Distress Tolerance: Holding Ice

by DrKatieBrazaitis | Jul 15, 2024 | Clinical Interventions, Enhancing Competency

Holding Ice is one of my go-to distress tolerance skills.  It is a modification of the DBT TIP skills, which aim to change your emotional state through changing your body’s physiology.  This blog is for clinicians and those seeking healing alike.  You’ll notice some...

Making Sense of Suicide: Part 2 Theory  

by DrKatieBrazaitis | Jul 2, 2024 | Clinical Interventions, Enhancing Competency, Suicide

I am a firm believer that having a strong foundation in theory allows for the creation of rich and compassionate conceptualizations.  This is especially true for making sense of suicide. In this post I will provide a brief review of two of the three frameworks I...

Does Riley Really Need to Be Happy?

by admingabfleming | Jun 19, 2024 | Clinical Interventions, Enhancing Competency, Pop Culture, Media, and the Arts

This weekend Inside Out 2 hit the theaters and I was first in line to check it out!  Our journey with Riley and her emotions continued, this time with the added influence of Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui.  Before diving into Inside Out 2 any...

Making Sense of Suicide: Part 1 Introduction

by admingabfleming | Jun 19, 2024 | Enhancing Competency, Suicide

Making sense of suicide helps clinicians increase their competency and comfort in treating suicidal ideations and related behaviors. Part 1: Introduction Suicide remains a national and international crisis. The World Health Organization (2018) estimated that over...

The Mindfulness Muscle

by admingabfleming | May 7, 2024 | Clinical Interventions, Clinician Wellness, Engaging in Community Care, Enhancing Competency, Expanding Self-Care

What is mindfulness? There are many misconceptions when it comes to mindfulness. First, that it entails meditation, which it can; however, meditation is not the end all be all of mindfulness. Second, that it requires “clearing the mind.” I find this...

From Ballet to Boxing: The Power of Muscle Memory

by admingabfleming | Mar 21, 2024 | Clinical Interventions, Enhancing Competency

In this blog, I’ll be presenting muscle memory as a metaphor for understanding, and validating, how challenging changing our patterns of coping can be. Beginnings in Ballet “Relax! Keep your feet outside your hips, chin down, shorten your torso” Melissa my...