Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Eve “Winter, a lingering season, is a time to gather golden moments, embark on a sentimental journey, and enjoy every idle hour.” John Boswell I love the Holiday season, and am hopeful about THIS upcoming season, which will be the first season since the rollout of the vaccine […]

Grounding is a practice that can help you pull away from flashbacks, unwanted memories, and negative or challenging emotions. These techniques may help distract you from what you’re experiencing and refocus on what’s happening in the present moment. You can use grounding techniques to help create space from distressing feelings in nearly any situation, but […]

Columbus Day was designated a National Holiday in 1934 and a Federal Holiday in 1968. In 1977, a group of Native people at the United Nations first proposed a day to celebrate and honor the contributions of Indigenous people in the United States. It’s certainly a controversial topic, but more and more cities and states […]

Violence against Women. “Violence against women is perhaps the most shameful human rights violation, and it is perhaps the most pervasive. It knows no boundaries of geography, culture or wealth. As long as it continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace.” Kofi Annan We all, in all likelihood, […]

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) “To become a butterfly, you must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” Winnie – the – Pooh We’ve been taking an in-depth look at Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) since early August, August 12, 2021, to be specific. As I’ve covered […]

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) “We can select a valued action, never mind we’re feeling flat. Because a mood is only fleeting and there’s more to us than that. Corinne Shields  6 Core Psychological Flexibility Processes Stage 1 – Acceptance, to allow unwanted states/events/experiences to come and go without fighting them. Stage 2 – Defusion, […]

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) “This above all. To thine own self be true.”  William Shakespeare. 6 Core Psychological Flexibility Processes Stage 4 – Contextualized Self, to become intimate with the authentic self, the “real” self, as it is consistent and constant in life. Authentic Self. True Self. Real Self. What do these phrases even […]

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” Wayne Dyer Present Moment. Mindfulness. Groundedness. These are all concepts present, indeed, foundational, in ACT. I no longer notice that I am practicing Mindfulness. Or that I am working to be grounded, in the present. After […]

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) “When you accept things you have no control of, you give yourself the freedom to focus on things you do.” Aimmee Kodachian As we discussed in the previous Mental Health Musings, ACT is basically built on the concept of Psychological Flexibility. In short, psychological flexibility means that connect with the present […]

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) “I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.” Carl Jung. I’ve been working within the specialty of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) since I began my career back in the late 1990s. I started my career as a social worker within the County of San Diego […]