enough to transport themselves somewhere else a lot of times however when they are in a safe place
13:21
if they're having flashbacks if they're having intrusive feelings sometimes it's not even a memory it's this feeling that comes from out of nowhere guided imagery can be helpful and that guided imagery can take the form of a mental vacation going to their favorite vacation spot and identifying five things that they see when they get to that spot four things they hear three things they smell two things they can feel that can really help people
13:56
turn their attention to something that promotes dopamine and relaxation chemicals being released which can help down regulate that stress response which is what we're doing with the stress tolerance we're not trying to avoid it we're trying to down regulate the stress response so the person can get in their wise mind another image people can use is one i just call it safety whatever that looks like to them for some people they envision a force field around
14:30
themselves for other people they have an angel on their shoulder for other people they have their god carrying them like you hear in the poem footprints in the sand whatever they envision that helps them feel safer and the moment can be incredibly empowering and if they're hurt in some way distress tolerance can be helpful if they're feeling pain especially physical pain they can envision healing whether it's you know nanobots or their immune cells
15:07
knitting together or healing the injured part they've actually done studies on people with
15:15
hiv and aids and found that guided imagery that focuses on the immune system actually does increase the the number of t helper cells which i thought was kind of cool and sensory we talked about that briefly here and we're going to talk about it some more because distress tolerance is sort of woven throughout cognitive behavioral therapy but sensory tools can help people trigger that relaxation response so that can be smells that help them feel relaxed
15:50
it doesn't have to be essential oils it can be anything that triggers a positive memory or a positive feeling like coffee for me if i smell good coffee that's just absolutely amazing and it triggers that little bit of an endorphin rush and that relaxation response sites whether it's pictures of their kids or of their dog or of a beautiful landscape what is it that they can look at that may help them feel calmer or more more safer in the moment sights
16:27
smells sounds what can they listen to that might help turn their attention away from their distress for a moment we're not ignoring it we are turning our attention away from it we're taking a break until the stress response can be dampened some so the person can address it through their wise mind
16:50
breath work i already mentioned this a little bit but breath work is so incredibly important in therapy and cognitive behavior behavioral therapy in just everything well we need breathing we need oxygen to live but slow deep breathing especially diaphragmatic breathing or belly breathing actually can help trigger the vagus nerve they call it respiratory vagus nerve stimulation or rvns so square breathing we've talked about
17:26
in multiple other videos is when you breathe in for four you hold for four you exhale for four and you hold for four and then you repeat that a couple of times when you slow your breathing it automatically triggers your heart rate to slow down when your breathing and your heart rate slow down your stress response system says oh guess i don't need to be freaking out right now so you're manually overriding by slowing your breathing you're manually overriding your stress response
17:59
now obviously if there is an impending threat right before you no matter how slowly you breathe you're going to be getting other feedback that is going to keep you from becoming completely relaxed but even in the face of stress
18:18
slowing your breathing can help mitigate that stress response so you can maintain your quote wits about you um a little bit more effectively so square breathing is ultimately the foundation of what we're talking about but there's a lot of ways to slow your breathing down some people feel like the square breathing or taking a few deep breaths is corny or they don't feel comfortable doing it whatever okay fine as i mentioned yawning is
18:50
a wonderful way to slow your breathing and you can force yourself to yawn you can also massage your vagus nerve and that may encourage a yawn you can do different vagus nerve stimulation exercises that can trigger yawning laughter when we laugh especially again belly a good old belly laugh you're going to take a deep breath in and then you go fall until you have exhaled so you're doing a slower exhale you just don't really pay attention to it i encourage
19:28
people to create a playlist on youtube or i don't know if you can do playlists on tick tock or not
19:35
but create a playlist that stimulates that guffaw that stimulates that good belly laughter that they can turn to when they need to um trigger their relaxation response i mentioned already bubble gum when you blow a bubble you're going to blow slowly so it doesn't pop in your face
19:58
bubble stuff and you can get the little tiny uh bubble stuff containers that they use for parties you can get that at target or walmart or online i'm sure and you can carry that with you and so you can just pull it out and blow bubbles whenever now being 50 years old people look at me like i'm a little odd if i pull bubbles out in the middle of the parking lot and start blowing them but you know if you don't care then no big deal balloons are another thing and you can do this in
20:31
your car or so if you're having a bad moment maybe you can go to your car you've got a balloon there you can blow it up again to blow up a balloon you're going to inhale big and there then you're going to blow blow blow so you're slowing your breathing
20:50
and those are things you can keep with yourself party noise makers and i don't know what else to call them they're the little noise makers that you blow on and they make that horrible screeching sound or whatever however you characterize it
21:06
kids especially love those because they're loud and annoying but that can be one other option or dragon breathers and that's what i have a picture of here you can use a toilet paper roll or you can use one of those plastic cups a red solo cup or something and then you cut strips of tissue paper and glue it to one end and you cut out the other end so it's a tube if you're using a cup and then when the child is distressed they can take a big
21:38
breath and then they can blow and let all that anger out through the dragon breather
21:45
and last but not least fitness trackers fitness trackers monitor your heart rate
21:52
so instead of thinking about breathing if you're thinking about lowering your heart rate well you've got to slow your breathing in order to lower lower your heart rate so some people will use their fitness tracker and they will just sit back for a minute and then they will intentionally slow their breathing so they can reduce their heart rate when your relaxation response is triggered your heart rate is going to go down
22:19
so that is a clear indication that you have manually overridden that hpa axis
22:31
another one of my favorite techniques is defining your rich and meaningful life for people to figure out you know where am i going how should i use my energy what's important for me to focus on
22:44
ultimately it's important to know where they're going or know where they want to go so what does that rich and meaningful look life look like for them and this is just an example of a vision board that i created you only have so much time and energy how are you going to use yours what people are important in your rich and meaningful life how are you going to use your energy to nurture
23:10
those relationships what things like health are important in your rich and meaningful life and how how much energy are you going to use to nurture that career is another one i've got on mine
23:25
how much energy am i going to use to nurture that and what does that look like in my rich and meaningful life and then again this is mine so all my critters and my farm are on here too
23:39
but this gives people something to look at and they can start every day looking at this and saying all right these are the things that are important and this is how i'm going to allocate this is how i'm going to spend my energy today or this week so it helps get them focused and then if they have to make a decision if something comes up during the day they have the ability to reflect look at this again and they can just take a
24:08
picture and keep it on their mobile device they can look at that picture again and ask themself all right is devoting energy to whatever this is that's come up
24:19
helping me move toward my rich and meaningful life or is it stealing energy from the things that are important in my rich and meaningful life
24:29
so i really love this vision board as a tool not only to have on the wall but also to have on the mobile device to help people regroup and refocus throughout the day
24:44
once they've defined their rich and meaningful life then we move on to what haze in acceptance and commitment therapy calls purposeful action
24:54
mindfully acknowledging the present this is where i am right now this is what's going on it's not good it's not bad it just is and then how should i use my energy right now given my context what is the most effective way to use my energy to deal with the current situation that will help me move toward the things that are important in my rich and meaningful life do i need to address it is it something that is in my way is it something that i need to do something about
