A Recipe For Poor Health People in higher-weight bodies are not inherently unhealthy. Any research that shows a correlation between weight and poor health is just that, correlational. Is it that higher weights result in poorer health outcomes? Or is it that those in bigger bodies face weight stigma – pathologizing, oppression, and inadequate medicalContinue reading How To Make Fat Bodies Unhealthy
Holiday Coping Guide
For some, the winter holidays aren’t all festivities and fun. They might be fraught with discomfort or distress. Experiences of grief, loneliness, anxiety, and an uptick in trauma symptoms are not uncommon. We’ve assembled some tips in this holiday coping guide to help get you through the season. Acknowledge your struggle. Acknowledge that this timeContinue reading Holiday Coping Guide
Quarantine Fatigue: Coping Using DBT
We’re more than eight months into quarantine, and many are tiring and feeling anxious, depressed, unmotivated, and unclear about what comes next. We seem to have moved away from the early energy of quarantine (looking at you: bread bakers, language learners). Many are exhausted, lonely, hopeless, and helpless. We’re tired of being locked down, isolated,Continue reading Quarantine Fatigue: Coping Using DBT
TIP Skills: Regulating Our Bodies to Cope with Distress
TIP Skills The TIP skills in DBT help you cope with a difficult situation or crisis without making things worse. They represent part of our crisis survival skills. You might use them when flooded with emotion, when in distress, or when you have the urge to engage in a destructive behavior. With the TIP skills,Continue reading TIP Skills: Regulating Our Bodies to Cope with Distress
Wise Mind: A Balanced Synthesis
What Is A Dialectic? One of the main concepts in DBT is the goal of balancing opposites. That’s actually the “D” is DBT, “dialectical.” A dialectical stance incorporates multiple – even potentially conflicting – points of view. It’s a both/and versus either/or way of thinking. One of the primary dialectics in DBT is acceptance andContinue reading Wise Mind: A Balanced Synthesis
The Truth About Weight Loss
You’ve heard it so many times: “Calories in, calories out.” It’s simple, right? Well, not really. It turns out, our approximately 30-trillion-cell selves are much more complicated than a reductive equation. And our body size, as much as we’re led to believe otherwise, is largely impacted by factors beyond our control. Twin and adoption studies,Continue reading The Truth About Weight Loss
Exposure Therapy – Working with Phobias, OCD, Trauma, and Emotions
Defining Exposure True story: When we adopted my now one-year-old dog when she was just two months old, one of my sons had a fairly severe dog phobia. When exposed to dogs before her adoption, he’d scream and run away. When we first brought our new puppy home, he screamed and ran away – againContinue reading Exposure Therapy – Working with Phobias, OCD, Trauma, and Emotions
5 Fitness Myths Debunked
(even this fortune is a fitness myth) Fitness Myths ABound The fitness industry is responsible for a great deal of harmful, often incorrect messaging about physical activity. This information – and in many cases misinformation – can result in individuals developing an unhealthy relationship with exercise and may actually contribute to folks avoiding exercise orContinue reading 5 Fitness Myths Debunked
Body Acceptance Practices – Stop Hating Your Body Today
Struggling with body acceptance – It’s Not Your Fault But It Is Your Problem Most of us are socialized to be critical of our bodies. Whether it’s our families, communities, or our culture at large, we are bombarded by messaging regarding what constitutes an acceptable body. Children as young as preschoolers learn that certain bodiesContinue reading Body Acceptance Practices – Stop Hating Your Body Today
Practicing Radical Acceptance
What Is Radical Acceptance? According to DBT, radical acceptance occurs when we stop fighting (or “tantruming” about) reality. Even in pain and in difficult times, we can come to a place of complete and total acceptance of what is happening – accepting in our minds, bodies, hearts, and souls – by practicing radical acceptance. WhileContinue reading Practicing Radical Acceptance