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The Well Being

Culturally Affirming Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & Mindfulness-Based practices.

03/22/2023

MINDFULNESS

Mindfulness practices heighten awareness of thoughts, emotions, physical sensations and actions in the present moment without judging or criticizing yourself, others or your experience

In our practice of mindfulness, we seek to increase our awareness in the present (the here-and-now). We make observations and hold space for thoughts without assigning judgment. We’re relinquishing the good vs. bad, positive-negative, all-or-nothing binary thinking. We are embracing the concepts of acceptance in what simply “is”

Why focus on the present? What’s in the present?
➡️To fully participate in our emotional, physical and psychological experiences in the now & improve how we show up
➡️To increase our awareness of and regulate our thoughts —> emotions —> behaviors
➡️Improve how we connect with ourselves and others

Mindfulness practices can help to reduce stress, anxiety, conflict, and increase emotional elasticity

Share some of your mindfulness activities and practices below 👇🏾👇🏾

01/31/2020

I have openings for new client appointments in downtown Baltimore. If you know of someone who could benefit from therapeutic support, feel free to refer and, or share my info below!

12/08/2019

What’s in your thought bubble? Do you experience problematic thoughts or messages that loop on replay?

These common types of thinking errors (cognitive distortions) can cause psychological distress and perpetuate episodes of anxiety and depression:

1. All-Or-Nothing / Black-And-White Thinking: placing an experience in 2 opposing categories. Rigid, binary thinking does not allow flexibility and adaptation, which aid in growth and change
2. Overgeneralizing: broad sweeping conclusions based on limited encounters
3. Mind Reading: thinking we know what another is thinking based on assumptions, not evidence and . Be open to reaching out to have authentic discussions 💯
4. Emotional Reasoning: believing something to be true, simply because we “feel” it’s true. We can’t always lead with our feelings.
5. Magnifying (Catastrophizing) or Minimizing: exaggerating the significance of a negative experience or minimizing the importance of a positive one
6. “Should” Statements: statements we make to ourselves about what we “should” be doing, what others “should” be doing, where we “ought” to be in life - often resulting in feelings of shame or disappointment . .

When we identify a distorted thought, we can challenge it, question the validity of the thought, and then replace the distorted thought with a healthy, helpful alternative thought.

11/27/2019

Helping children find their voice, carve out their space and be encouraged:

We can empower children through encouragement versus through praise. Encouraging allows children to develop an internal sense of reward and satisfaction from within, rather than growing dependent on receiving external reward/praise from others.

Differences between Encouragement and Praise:
1. Encouragement inspires an internal locus of evaluation vs. an external locus of evaluation
2. Encouragement focuses on effort rather than evaluating the end product
Acknowledge an accomplishment by stating what happened: “You put that together yourself; you put a lot of hard work and effort into building that” rather than “nice job; I like it”
3. Praise can be judgmental
4. Praise creates an approval-oriented dynamic (seeking approval from others)

Ways to Encourage Children:
1. Focus on assets, strengths, uniqueness, efforts and progress
2. Reframe problems in more hopeful ways
3. Use wonder statements: “I’m wondering what you think is inside the box” instead of asking a direct question (“what’s inside the box?”)
4. Return responsibility back to child: - Think before doing for the child, what the child can do for self
- Returning responsibility increases self-direction, self-conficdence and independence
- “You can choose/decide”
- “That’s something you can try
- “Show me what you want me to do”
- “Lets try together”

Let’s continue to and our youth

11/19/2019

Loving Kindness Meditation (LKM) allows us to offer compassion and words of affirmation to ourselves and others. It also helps with narrowing our focus when we meditate - providing our minds with some parameters for our meditative practice.
Research supports the positive impact of LKM for various mental health issues ranging from trauma disorders, anxiety disorders and mood disorders. Below, we summarize 2013 research regarding Loving Kindness Meditation and Posttraumatic Stess Disorder (PTSD) .
Researchers, Kearney et al. (2013) sought to explore the efficacy of loving-kindness meditation as a treatment modality for participants diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Loving-kindness meditation seeks to develop feelings of kindness and compassion for self and others. In loving-kindness meditation participants sit quietly, repeating phrases toward self and, or others such as “may you be safe,” “may you be happy,” “may you be healthy,” and “may your life unfold with ease” in order to foster feelings of safety, health and happiness. Loving-kindness mediation is considered an evidence-based way to promote health and positive emotions (Kearney et al., 2013).
Forty-two veterans receiving care at the VA hospital, diagnosed with PTSD participated in a 12-week loving-kindness meditation course. Participant demographics included 25 male; 17 female; 35 White, 3 Black; 1 Asian/Pacific or Islander/Native American; 1 Hispanic; 1 other; and 1 non-disclosed. Participants completed measurement scales to assess depression, compassionate love, and mindfulness skills. Participants were grouped with 12-15 in each group. The intervention consisted of 10 minutes of mindful breathing, 20 minutes of instruction, 30 minutes of loving-kindness meditation, 15 minutes of group discussion and 15 minutes of loving-kindness meditation practice.
Results indicate a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms (35.4 pretreatment; 26.9 3-month follow up). Additionally results indicate a significant decrease in depression symptoms (63.4 pretreatment; 59.3 at 3-month follow up). Compassion love scale reflected an increase in compassion toward others and humanity.

11/13/2019

The Cognitive Triangle
Thoughts->Feelings->Behavior
Negative or Distorted thoughts —> influence how we feel —> which determines how we behave —> the behavior and resulting consequences reinforce the thoughts and creates a loop ♻️ that keeps us cycling in these undesired outcomes. .

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is an evidence-based treatment that targets our cognitions (thought patterns) so that we can identify and replace negative or distorted thought patterns with positive, healthy alternative thought patterns —> feelings —> behavior ♻️ .

11/11/2019

Intention setting allows us to set a daily agenda. It helps to bring our thoughts and actions into alignment with our intention’s purpose. Intention setting empowers us to create the shift and change we desire. As we move about our day, we begin to notice what we intended for ourselves manifests and / or comes into our awareness. Powerful, right? .

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Baltimore, MD

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https://www.thewellbeingllc.com/

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