25:27
okay if so then let's make a plan is it something that really doesn't matter i'm just getting all tied up about it but in the big scheme of things it doesn't keep me it's not blocking me from moving toward my rich and meaningful life i've just got gotten distracted by it
25:46
or should i change my reaction to the situation moving from anger for example to compassion maybe somebody does something in my life that triggers my anger is holding on to that anger is continuing to be angry at them helping me move towards my rich and meaningful life or is it stealing energy that i could be using spending on nurturing other relationships or even having compassion for them purposeful action is another tool of empowerment
26:22
because it helps people recognize that they have options and that is so important
26:30
now symptom locks
26:34
bear with me with the symptom logs because i'm going to show you a few different ways to do it however you know i got some of my foundation knowledge i got my minor in behavior modification so that gave me just enough knowledge to be dangerous sometimes but symptom logs were one of the big takeaways that i got from that and symptom logs are important because you know for example when you're on a diet or if you've got small children or a puppy at home
27:05
when you are seeing that thing every day when you're interacting with that thing every day whether it's yourself your kid your puppy you may not notice incremental changes and then all of a sudden one day you're like whoa you've grown up or whoa you've mastered the piano or something
27:26
um but so the same thing is true with mental health symptoms when people are dealing with it day in and day out they may not notice the incremental changes so symptom logs can be really really helpful not only for documenting those baby steps toward their rich and meaningful life but also to help people see how far they've come
27:52
every couple of weeks you can look at it and say okay let's look at the how far you've come and it gives you the ability to look for trends you can look for triggers for particular symptoms you can look for vulnerabilities what things or situations make a person more vulnerable to reacting to situations with anger you know sometimes it something may happen and it may not bother them at all they get cut off in traffic for example other times they get cut off in traffic
28:23
and they just fly into a rage what's different why were they more vulnerable the second time so symptom logs can provide us a lot of information because it gives us a better peek into what happened in dialectical behavior therapy linehan talks about backward chaining
28:45
ideally the person completes the symptom log when it happens but you can do it at the end of the day
28:52
symptom logs need to at the very least include the date it happens the time is it eight in the morning because some people are more irritable or in a better mood first thing in the morning versus late at night and vice versa so what date does it occur what time does it occur
29:12
what triggered the symptom if known or if there were distressful thoughts what was the theme
29:20
what was the intensity of the experience if they're having a flashback or if they're having an anxiety attack was it a one i noticed it but wasn't a big deal was it a two
29:34
i noticed it it was uncomfortable but i managed to get through it was it a three it was really difficult to keep moving forward while i was having this symptom or was it a four and in a four the symptom is just all-encompassing and they can't continue doing what they were it kind of shuts them down for a minute how long did it last was it five minutes or five hours how did it impact their energy mood productivity relationships said another
30:12
another way how did it impact those things that are important in their rich and meaningful life
30:19
what vulnerabilities and this goes to that backward chaining what vulnerabilities were present if they had an anxiety reaction were they over caffeinated or dehydrated or was their blood sugar low or were they in a particular environment that they tend to find stressful anyway
30:39
what did they do to cope was it effective and what do they want to try to do the next time maybe they want to do the same thing the next time because it was effective great if it wasn't effective they may choose to try to do something else
30:55
if the symptom seems ever-present like anxiety some people feel anxious quote all the time okay have them complete the log every hour that they're awake now i know that seems like a lot and if they're working full time that might not be practical if they're not working it's definitely doable if they're in residential treatment it's definitely doable so you can adjust how often they do their check-ins but definitely every couple of hours
31:30
once they get this information once they've got the data then it's going to be important to review the logs for themes in triggers and vulnerabilities i encourage people to make a pictograph of the frequency intensity and duration of their symptom so they can get an idea of
31:50
how often is this happening and kind of how bad is it in this one you can see from 8 am to 9 am
31:58
the person was having an anxiety attack it lasted for a whole hour which is why it's as wide as it is and the entire time they were having it it was at a level of a three so it felt pretty damn overpowering they still kept moving but it was really overpowering
32:17
and then at nine o'clock or 9 15 that went away and then at 10 30 they had another little
32:27
anxiety attack but that only was a one and it only lasted for about 30 minutes
32:34
and then at 12 30 12 45 whatever they had another one that was a big one i mean it was all-encompassing full-out panic attack and that lasted for almost 30 minutes
32:47
so then when somebody brings this in i would talk with them and i would say you know what were the triggers and maybe at 8 a.m the person's anxiety ramped up because they knew they had to go to work and work is just really really a huge source of stress right now or they knew they had to go to work and they were going to have to ride the subway and the subway is one of their triggers from their trauma so their anxiety went up really really high
33:17
but then they got to work at nine o'clock everything was okay they de-escalated sweet and then at 10 30 they had to go to a meeting with their boss and that was a little stressful they got along with their boss fine so it's not a big deal but it was a little bit stressful having to do that and then at 12 30 that was after lunch was over and they were getting ready to go back to work and they got cut off in traffic and it triggered an anxiety attack that lasted
33:54
20 or 30 minutes okay so by looking at this we can see how long they're lasting and then we can more granularly look back and go okay what's triggering and see if there are themes that are triggering anxiety at particular times of day or in particular places because that can help the person gain more awareness and be better able to prepare or adjust in order to reduce their stress
34:26
now you have a lot of these charts laying around that's great you may be able to look at them but it's hard to really get see incremental progress when you're still looking at four or five episodes a day and they're all still pretty high it's hard to know
34:44
are we making progress are we reducing the frequency intensity or duration and you know sometimes it may be obvious but sometimes it may not be i use a mathematical formula so here the first block is 1.25 hours so for an hour and 25 minutes she was feeling you know huge amounts of anxiety the intensity was at a level of a three so you can see 1.25 hours level of a three
35:18
and then the next one was at 10 30 that lasted half an hour it was an intensity of a one and then we had this other one over here that was a half an hour that was in an intensity of a four in order to take into account the frequency intensity and duration because we're looking for an overall improvement it doesn't matter whether it's frequency intensity or duration
35:46
i multiply the number of hours by the intensity and add it all up then their average anxiety is the number of total hours they were feeling anxious
35:58
divided by the total intensity so the mathematical formula here was a 0.36 so if we had to average out her anxiety over the entire day um what we would be looking at is a .36 remember one is they're they're feeling it and ideally we don't want people feeling anxious all day every day so i'd like to see that a lot closer to a 0.0 than a 0.3 but next week we would go through and add up the data and do this again now for some people this could be too data-driven and i get
36:45
that so you can skip the mathematical formula if it's not for you but i think the charts are at the very least very helpful because people can really get a quick vision of do we see things going down
37:02
now an alternative log if somebody feels like they are anxious all the time they've got generalized anxiety then there's not going to be any particular time that they have a symptom or they have an episode it's just kind of all the time so remember i said assessing it on an hourly basis and this is a chart on an hourly basis if you do it every two hours then it would adjust accordingly so each hour the person asks themselves
37:32
how am i feeling on a scale of one to four and we have three hours that it was a three we have one hour that it was a three and a half and then you can see that towards the evening towards the end of the day it actually went down to a one
