Originally posted March 23, 2020. Expressive art is a fun way to create flow and relax your nervous system Listening to the Nervous System Through Sensation and Image About 98% of our mental activity…the reasons why we do things…is unconscious (Bargh, 2017). Expressive Art, a right brain activity, is a way to access those wordless emotional messages swirling beneath our consciousness. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could unearth some of your own motivating energy, and chann

Originally posted August 6, 2019. You are busy! The office is humming! Things are totally running amok today! The phone is ringing and...

The ABC PLEASE skills are the first floor in the house of happiness. Think of the ABC PLEASE skills as extreme self-care, to help you manag

Art therapy projects can help express feelings of sadness and process the experience and soothe the nervous system. A wonderful art therapy project for a support group for birth trauma survivors is called “Bead Your Story”.

The expressive art exercise called LifeLine is a positive tool in the therapy room. Getting an overview of your life can be a first step step towards self understanding and self acceptance and embodying these new understandings into your nervous system.

Joe’s a pretty emotionally balanced person with pretty good boundaries, yet people still got under his skin. He came into therapy, not because his life was falling apart, but to consciously deepen his coping skills and strengthen his emotional resilience. In his personal life, Joe felt weighed down by his aunt's negative gossiping. She called often to check up on him. He has mixed emotions about their relationship. Growing up, she was a big part of his life and he liked ha

Originally posted January 9, 2019. Happy reading! Thank you to my loving readers for visiting my humble blog! Looking back at the dynamic range of topics in the BirthTouch® blog, that touch on mental health and mindbody therapies, I thought I’d share the most popular blogs of the year. 1. DBT STOP & TIP Skills: Life is worth living even if there is pain The top top spot was claimed by an article about a very, very popular and evidence-based therapy called Dialectical Beha

This post reflects how I personally use DBT skills during high-stress seasons. It is an illustration of using DBT in a lived experience. Lots of us get flustered during the busy holiday season. If you’re already coping with challenges such as grief, depression, anxiety, PTSD, or bipolar disorder, staying grounded in healthy routines becomes even more important. As I started thinking about cooking for Thanksgiving—something I usually enjoy—I noticed myself feeling unexpectedly

Originally posted June 26, 2018. Gratitude feeds the white wolf…6 mindful nibbles a day! Almost all days, I habitually remind myself to...

Originally posted June 19, 2018. I wildcrafted dandelion flowers last week. I missed picking the dandelion flowers in my yard! I kept meaning to pick them, but they all went to seed before I could get to them! Dandelions have gotten a bad rap in modern times. How spraying toxic chemicals onto greenery around your home where you and your family live, eat and play became a thing, I just don’t know. Chemical industry, anyone? Makes my eyes red and itchy just thinking abo

Originally posted April 17, 2018. Sharon was experiencing feelings of lack of self-worth and hopelessness and helplessness. Sharon felt...

Originally posted March 29, 2018. What are the chakras? The word chakra literally means wheel or vortex (Eden, 1998). According to yogic...

Originally posted March 27, 2018. Sarah was the witness of an accident where a car struck and instantly killed two pedestrians. She had...

Originally posted February 27, 2018. People ask me to explain craniosacral to them all the time. Craniosacral is your body talking to you...

Originally posted January 23, 2018. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a well researched therapy used to treat...

ACCEPTS is a DBT distress tolerance skill that offers practical ways to shift attention when emotions feel unmanageable.

Updated August, 2021 Goodness, if mindfulness was a drug, there would be ads everywhere about its effectiveness! And it’s free and available to us at all times. Mindfulness is the heightened awareness of inner and outer experiences through focused attention in the present moment. Mindfulness and positive intention can be purposefully cultivated and used for healing. Current research confirms this ancient belief. Today there is a big movement to incorporate mindfulness and

Originally posted August 1, 2017. For you to be considered healthy, you have to eat 0.8 grams of protein for every kilogram of your body...

Consciously making decisions from Wise Mind can help you live from a place of emotional balance. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about stopping, thinking and giving yourself breathing room to assess your thoughts and feelings from both a logical and emotional perspective before you make a decision or before you act.

Originally posted May 2, 2017. Can insomnia be treated without medication? Are you having trouble sleeping? Are you so tired that it’s ...