Working with human nature, not against it.
Yes, social media is a topic of discussion in therapy. Every day. And, we are right at that time of year when people are posting about their holiday activities and we might have a little more time or temptation to be keeping up with what’s going on. This is going to be short and...
**Written by staff therapist Anna Pirkl, M. A., MFT, ATR, LAADAC I have experienced significant trauma recovery as a direct result of my training at Gracie University in Torrance, California. My Goal… To start a discussion on the psychological benefits I’ve experienced and how it might benefit other trauma survivors as well. I am...
Adopting a new way of handling difficult things is usually not something you bother to do when everything is going great. Usually you decide you must make a change when there have been tough times. You are built to be drawn toward what is familiar even when that is not in your best interests...
Willingness. It is the one thing that determines how successful my clients are in therapy, and ultimately, in their life. Why? Because it is a state of openness. Ultimately, if there is a challenge showing up, it is happening because there is an adjustment needed. A lesson wants to be learned. A shift wants...
Everyone is talking about Mindfulness. To the point where you might not want to care about it. You probably see annoying memes about the present moment. I get it. Sometimes I scroll by and just want to hate it. But, the reason mindfulness is huge is because it actually is a huge deal. Literally,...
Did you know that a sensation in your body is the first available cue that an emotion is present? Did you know that this is a surprise to most people? As Candace Pert’s research reveals, there are neuropeptides released in the body during different subjective emotional states, causing a sensation in the body. In...
In spin class, there is a teacher that always says in the beginning: “I coach on levels of intensity: easy, moderate, hard, breathless”. The intensity for unpleasant feelings is similar: easy, moderate, hard, breathless. While there is the range of all human emotion that we need to practice tolerating, there is also the intensity...