37:51
we want to ask the person you know what was different at 3 pm then at 8 am what was triggering your anxiety throughout the day and why did it go down at 3 pm but also why was it still present at all at 3 pm what else is contributing or maintaining your anxiety and maybe it's just ruminating or anticipating having to go to work the next day i don't know
38:20
you can do the same mathematical formula here and for this person based on that chart their average anxiety over the course of the day was a 1.88 so they're still feeling some pretty intense anxiety and we would look for that number to gradually decrease over the course of treatment
38:47
the next technique we're going to talk about is systematic desensitization and ownership and these are similar or similarly related techniques they're not exactly the same but i lumped them together systematic desensitization and ownership helps the person alter their reaction to triggers or stimuli in the environment think about it like an allergy shot for cognitive allergens
39:13
it creates an environment of safety and empowerment when they start realizing that things do not have to control them then they can start feeling more empowered
39:25
they mastered the ability to use breathing relaxation and distress tolerance skills to down regulate their stress response when they feel triggered just because i smell this smell just because i see this thing it may trigger a trauma feeling but i d it doesn't have to consume me i can address it i can help myself feel safe and i can get control of that situation so the example i use for systematic desensitization is snakes because a lot of people
40:02
have a fear of snakes but it can be anything the first step is to learn about the trigger learn about whatever it is whether it's snakes or flying or in the case of trauma triggers like the smell of a particular cologne you may not have to learn a lot about that but you recognize that oh okay the smell of this cologne triggers a trauma memory all right now what do i do about it
40:32
well we're going to take away the power of that trigger we're going to take away the power of that stimulus so we have the person think about the stimulus and so think about the snake or think about what that's smelling that cologne and their anxiety is going to go up their stress response is going to go up and then they're going to use distress tolerance skills to trigger the relaxation response to dampen that stress response so they can get into their wise mind
41:04
once they're in their wise mind then they can effectively address the facts of the situation in this situation at this time am i safe i smelled that smell triggered my stress response all right i'm going to push down my stress reaction i'm going to dampen my stress reaction get into my wise mind in this situation at this time does that smell represent a threat to me or is it just somebody that walked past me in the store
41:37
the important thing is helping people get into their wise minds so they can effectively evaluate the facts in the current context once they can think about a snake and it doesn't trigger that stress response they've been able to decouple that stress so just thinking about it doesn't trigger that response anymore then think about being in a room with a caged snake so it's not just some snake somewhere it's a snake in the same room with you it's in a cage
42:12
but it's in the room and they go through the same process practicing imagining that and
42:20
down regulating their stress response until thinking about being in a room with a caged snake doesn't trigger that response think about being in a room with someone else holding a snake so now the snake's not even in a cage but somebody else is holding on to it thinking about that we're not nowhere near being in the same room with a snake yet we're just helping the person envision imagine these situations and learn how to
42:52
down regulate the stress response to their cognitions to their beliefs
42:59
think about petting a snake someone else is holding and then think about holding a snake once a person can move through all of these things and it doesn't trigger
43:11
their anxiety response it doesn't trigger their stress response anymore then you can move toward you know maybe going to a pet store where you're in an environment with a caged snake
43:23
and again there would be more steps to desensitizing to that particular stressor
43:30
but it can be really helpful not again not only for snakes or spiders or planes or phobias but also for other triggers so people can think about smelling that smell and then they can get to the point where they can actually smell the smell and it doesn't trigger that stress response for them
43:56
in terms of ownership or immersion when you're regularly exposed to something and able to manage your response it loses much of its power now this isn't something that i recommend i don't recommend flooding for people to do on their own but it is a technique that people can use especially with what i call annoyance triggers it's not a trigger that triggers this cascade this flood of stress chemicals
44:25
but it's enough to trigger a stress response it triggers their resentment their irritability
44:33
if it is a smell or a saying sometimes people have have
44:40
success making it their own making it theirs to control so they start wearing that particular perfume or they start using that particular scent to as a fragrance in their house
44:54
i had a client one time who had a significant other that had a particular saying
45:02
and every time he heard that saying after they broke up it just brought back a flood of memories and just triggered his anger he's like oh when people say that it makes me want to climb the wall so i encouraged him for the next week to use it himself you start saying that whenever you can you start saying that make it your own so it's no longer associated with her it's something that you do and then if you don't want to say it anymore after that that's fine
45:32
associated with positive things like smells activities or holidays if something triggers a stress response try to pair it with something else positive as much as possible and regularly expose yourself to it while regulating your stress response and this is one i use for bridges
45:57
because i can't get away from bridges where i live but i don't like bridges however i've gotten to the point where i can drive over them and they don't really bother me that much anymore
46:12
systematic desensitization should be undertaken with care to prevent moving forward too quickly and causing additional anxiety or trump re-traumatizing yourself it always starts with ensuring you feel safe and empowered and every
46:30
scenario needs to end with the person feeling safe and empowered so they feel safe and empowered they imagine the stressful situation and then they de-escalate
46:43
before beginning any type of exposure even imaginary exposure it is essential to have mastered the skills of distress tolerance and emotion regulation
46:57
mindfulness is another wonderful cognitive behavioral tool mindfulness means turning off autopilot and being non-judgmentally aware of your thoughts feelings needs and behaviors in the present moment it helps connect thoughts feelings and behaviors and promotes prevention and early intervention of distress think about how operating on autopilot may contribute to sickness anger outbursts or relapses of depression
47:33
so there are a lot of different kinds of mindfulness and the first one we're going to talk about is personal mindfulness start with being as being mindful as soon as you wake up in the morning at each meal and before going to bed and for a lot of people that i work with i encourage them to set push notifications to remind them to check in and be mindful i know you need reminders to be mindful but each time they check in with themselves
48:01
throughout the day they ask themselves how do i feel physically how do i feel emotionally and why
48:10
what do i need right now to continue feeling great if they're feeling awesome great keep it going or improve the next moment if they're feeling tired hungry run down anxious
48:23
checking in with themselves and figuring out what is it that i need to do to improve the next moment
48:33
grounding can be thought of as another kind of mindfulness and it's a technique to help people feel connected to the present moment and not swept up by emotions or thoughts two of the most common grounding activities are the 54321 and the describe an object in 54321 when the person starts feeling stressed they identify five things they see four things they hear three things they smell two things they feel and if possible one thing they taste
49:07
describing an object can mean holding an object it can be your phone it can be your purse it can be your grounding object and just describing it to yourself is it cold is it hot is it soft is it bumpy whatever sensations you get from it but that encourages the brain to stay anchored in the present moment which can help with dissociation it can help with anxiety and it can help with
49:37
triggering that relaxation response as people turn their attention away from the anxiety provoking stimulus to what is helping them stay relaxed in the moment i find the describing object is really helpful when i go in to get shots because to this day i am terrified of needles but that helps me a lot i'll be holding a grounding object and thinking about what it feels like and all those things
50:10
so when i get the shot i'm not thinking about that i'm not anticipating it hurting i'm not tensing up
50:20
