Justin’s Blog: “The Jog”
120+ Articles Driven by Research and Practice
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 >Exposure & Response Prevention Is NOT A Paradoxical Intervention
I’ve had many clients and spouses state at the beginning of their exposure therapy that they are practicing ‘paradoxes’ to prove to themselves how ridiculous their OCD is. I’m all for seeing OCD as ridiculous– however, OCD is not treated by insight-oriented approaches (psychodynamic, general psychotherapy- i.e., “talk,”). Paradoxical interventions work like the following example: […]
Read More >Practice Failure
You heard me. Yes, practice Failure. Not just “accept your mistakes” when they happen. It’s a technique in exposure to social anxiety, perfectionism, scrupulosity, and more. It’s genius if you ask me. The Brilliant Rationale The rationale and purpose of practicing failure is to develop more flexibility and to lean in when it’s “game-time.” Hunter* […]
Read More >Women-tal Health: Tips to strengthen women’s health and combat illness!
Women’s mental health is getting more attention now than maybe ever before, which I think is awesome. Acknowledging the beauty and uniqueness of strengths and struggles helps women to be more successful in their lives. Here are some key considerations in mental health for women. In the U.S., women are twice as likely to be […]
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 >Accidental Exposure: A Strong Mind Is Not Made In Comfort
Accidental workouts are great; just don’t base your exercise off of them. Has this ever happened to you? You have an exercise routine (walk, weights, circuit, CrossFit), and while expecting to take a holiday break, say Thanksgiving…..until someone challenges you in the paint for pickup game of basketball (in my family we had the 6 […]
Read More >Getting Aroused With Anxiety
Mark* was generally confident in his therapy, but bringing up sex….well, he got a little sheepish. He had these small avoidances that he never realized were behavioral and cognitive avoidances. For example, he would never have sex with his wife when the kids weren’t away from home. He intentionally steered conversation away from topics with […]
Read More >Intrusive, Unwanted Thoughts and Faith
“I feel like I really love my baby, but, I just don’t know. I have these terrible thoughts that pop into my mind. Thoughts of harming my baby. I actually vomited last night it made me so upset. I don’t know why I’m having these” “Everyone around me, including my pastor, seems to think I […]
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 >Just Because You Tremble Doesn’t Mean You’re Doing It Wrong
Both in the office and in my life I offer a simple reminder: just because you tremble or are afraid or feel distressed DOESN’T mean you’re doing it wrong. In fact, maybe it’s very right. An unbelievably common misconception among human beings is distress = bad. Sure, distress is uncomfortable. Yes, it signals something feels […]
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 >Playing It Safe Can Harm You
Teddy pumped the sanitizer bottle for the second time in three minutes. “I know, I know, it doesn’t help when I haven’t touched anything else, but I want to be sure. You never know these days, right?” Freda waits to enter gatherings and meetings until everyone else has shown up- “It just helps me know I […]
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