Justin’s Blog: “The Jog”
120+ Articles Driven by Research and Practice
Where Your Thinking Will Trip You Up In Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Talk therapy is not the way to improve with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Talk therapy is also known as “supportive psychotherapy” or insight-oriented therapies. In many cases, these approaches can OCD worse. Writer and actress Lena Dunham shares how she experienced both sides of the street. The Gold Standard of treatment is Exposure and Response Prevention […]
Read More >The 3 D’s in OCD Recovery
In OCD therapy (usually Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP), I tell clients simplistically there is one thing we are targeting: not compulsing. Of course it’s complex and challenging, but the treatment target itself (when it’s just OCD) is rather simple. However, because OCD is one of the most disabling disorders on the face of […]
Read More >Microsteps- Harnessing Something You Use Everyday To Get You Closer To A Goal
Small changes, over time, lead to big results. Keep Choppin’ If you chop a tree with an axe once per day, you won’t see much progress. Daily for a year and a tree (most) won’t stand a chance. However, we are often limited with black and white, insular thinking (a cognitive distortion), also called “all […]
Read More >How To Use A Functional Assessment Like The Experts (PRO Version)
This is the full, “PRO version” of this article. Looking for the quick read with graphics? Click here. A great strength we have as human beings is to make connections and associations between simple and complex information. At its best, we can learn and grow. At worst, we can live in total unreality. Therapy at […]
Read More >Get Unstuck: Your Intro to Facing Fear & Getting Healthy
As a gift to my subscribers, the guide, Get Unstuck: Your Intro to Facing Fear & Getting Healthy is YOURS, FREE. Not a subscriber? This is the updated version of the prior “Thriving Mental Health Alongside COVID-19,” leaving the best intact along with new considerations for 2021 and several new handouts, connected articles, guides, and […]
Read More >Stop Trying To Have Positive Thoughts
As with many of my clients, Anne* was befuddled as to why she couldn’t stop obsessing. She was a high performer at work and revered in relationships. However, she couldn’t get it out of her thoughts that she was failing, that imminent doom was about to befall her, and that it would all come crashing […]
Read More >You’ve Decided to Stop Therapy. First, 11 Important Considerations.
Your best treatment is closely connected to how closely you stick to the evidence base. However, you as the client always need to advocate for your best treatment. Successful clients are assertive for their treatment, ask good questions, and sometimes even disagree with their professional. This is healthy. Client involvement and assertiveness is a fundamental […]
Read More >Video: How To Write an OCD Exposure Script- With Nathan Peterson!!
Two OCD Specialist colleagues (and friends) just having fun on how to write exposure scripts in OCD. Exposure Therapy, in a phrase, is the systematic and intentional triggering of fear while minimizing- and ideally eliminating- all pathological responses. Imaginal Exposure accomplishes this with thoughts and ideas. It is done in the context of addressing unhelpful/pathological responses […]
Read More >Intrusive, Unwanted Thoughts and Faith (I am Second Blog)
Honored to be featured again in the I Am Second mental health blog, this post addresses the common occurrence of Intrusive Thoughts and how those of Christian faith can live in freedom. Click Here to Read NOW
Read More >Journaling vs. Exposure Scripting in CBT (Therapy Insider Tip)
When clients become experts in doing exposures (Social Anxiety, PTSD, OCD, Phobias), they become used to facing fear, disgust, and other uncomfortable feelings square on without tricks and escapes- while still pursuing the valued behaviors and thought processes they want. Sounds too good to be true? It’s not, but it takes discipline and hard work, […]
Read More >When and Why ERP Isn’t Working (OCD Therapy Insider Tip)
Short summary of post can go here that appears on the blog archive pages.
Read More >What’s Your Anxiety Tell?
In poker, a “tell” is a sort of behavioral or observable change that, usually unbeknownst to the person, can reveal information that can be used for another player to get the upper hand. Smirks, scratching of the nose, looking away, smiling- expert poker players work hard to conceal these (why many wear sunglasses). Notice Something […]
Read More >OCD Therapy Insider Tip: Cut out the Margin.
If you have experience with cancer treatment, you may already know what is meant when I say, “cut out the margin.” Margin is the edge or border of tissue that is being removed through surgery. Why can’t you just cut out the “bad” part? Why must you go further? Simply, it is only deemed clean when all […]
Read More >Flip the Script- A Guide To Imaginal Exposure
Imagine intentionally telling yourself- again and again- “Maybe I’ll get sick and die.” Or, “I’ll have a sudden urge to kill someone.” Or, “Maybe I blasphemed God and will go to hell.” What if your therapist asked you to repeat these things to yourself? Does that sound like negative self-talk? A cause for grave concern? […]
Read More >Thriving Mental Health Alongside COVID-19
One of my first questions to a professor in my earliest IOCDF BTTI (Exposure Therapy training) at Massachusetts General Hospital was, “What happens if someone actually gets sick after a contamination exposure?” I haven’t forgotten the simplicity of the answer that went something like this: “People get sick all the time. Yes, that might create some additional […]
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