general mindful awareness uh encourages people to be aware of the moment not just themselves but the moment in general become more mindful in your actions as you're doing them what do you see what do you hear what do you smell when you're out on a walk have that open awareness where you're just noticing anything that's there it's not necessarily good or bad you're just noticing it you'll be surprised at all the things that you typically probably overlook
50:55
and mindful reflection is an activity in which people reflect on their activities at the end of the day by asking themselves what did i do and for each of each thing that they did throughout the day was doing this an effective use of my energy to move toward the things that are important in my rich and meaningful life
51:18
or was doing this whatever it was what a happy healthy successful person would do some people like the rich and meaningful life you know does it help me move toward my goals other people want to act as if fake it till you make it as they say so they ask themselves was i acting like a person who was happy healthy and successful would have acted examples you know when you're reflecting on the day if you got sucked into video games
51:53
for three or four hours it's easy to do asking yourself was this an effective use of my time to move me toward my rich and meaningful life if you were playing video games with your best friend and it was good bonding time well then maybe it was if not maybe it wasn't you know it's up to each individual to decide was this important is this something that you really like doing is it a hobby does it promote relaxation well then maybe it was an effective use of energy
52:25
you can do the same thing for dwelling on resentments or eating unhealthfully
52:30
was it effective at helping you move towards your goals was it something that a happy healthy successful person would typically do
52:43
an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure mindfulness is essential to health and well-being because it can help you become your own consistently empathetic responsive best friend it can help you become more aware of the situation and notice the good and the beauty in in life in addition to the stressors and also become more aware of how how you're using your energy and whether it is moving you forward or keeping you stuck
53:16
authenticity is the next tool we're going to talk about and i love authenticity it means being true to yourself people often become inauthentic because they're trying to get approval from others their self-esteem is low so they're looking for somebody else to tell them they're okay
53:34
they may be inauthentic because they're afraid of being rejected abandoned or in today's society cancelled or they may be inauthentic because they're just operating on autopilot they're not acting mindfully they have always just kind of done whatever happens and hadn't haven't really stopped to think about is this me is this me being authentic or is this me just being impulsive
54:04
i use the metaphor for chocolate chip cookies when i talk about
54:08
relationships and when i talk about authenticity
54:13
when you have chocolate chip cookies you've got sugar cookies and you've got chocolate chips both of them are just fine on their own thank you very much one doesn't pretend to be the other they are authentic in who they are now if you put them together in relationships when you have two authentic people that join together you can get something that is potentially infinitely better than either one of those things all by themselves because they enhance each other
54:41
they don't complete each other they're already complete by themselves they enhance one another
54:51
when you're practicing on authenticity it's important to become mindful of your thoughts feelings and needs and act in accordance with them instead of being a chameleon so mindfulness is a precursor to authenticity it's also important to help people separate approval or disapproval of behaviors from themselves not everybody's going to like what you do if you're behaving authentically not everybody may like your choices but does that mean they dislike you or they dislike your choice
55:27
it's important for people to ex explore and address their fears related to being authentic and a lot of people have fears about being authentic for very legit reasons these days unfortunately and if it is an office because of that radical authenticity or being yourself a hundred percent of the time may not be safe for everybody in every situation so it's important that they practice being assertive and authentic sharing themselves with safe other people first and then deciding
56:05
is it important for me to be authentic here is it important for me to be authentic on social media is it important for me to be a hundred percent authentic at work and only the individual can
56:20
figure that out and if they can't be a hundred percent authentic is that an environment that's healthy for them to be in and again only they can decide but that's part of the empowerment of cognitive behavioral therapy helping people recognize that they are good enough they are deserving of love they are in a position they are empowered to help keep themselves safe and that also means safe from
56:52
harm from others and safe from others being mean to them if you will if they're authentic from taking away their authentic selves
57:03
authenticity means moving from what moving from being aware of thoughts wants and needs to acting in a way that's in accordance with them so if you know that you like italian over mexican food or that's what you want an authentic person would be mindful they would recognize hey i want to go for italian food and they would tell people that they would assert that if you're being inauthentic then you may know that you have a craving for italian food but you know what no i don't care
57:39
where we go i don't have any preference well that's inauthentic yes you do have a preference
57:45
being authentic can be scary at first and is often advisable to not advisable to suddenly start practicing what i call radical authenticity which can make the person feel really vulnerable not suddenly deciding that okay starting today i am going to be a hundred percent authentic all the time that is a radical shift not only for the individual but for everybody around them and it could upset the apple cart so to speak it may take people a minute
58:18
to get used to someone suddenly becoming authentic so which can set them up for not so great reactions from significant others but also when you're authentic you're putting your true self out there you're making yourself vulnerable and making yourself vulnerable can be extremely scary especially for people with a history of abandonment rejection or trauma so it is important to use this with care yes it's great when people feel like they
58:51
can be authentic but it's something that a lot of times people need to build up to
58:58
as people become more authentic have them notice how it impacts their mental and physical health
59:09
thought stopping is the next tool thought stopping helps us redirect our brain and we can
59:17
engage in thought stopping by simply telling ourself no not now not thinking about it
59:23
sometimes that helps sometimes people need to replace the thought with a mantra a prayer or grounding activities to sort of drown out whatever that thought is to turn their attention if the thought keeps coming back okay then ask yourself what's the benefit to ruminating on this thought why does it keep coming back why do i keep feeling like i need to think about this is there anything
59:54
that the person can do to address the thought and improve the issue at this moment so for example if you're waiting on test results from the doctor that aren't going to be in for another six days
1:00:07
what's the benefit to ruminating on that why does it keep coming back is there anything you can addre do to address the thought in the moment and the answer is no you just gotta wait and be patient so sometimes people will write it down and put it into their thought box a lot of times it can be helpful for people who have um persistent thoughts ruminations whatever you want to call call it they write these things down and then they schedule 30 minutes a day that's their worry time
1:00:38
so these thoughts pop up and instead of saying no i'm not going to think about it ever it's no i'm not going to think about that right now i will think about it this afternoon during my worry period encourage people to start small try to stop having the thought for five minutes and if they make it to five minutes then great
1:01:01
thought may come back let's try 10 minutes now see if you can make it 10 minutes without thinking about it and it can be empowering to the person to recognize that they are getting better at learning how to stop some of those annoying thoughts or those annoying voices that want to chime in
1:01:25
perspective taking is another tool look perspective taking means looking at the bigger picture to understand the reactions of other people as sometimes as well as yourself you know stepping back and trying to get a different perspective there are four p's in perspective taking predisposing what were the background factors that contributed to the behavior whether it's another person or yours if the client has a history of trauma that's one of those predisposing
1:01:58
factors that may contribute to them reacting with fear or anger in particular situations for example
1:02:08
precipitating factors so you have somebody who's been exposed to trauma somebody who's endured trauma and so they already have an hpa axis that's you know turned on they already tend to be more hyper vigilant precipitating factors are vulnerabilities and contextual factors that precipitate their reaction
