No one can tell the future, so we all are forced to sit with uncertainty about what will happen. Anxiety is inherently placed in the future, or the past, because anxiety is rooted in things we cannot control. How we think about the future can cause us to feel, anxious or stressed, or calm and controlled. The only place you have control is the present moment. So, what is there to do RIGHT NOW about anxiety about the future?

I have an old therapy intervention I have used for years which I simply call, “the two buckets.”  When clients are feeling anxious about different things in their lives, I encourage them to imagine two buckets. One is labeled, “control” and the other is labeled “not control.” For more hands-on…

“I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself” -Hayao Miyazaki Hayao Miyazaki is a prolific animator from Japan who wrote movies such as Ponyo, Castle in the Sky, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Wind Rises. His strong opinion is directed at the use of AI in animation. His…

In the first half of this blog, we talked about boundaries and how our experiences and personalities (including genetics) affect the way we see and set boundaries. We also talked about visualizing the boundaries you want in your life. For example, maybe you want to set the boundary with your boss that you will stay late on days your son does not have practice, but on Tuesdays you want to be able to leave in time to get him to practice and watch him there as this is important to you. Or maybe you want to set the boundary with your son that if he keeps losing his water bottle, he is going to have to buy a new one versus you continually replacing it. Consider what boundaries you would like to set.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is consistently used in my personal therapeutic approach. It helps teach clients to challenge their thoughts and beliefs. Put them on trial, see if they hold up, are they rational or irrational? Imagery can be used to extend this intervention, to create new images to accompany these thoughts, images that reflect the rational versus irrational, new adaptive helpful images. Imagery can be used in treatment of many different mental health diagnoses, including, but not limited to, depression, mania, anxiety, trauma, and phobias.

The book, Set Boundaries, Find Peace: a guide to reclaiming yourself, by Nedra Glover Tawwab, has been gaining popularity for several years now. In it, the author talks about how to set boundaries to find peace and gives concrete examples of ways to do so in various life settings—work, family and friendships to name a few.