I’m not in therapy, but I do have a therapy journal filled with my favourite therapy concepts and tools (the notebook it lives in is from the lovely Candace at Revenge of Eve). In this post, I’ll share some of what it contains. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is probably the best fit for how …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is STAIR narrative therapy. I recently stumbled across STAIR narrative therapy for PTSD, so I thought I’d do a post about it. STAIR stands for Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation. STAIR narrative therapy, which was developed …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is Internal Family Systems therapy. Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is a type of psychotherapeutic approach that’s based on the idea that the mind is naturally multiple, and we all have a system of parts. It’s often used …
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is really big on using metaphors to convey key concepts. This post will take a look at a few of them. Self-as-context metaphors Chessboard A core message of ACT is that our self is the context for what happens inside our heads, not the content of it. One metaphor for …
Values play a key role in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a psychotherapeutic approach that aims to increase psychological flexibility. ACT emphasizes acceptance rather than resistance, and the “commitment” part of the name comes from taking committed actions in service of our values. Values as directions We live in a very goal-oriented world. Goals serve …
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In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is rational emotive behaviour therapy. Rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) was developed in the 1950s by psychologist Albert Ellis, and it’s an early form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). A fundamental belief is that people are usually not …
Psychologist Dr. Marsha Linehan developed dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), which is generally the first-line treatment of choice for borderline personality disorder, a condition that she herself has. It’s very skills-based, and many of the skills are more broadly applicable than just for BPD. The focus of this post, though, is some of the foundational concepts …
I don’t currently do therapy and haven’t had a lot of success with it in the past, but I’m very pro-therapy in general. I’ve picked up a collection of therapy tools from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), and various others that are handy to pull out of …
The topic of dead people goals came to mind a while back when I was commenting on a post by Quiet Person Loud Thoughts. I couldn’t remember where I’d first heard of it, but with some hunting around, it looks like I got the idea from Susan David’s book Emotional Agility. The original idea is …
In this series, I dig a little deeper into the meaning of psychology-related terms. This week’s term is behavioural experiments. Behavioural experiments are a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) technique to test out beliefs in real-world conditions. It’s like being your own social scientist. Behavioural experiments are commonly used in the treatment of anxiety disorders to test …