1:02:31
they have this history and then they're in a situation in which they feel somewhat unsafe they're in this situation where there's lots of hustle and bustle maybe they're at the airport and there's just lots of people going around and bumping into one another and they start feeling really stressed out because it is feels like an unsafe environment they feel vulnerable
1:02:54
provocations what provoked or triggered that behavior and if you're talking about trying to understand somebody else's reaction then looking at your own behavior and saying in what way might i have inadvertently provoked that behavior and i say inadvertently because a lot of times we may trigger somebody's anger and we didn't even mean to we didn't maybe we didn't think clearly before we said something or maybe we have no idea what we did to trigger that person's behavior
1:03:27
but recognizing um that there may be something that we did okay doesn't mean we meant to and plans if you reacted with anger or anxiety and you regret it
1:03:44
recognizing where that came from and asking yourself well did i have good intentions did i go into this situation saying yeah i'm just going to be kind of nasty about this or did i have good intentions but the predisposing precipitating and provoking factors led me in a different way same thing with when you're dealing with somebody else if you're interacting with them and they react strongly to something that you say it's important
1:04:15
to ask yourself you know why are they perceiving it differently than i am what predisposing factors what historical or experiences might they have had that caused them to interpret this situation differently in what way might have i have inadvertently provoked the behavior
1:04:35
and did the person really ultimately have good intentions they may have not intended to get into an argument with you but it just it ended up there
1:04:49
self forgiveness is the next tool we're going to talk about remember that forgiveness does not mean that you agree or condone the situation or what happened but you're choosing to stop using your energy to beat yourself up the four r's of self forgiveness responsibility yeah you need to take responsibility for the aspects that you're responsible for but that's it only take responsibility for the aspects that you're responsible for if something
1:05:24
happened between you and someone else as they say it takes two to tango there are probably a lot of other factors that were out of your control take responsibility for what you're responsible for
1:05:36
the second r is remorse well if you're work working on forgiveness then you do feel remorseful you feel guilty but just feeling guilty keeps you beating yourself up guilt is self-anger so feeling remorse is your body's way of saying okay here's some energy now you can use this energy to learn from this situation so you can stay safe in the future or you can fix the mistake you made
1:06:05
which takes us to rectifying or making amends what do you need to do to
1:06:12
fix this situation make amends or just learn from it sometimes you can't fix it and the final r is releasing past hurt and accepting imperfection forgiving yourself and saying all right you screwed up it doesn't make you less lovable it just means you're human you're fallible you're imperfect and you forgive yourself you're going to choose to not continue using energy beating yourself up for something that you have rectified and
1:06:48
taken responsibility for forgiving others is very similar forgiveness still means choosing to stop giving energy to that person or memory that is causing you distress
1:07:12
forgiveness can involve recalling the betrayal recal recalling what happened that is causing you to feel angry or resentful explore why you might be afraid to forgive them why are you wanting to hold on to this energy why are you afraid to learn and let go altruism visualize forgiving this person as a gift to yourself and your significant others i'm forgiving this person over here so i'm not tying all my energy up in it anymore which is great because now
1:07:48
i have all this energy freed up that i can give to myself and my significant others learn from it and adjust your expectations sometimes people ain't gonna change therefore recalling the betrayal what happened and what do you need to learn so you don't get hurt in the future
1:08:12
living in the and is another tool that can be helpful for forgiving
1:08:18
you can have a rich and meaningful life and not be able to trust this person anymore if that's what has to happen it doesn't mean you're going to continue to be angry at them you you've just learned that they're not trustworthy
1:08:33
so living in the and means you can have a rich and meaningful life and forgive other people
1:08:42
sometimes it's easier to forgive smaller things first
1:08:47
it can help to empathize without minimizing you can empathize and try to understand why somebody did what they did maybe even have compassion or pity for them but not minimize it you're not saying oh i have pity for you i understand why it happened and you know i guess it wasn't really that bad no
1:09:08
i i can empathize with what you were going through and maybe why you reacted with such anger however
1:09:18
this is how it impacted me and i am not going to diminish the impact it had on me just because you were going through a bad thing so i'm going to empathize without minimizing
1:09:31
safely share your feelings this isn't always possible but sometimes it can be helpful to safely share your feelings with that person or maybe even with your higher power or just your journal
1:09:45
but sometimes you need to get them out sometimes there are things that quote need to be said that are going to keep bouncing around in your head until you can say them so say them in a safe way
1:09:58
and then practice thought stopping even after you've chosen to forgive somebody every once in a while that resentment or that anger is going to creep back up and you're going to remember what happened and that's when thought stopping comes in handy and you can say nope handled that already not going to revisit it
1:10:22
and then the abcdes of cbt a and if you remember back to basic cognitive behavioral therapy this is one of your basic tools a is the activating event what happened
1:10:38
c is the consequences of the activating event and we want to consider all of the consequences not just your emotional reaction but your physical reaction your cognitive reaction how did it change the way you think about people and the world your relationship reaction how did it change the way you feel about your ability or the trustworthiness of people in the world so the activating event and the consequences but between the time that something happens and you get angry or that
1:11:12
hpa axis that stress response gets triggered you have a litany of automatic beliefs that come from schema come from past experiences your brain's going okay let me tell you how to interpret this a lot of times these beliefs because they're based on past experiences may not be a hundred percent accurate in the present context which is why we go down to d after you've identified what those beliefs are then you dispute each one of them based on the facts in the current
1:11:46
context is this belief still a hundred percent accurate based on the facts in the current context
1:11:56
once you've identified what is actually true in the current context then you can evaluate the effectiveness of your reactions for helping you use your energy and time to move toward your rich and meaningful life so okay maybe something happens it triggers rage in you you get really angry that somebody did something you go through your beliefs and you dispute them and you determine yeah you know they betrayed me it was a big hurt okay so evaluate the effectiveness
1:12:31
of your reaction is holding on to anger is dwelling and stewing on anger and holding on to this resentment is that an effective use of your time and energy to help you move towards your rich and meaningful life or would something like forgiveness be a more helpful tool
1:12:54
cognitive distortions is another basic cognitive behavioral therapy tool that we look at and there are five maybe six uh big ones that frequently come up when i work with people and all or none thinking this person always does this or this person never does this i encourage people to pay attention to their cognitive distortions to their um extreme language and if they say always or never to reframe that and start saying sometimes or often
1:13:34
look for exceptions if you say that jane never calls when she's going to be late look back are there exceptions are there times when jane did call
1:13:46
personalization means taking what somebody else does personally it's my fault or they looked at me with this horrible look they must be angry at me what are three alternatives that have nothing to do with you magnification or catastrophing which means making a mountain out of a molehill or assuming that the worst case scenario is going to happen
1:14:10
look at the facts in the situation based on the facts how accurate is your belief
1:14:18
minimization is the same way and sometimes people will minimize the impact of drinking for example and that can be faulty if they are having if they're in recovery for alcoholism
1:14:33
they may also minimize their strength and their power and their ability to
1:14:41
move towards their goals they may minimize their own effectiveness and so it's important to look at the facts is it true that you are powerless in this situation
1:14:54
and then assuming can be broken down into mind reading and jumping to conclusions a lot of times when people grew up in dysfunctional environments they learn to try to anticipate other people's needs in order to get approval and prevent punishment
1:15:10
and they carry that with them into adulthood unfortunately it's not common to be able to effectively read other people's minds open communication is a whole lot more effective so if you are mind reading if you're assuming that you know what somebody is thinking or wanting check it out what are the facts what do you actually know versus what are you assuming
1:15:40
related is jumping to conclusions maybe your best friend doesn't text you back or stands you up for lunch a lunch date that you made three weeks ago you jumped to the conclusion that um something terrible happened and she's as my mother would always say lying dead in a ditch somewhere um that's jumping to conclusions so look at the facts based on what you know you don't know why they didn't show up for your lunch date
1:16:13
when i'm working with clients i have a cognitive distortions worksheet that i give them and i encourage them to go through it when they have
1:16:23
stress when they feel anxious when they feel angry when they feel distressed they write down what the activating event was what the trigger was and then b is the beliefs they write down those beliefs and then they evaluate each one of those beliefs for cognitive distortions
1:16:47
alternate problem formulation is another cool one or i think it is and i use the mnemonic peace corps for this and this kind of puts together a lot of what we've been talking about so the person identifies the problem they identify early experiences they've had that may impact how they perceive the situation so maybe they have their um anxious around authority figures that's the problem early experiences we look back at early experiences with authority figures
1:17:20
well not so good so yeah it makes sense why this person might have anxiety around authority figures
1:17:28
a stands for assumptions rules and attitudes what are your assumptions about people who are in authority positions based on your early experiences so you're seeing how this is all starting to connect our past helps us try to interpret the present but it's not always a hundred percent accurate so we need to understand why am i assuming this to be true c is core beliefs what are your core beliefs about people if you have core beliefs that people are only
1:18:04
out for themselves and they'll throw you under the bus any chance they get then you're going to feel less trusting and probably be more apprehensive than if you think that people are altruistic
1:18:16
e stands for effectiveness of assumptions core beliefs and reactions
1:18:21
based on all this stuff in the current context how effective are my assumptions and core beliefs at helping me function and then the core part is looking at that context in with the facts that i have in this context at this time what are my options to handle the situation what resources do i have to help me handle the situation
1:18:48
if i do the things that are within my control that i have options and resources for what's the probability that things are going to go well and where can i find support
1:19:07
another technique that i really like is tragic optimism and this can be you um summarized in the mnemonic crab grass and i like crabgrass because it is an example of tragic optimism i don't know if it grows in the northern states but in the southern states we have this weed that we call crabgrass and it will take over your lawn it is just a bugger and a half to get rid of but it tends to be very resistant to heat and weather and it stays green for a really long time
1:19:41
so if your goal is to have a green lawn crab grass can be really freaking awesome if your goal is to have this perfect fescue or bermuda grass lawn then yeah crabgrass is not your friend but so tragic optimism means embracing the good with the bad recognizing the current situation and saying all right it is what it is what do i want is there hope that it can get better and um so you start out by creating a vision what is your vision of your rich and meaningful life
1:20:19
tragic optimism doesn't mean ignoring the bad it means acknowledging the bad saying okay this happened this sucks maybe in my rich and meaningful life i would be able to work on the farm until i was 80 years old but hey i had to have both knees replaced
1:20:40
okay so my vision of being able to work on the farm until i'm 80 years old may not be doable anymore so radically acceptance right radically accepting what's going on all right i had to have my knees replaced it is what it is therefore uh how can i have a rich and meaningful life and have some knees that don't work as well anymore
1:21:08
and that is the our part of crabgrass so i see what i want i recognize what is and then i try to figure out okay how can i mesh these two together how can i still have a rich and meaningful life and accept this adversity a stands for anticipate the positive a lot of times we can get stuck in the negative anticipating the positive means trying to find hope trying to find compromise in what's going on instead of anticipating the worst b stands for be present be aware be mindful
1:21:50
of what's going on how you feel in the moment and then address it if like the example i gave your vision for your rich and meaningful life suddenly took a hard left turn okay
1:22:03
well acknowledging that and radically accepting it living in the end that's all well and good but you may also have some grief that you've got to deal with so being present helps you identify and say
1:22:18
i hear all that i see all that is logical but i also need to acknowledge how i'm feeling right now
1:22:26
g stands for growth and learning this is an unfortunate experience how can i use it as a growth experience what can i learn from it in order to improve my life
1:22:40
r is realistic goals and expectations okay well maybe i can't work independently on the farm until i'm 80 years old but what can i do i can still have chickens i may not be riding horses anymore but i can still have chickens i can still do some gardening so those are realistic goals based on the new reality radical acceptance of the new reality
1:23:05
a stands for affirm yourself one step at a time when something bad happens we want it to go away we want to feel better but we generally don't go from misery to exhilaration like that so affirming yourself recognizes um and acknowledges the positive steps you're taking toward adjusting to this new situation s is find solutions to the problem any problems that come up because you're having to make some adjustments and then the final s is in serenity accepting what can
1:23:47
and cannot be changed you know in the example i'm using you can't get back your 20 year old knees so if you don't have that you can't get that back you have to accept that that cannot be changed and potentially again process it through grief for whatever you need to do
1:24:10
challenging questions face palm when we start to feel distressed when we start to feel overwhelmed it's important to evaluate our beliefs what are the facts for and against your belief not your assumptions not emotional reasoning what are the facts for and against your belief
1:24:31
what additional factors need to be considered like the context like the other people that were there like whatever what else contributed to the situation and how it turned out what is the context of the situation and are you using extreme language are you using all or nothing words
1:24:57
p stands for probability or likelihood if you're having this belief that's catastrophic that's stressful in nature what is the probability or likelihood that the worst case scenario is going to play out a stands for alternate explanations what are some alternate explanations for why this might be happening or what might have happened because sometimes we assume we know what happened and why it happened and that's not it i mean think
1:25:27
about a car you can take it into a mechanic and he says oh it's the compressor and he changes out the compressor and the air conditioner still doesn't work and he's like oh well what are some alternate explanations learn from it and move forward and moving forward can be really difficult because
1:25:48
whatever triggered that feeling triggered that stress response and it's important to learn how you're safe learn what you have power over and recognize that you do have the power to move forward it may come back and visit you occasionally but you can stop those thoughts
1:26:13
radical acceptance and i love the mnemonic well i created it so uh face it um f stands for fact for and against your belief radical acceptance means accepting the moment as it is it is what it is and if that phrase bugs you you know you may want to look at why but a lot of times that phrase bugs people because they don't like accepting things they don't like not having complete control over things but sometimes you don't
1:26:48
it is what it is okay so what are the facts for and against your belief what is going on right now
1:26:56
a is acceptance that radical acceptance embracing the present and acknowledging that it is what it is and you don't have to like it but you may not be able to change it
1:27:09
by recognizing this you eliminate should you eliminate saying well it shouldn't be this way or it should be this way it's not it just is which also helps you reduce the amount of energy wasted being angry over something that you don't like in the moment and you have no control over
1:27:34
c stands for control once you've identified the facts and accepted them then you can identify which aspects of the situation you can control which ones you can't and the best way to use your energy to cope with the situation continue to worry stay angry miserable is that helpful what aspects can you control
1:27:58
how can you change your situation or the way you feel about the situation and then e stands for evaluate the effectiveness of your choices so you're facing it
1:28:16
successive approximations and scaffolding is another tool that i have used a lot and i really love successive approximations means striving to get a little bit better or closer to the goal every single time so maybe if you're learning how to shoot free throws you know the first time you shoot the ball and it just whiffs completely misses the backboard the rim everything all together all right well then you practice and the next time you get the ball up there and
1:28:47
it grazes the rim that's better it's closer the next time it hits the backboard but bounces off okay and then the fourth time you hit it up there and it actually sinks in the bucket now for most people it's not going to be a 1 2 3 4 like that but you get the analogy that i'm making successive approximations means looking for a little bit of improvement every single time
1:29:17
scaffolding goes along with successive approximations and means letting somebody do something up until the point they need help the goal is to prompt successive approximations so they get a little bit better and need a little less help each time think if you've ever tried to teach your kid to tie their shoes you know tying shoes can be difficult
1:29:38
so the first you want to get them so they can slide the shoe on their foot that's the first step and then it's crisscrossing the laces and pulling them tight and then making the bow and then the rabbit goes around the tree and then pulling the ear through you know how it goes when you're trying to teach children to tie their shoes there's a lot of steps in it
1:30:02
but you want to let them do as much as they can because that helps them feel empowered that helps them feel more capable and that helps them learn how to do it and then once they get to the point where they're stuck then you can either talk them through it or take over and then the next time hopefully they'll get a little bit further but this can be applied to things like tying shoes washing clothes learning a computer program school
1:30:32
work folding a fitted sheet one of the banes of my existence or even things like anger management
1:30:43
heartiness is represented by commitment control and challenge and this is a concept that was proposed way back in 1978 but it's still true and useful today commitment means identifying all of the things in your rich and meaningful life to which you are committed that you are
1:31:05
that are important to you that you want to devote your time and energy to looking at that so you may have your house you may have your garden you may have your animals and your kids and your friends and your job and you know all these things out here well that's great at any one point in time it's likely that every single one of them is probably not going perfectly but heartiness encourages us instead of focusing on the one sliver of the pie that's going bad
1:31:37
to acknowledge the part of the pie that's going bad and recognize everything that's going well which helps buffer so we don't feel hopeless overwhelmed dejected sometimes people will do this can chart this out using a pie chart where each part of their life that's going good is shaded in green and each part that's not going well is shaded in red
1:32:03
other times people have used green and red solo cups you know the little plastic cups and they've put marbles or rocks representing each thing that's important to them in the cups accordingly and hopefully the green solo cup ends up with filled up more with a lot more rocks than the red solo cup so people have a visual representation of hey you know yes this stuff over here is going crappy but look at all this stuff that's going well
1:32:37
c stands for control of those things the ones that are going crappy as well as the ones that are going well what aspects can you control the things that are going well how can you continue to use your energy to keep those things going well the things that are going crappy how can you use your energy to help them improve if at all and challenge instead of seeing it as a barrier that keeps you from moving toward your rich and meaningful life seeing things that are not going
1:33:14
so well as a challenge recognizing the ways that you've endured difficult situations in the past and then like an athlete constantly strives to get stronger better or faster how can this experience be seen as a challenge to help you strengthen the skills that you already have to get around or over or under this particular obstacle that's in your path
1:33:44
playing the tape through is another one that i really like too often we make decisions or assumptions based on emotions we feel angry we feel anxious we want to fight or flee so we do things out of anger or anxiety instead of instead of our wise mind playing the tape through means considering all the factors and options both in the short and the long term so it's kind of like playing a game of chess with in life
1:34:14
it's important to beta test before acting or reacting
1:34:23
for example quitting a job maybe you hate your job and you want to quit your job and in the short term oh my gosh that would be such a relief that's that's true but play the tape through what are the long-term consequences of quitting your job right now
1:34:42
or maybe you have difficulty being around people places or things that are triggering or you you choose to be around people places or things that are triggering maybe you're somebody who's in recovery from alcoholism and you start minimizing and say and rationalizing and saying oh you know i haven't had a drink in two years so i can go meet my friends at a bar and i'll just have club soda
1:35:10
that's rationalizing you want to play the tape through you think you can but in the long run how likely is that to happen what are the potential consequences of taking that risk decisional balance activities are it's a chart that is proposed and used a lot in motivational interviewing and when you practice decisional balance you encourage people to look at the benefits and the drawbacks not only to change but also to staying the same
1:35:47
the benefits to change well helping them figure out why is it that they want to change that one seems pretty obvious you know how is it going to help them feel better physically get more sleep be healthier have more energy feel happier improve their relationships improve their finances you know okay all those things so that one may seem pretty obvious but then we want to talk about what are the drawbacks to change and sometimes people look at me like i'm crazy when i ask them that
1:36:16
but the goal is to try to figure out what things might get in their way what might prevent them from changing what might make them decide you know what it's not worth all this effort so what are the drawbacks and we go again through what emotionally how are you going to feel what are what's scary or anxiety provoking about change physically when we're talking about addiction one of the drawbacks to change physically is the withdrawal symptoms okay well how
1:36:50
can we mitigate those so they're not quite as intense so they don't make you as miserable
1:36:57
interpersonally what are the drawbacks to change sometimes when people change it means they lose some friends or change their social circle and that can be really intimidating
1:37:08
financially what are the drawbacks to change well we're talking about addiction for example residential treatment can be really expensive in the short term but in the long term um maybe not
1:37:24
and then legally if there are any legal consequences and then you do the same thing for staying the same what are the benefits to staying the same what do you like about what you're doing now and then what are the drawbacks to staying the same and by going through all four of these quadrants by breaking it down very granularly you can help people identify their motivations for change
1:37:50
and then areas that you need to address that might serve as obstacles to change
1:38:00
dialectics radical acceptance and cognitive restructuring means embracing the positive and negative aspects of a situation dog hair and sometimes i've mentioned in other videos that around my house it feels like i'm trying to brush my teeth and eat oreos at the same time because we have three dogs and four cats and two teenagers and so our house is always needing to be dusted which drives me crazy i i don't like dust and and dog hair and everything all around
1:38:33
but i love my animals more and if i have a completely sterile house that would be beautiful but i wouldn't have my animals and that would break my heart i can't imagine living without animals so yeah the dog hair not ideal but the love of my animals is much more important feeling vulnerable in a relationship well when you start to care about somebody you're going to often feel more vulnerable and that can be anxiety provoking
1:39:10
but feeling vulnerable and that little bit of anxiety also means that you care about somebody so embracing the good with the bad and recognizing you can't have one without having the other
1:39:24
or feeling anxiety or distress when doing particular therapy activities
1:39:30
therapy recovery treatment whatever you want to call it often involves
1:39:37
debriding at least old wounds opening up old wounds and doing it carefully obviously is important but i've never worked with somebody in the 20 some odd years that i've been practicing that the entire time we've worked together it's been a cakewalk if we did i wouldn't be doing my job the whole goal is to process those issues and those traumas that bring up sadness or fear or even anger and work through them so yeah it's uncomfortable to feel some of those feelings sometimes
1:40:12
but once you process them then you're able to move forward so you can't have one without the other and autobiography can be really helpful and you can do autobiographies a lot of different ways from the adult self assuming you're working with an adult they write their autobiography that's the way we usually do it i've also had people write their autobiography from someone else's perspective if have write your autobiography as if your
1:40:44
mother or your grandmother or your best friend were telling me all about you so it's writing your biography so to speak or they can write their autobiography autobiography from their child self perspective and obviously this just goes up through a certain period of time but going back to maybe when that trauma happened or before that trauma happened having them write their autobiography from the perspective of that five or six year old you know what were they seeing what
1:41:17
were they feeling what were they experiencing and then seeing how that changes as the child grows
1:41:27
you can also engage in letter writing and i use the term letters but in this day and age you can write old-fashioned letters by hand you can type them you can do videos or you can even practice what we call a gestalt therapy empty chair technique any of these what you're doing is you're getting words and thoughts out of your head and putting them out here you can write letters to your future self to your past self or to other people from your past maybe they
1:41:59
were really important to you or maybe they were really traumatizing to you but you got something to say to them you can write these letters to any of these people in the voice of your past self so maybe the six-year-old that was neglected needs to write a letter to their caregiver
1:42:20
you can write it in the voice of your present self so as a 26 year old you can write a letter uh in the voice of your present self telling your past person what happened or telling your
1:42:36
past self what happened you know you're in the present writing a letter to your past self or writing a letter to your child self or even your future self or you can write it in the voice of your future self you can imagine yourself as being happy healthy and in that rich and meaningful life writing a letter to your present self about the things that you learned or the changes that you made so how are you different in your rich and meaningful life
1:43:08
there's a lot of different permutations of this and i encourage you to get creative
1:43:17
journaling kind of similar you can journal by just doing a daily reflection like writing a diary you can keep symptom logs some people aren't into the whole prose thing
1:43:29
you can practice mindful journaling so sitting down in the moment and spending 10 15 minutes writing what you're thinking seeing hearing feeling
1:43:41
you can journal about a particular feeling happiness so you're going to write about the things that make you happy or the things that make you angry you can keep a gratitude journal
1:43:54
or journal from the perspective of the inner child the manager or the firefighter and these are archetypes if you will from internal family systems theory the inner child is the part of you that may have experienced trauma and is still scared and is still sort of huddling back in the corner so that child may come out and journal and talk about what it feels like for them right now
1:44:22
the manager is the part of you that just tries to get things done and they tend to be less emotional and more practical and putting one foot in front of the other but they can get frustrated by the inner child that is you know fussing and anxious and needy and the firefighter who is the emotion response who's constantly trying to just make it stop hurting and you know throw water on it
1:44:51
or you can write it from the perspective of the firefighter that gets exhausted by getting called out all the time you can do journals in text or in video or audio format
1:45:05
you can change if you're writing it you can change your writing utensils you can use a pen or a pencil or a crayon or even charcoal you can make your journals verbal where you're writing words or graphic where you're scrapbooking or drawing things
1:45:28
guided imagery is one of the final techniques we're going to talk about but guided imagery can be used for emotional or physical pain people can be helped to envision a dial like a knob on the television i guess we don't have those anymore but you understand um on the stove we still have knobs on a lot of stoves where they're turning it down they
1:45:52
actually turn down the intensity the volume of their emotional or physical pain
1:45:59
they can envision their emotion or their physical pain as a color and maybe it starts out as red and then it turns to blue or it starts out as completely opaque and you just can't even see the thing that's hurting and if it's your elbow it's your elbow if it's an emotion maybe it's your heart it's red and opaque and you can't see anything and then as the pain goes away it becomes more and more transparent until it goes away completely
1:46:31
nanobots you can tell i watch science fiction but or or your helper t cells or your immune system you can envision your body healing itself or sometimes you can envision like if you're having anxiety you can envision a wave coming over you and just whooshing it away sometimes it can be helpful to be sitting under a fan when you do that but guided imagery can take just about any form somebody wants it to take how would you see this getting better and then
1:47:07
encouraging them helping them actually see it getting better envisioning it
1:47:12
you can use guided imagery for anticipatory anxiety too if somebody has to do a speech or they're anticipating something that's stressful or they're anticipating heaven forbid the death of a loved one you can help them use guided imagery to envision themselves successfully navigating that situation it may not be you know all ribbons and roses and butterflies but they can start to feel more empowered feel more capable of handling that situation
1:47:45
you can use guided imagery for growth you can right before you go to sleep you can envision
1:47:52
what you want to do better or how you want to be tomorrow you can start reprogramming your subconscious right before you go to sleep and then when you wake up
1:48:03
theoretically that has been imp imprinted on your subconscious a little bit now it's not going to do things like overnight but they have done a lot of research that has shown that
1:48:16
meditating or using guided imagery to change your subconscious is most effective if done right before sleep and then guided imagery for sleep and the old counting sheep thing that most of us told our kids to do is an example of guided imagery the person is closing their eyes and they're envisioning they're seeing this image of sheep jumping over a fence and that guided imagery can help them trigger their relaxation response and focus their
1:48:50
attention on a pleasant safe empowering scene instead of going all over the place and thinking about the meeting they've got tomorrow and what happened today and this that and the other thing
1:49:06
and health literacy can't end something on with cognitive behavioral therapy without talking about education and cognitions part of cognitive behavioral therapy is helping people understand the connection between their mind and their body or their thoughts and their symptoms helping them understand the connection between their thoughts their feelings how they perceive the world and how they react and helping them learn
1:49:36
and understand the connection between their past experiences and their present reactions
1:49:45
it's also important for a lot of people especially those who encounter trauma early on to understand to be educated about the impact of cognitive development on their perceptions children think differently than adults children tend to think in all or nothing terms and very personally very egocentrically so whatever happened the way i perceive it must be the way it is whatever happened is all my fault and it's all or nothing so if people's perceptions when they were
1:50:20
children were formed that way and formed that way around trauma then in the present they may still perceive things in very um extreme terms so we need to help them understand that those schema that were formed when you were going through that trauma when you were developing were very normal because that's how a nine-year-old that's how an eight-year-old thinks in the present you have different abilities your brain actually changes as you get older so maybe we can re revisit that
1:50:58
cognitive behavioral therapy is not appropriate for everybody but for many trauma survivors it can be helpful to have practical tools to better understand address and respond to their thoughts feelings and behaviors in context so they don't feel like these flashbacks and feelings come out from out of nowhere and they're powerless against them trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy
1:51:24
always empowers the person to learn about the tool decide whether it's one that they want to use and arrive at their own conclusions when evaluating thoughts beliefs and perceptions
Here to help you learn
Sign in to keep a private conversation with your course tutor.
Ask me anything about the material…
Sign in to chat