Lucyemft

04/27/2022

We are all connected. What affects one of us affects all of us. Let's work together to make safe choices. Learn about the network of support available in our community at www.SafeChoicesVC.org.

Ventura County Behavioral Health

06/28/2021

What happens when doctors don't know what's wrong with you?

The legacy that psychiatry gave us has serious ramifications for medical diagnosis and treatment today. Too often, the possibility of treatment is delayed by years, sometimes decades, because physical symptoms are seen as psychological in origin. And gender is a huge factor in this.

Five years ago, TED Fellow Jennifer Brea became progressively ill with myalgic encephalomyelitis, commonly known as chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating illness that severely impairs normal activities and on bad days makes even the rustling of bed sheets unbearable. In this poignant talk, Brea d...

04/26/2021

ACEs Aware Ventura County is doing great work to promote screening, intervention and linkage to resources for individuals who have experienced adverse childhood events (ACEs) and to create great clinical education programs and materials. Honored to be a part of this effort in our county!

11/30/2020

Complicating the Narratives

Thanks, Evanston Family Therapy Center.

"When people encounter complexity, they become more curious and less closed off to new information. They listen, in other words."

What if journalists covered controversial issues differently — based on how humans actually behave when they are polarized and suspicious?

10/26/2020

Out There: On Not Finishing

"What happens if the stories we tell ourselves about our lives leave us lonely, wrestling with meaning?"

https://longreads.com/2020/09/08/out-there-on-not-finishing/

What happens if the stories we tell ourselves about our lives leave us lonely, wrestling with meaning?

09/30/2020

Thanks, Kathie Adams and Evanston Family Therapy Center

"When “boundaries” is used as an organizing metaphor for the ethics of relationships, certain discourses are brought into play while others are crowded out. For example, the discourse of separation and individuation is valued at the expense of the discourses of interdependence, collaboration, and community that many feminist writers have argued for so persuasively.

During our stay in South Africa, we noticed over and over how boundary language functions like apartheid. Boundaries are about separation. They invite us to relate to people on the other side as “other,” as foreign. It is hard for us to think about boundaries without thinking of the “separate but equal” policies that flourished in the United States before Brown vs. the Board of Education and of the remnants of those policies that still affect our culture. The language of boundaries partakes of the discourses that support individual ownership of property and individual rights, and works against those discourses that support shared stewardship and the rights of communities. Making boundaries our central focus in deciding what is and is not ethical in our relationships can keep us from critically examining the effects of distance, withdrawal, non-participation, and related issues."

- Gene Combs & Jill Freedman. Relationships, not Boundaries. Theoretical Medicine 23, 2002. p 205-206.

08/28/2020

Timeline photos

08/25/2020

Join TherapyDen Free

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A progressive directory with expansive search filters, as diverse and unique as the society we serve.

08/23/2020

Thank you,

08/15/2020

Researchers Doubt That Certain Mental Disorders Are Disorders At All

"The labels imply different possibilities."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisonescalante/2020/08/11/researchers-doubt-that-certain-mental-disorders-are-disorders-at-all/?fbclid=IwAR0cVS66XU4u2jTaH93G8aa5GiKFz_L3sotYbGvJDyxNy4yzVl4XJHsEbf0

What if mental disorders like anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder aren’t mental disorders at all?

04/24/2020

4wiser

This pandemic and all it comes with is hard. Healthcare workers and essential workers in other industries may be feeling burnt out and finding it difficult to find joy, awe, laughter, and positive emotions due to the stress and uncertainty we're living in. Today, my team reminded me of the 3 Good Things tool from Brian Sexton of Duke University. Just a few minutes a day to identify 3 Good Things is more effective at combating depression than antidepressants, reduces burnout and compassion fatigue, and increases resilience.

There are many things we love to do that we can't do right now. What we can do is take a few moments to reflect on the good. Admire nature. Connect with someone and appreciate seeing their face. Take a clear, deep breath if you're able. Watch TV that makes you laugh. And then savor those moments for just two minutes a day.

bit.ly/start3gt

positive emotions

04/11/2020

WELCOME | Coronavirus Online Therapy

Serving essential workers through telehealth using https://www.coronavirusonlinetherapy.com/ at $50 to $15 per session.

Short-term, pro-bono and reduced fee online therapy for those on the front line during the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic.

04/11/2020

The Rhythm - TARA MOHR

The Rhythm - TARA MOHR

In any creative feat (by which I mean your work, your art, your life) there will be downtimes. Or so it seems.

04/08/2020

WELCOME | Coronavirus Online Therapy

I'm available for reduced fee brief therapy for essential workers, and I specialize in working with behavioral health and medical professionals.
www.coronavirusonlinetherapy.com

Short-term, pro-bono and reduced fee online therapy for those on the front line during the Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic.

11/18/2019

What buried possibility awaits its plot twist in your story?

10/02/2019

The Problem with the Solution

"Labels are limiting," a resident of Geel, Belgium, says; and we miss finding out who people are when we focus on the problem or diagnosis.

https://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/483855073/the-problem-with-the-solution

Americans LOVE solutions. But are there problems we shouldn't try to solve? Lulu visits a town in Belgium with a completely different approach to dealing with mental illness.

09/11/2019

Grieving the people we’ve loved and lost

Saying hullo again (Michael White)

We can stay connected to them by creating our own special rituals, says psychologist and grief expert Kim Bateman.

06/03/2019

The Science Behind Happy Relationships

"There are three essential neuro-chemical components found in people who report high relationship satisfaction: practicing empathy, controlling one’s feelings and stress and maintaining positive views about your partner."

Science says the secret to happy relationships comes down to a few key factors

05/16/2019

Pain isn't always obvious. If you're concerned about someone, ask them, "Are you thinking about su***de?"

800-273-TALK
www.su***deispreventable.org
***de

05/10/2019

Why we should say no to positivity — and yes to our negative emotions

https://ideas.ted.com/why-we-should-say-no-to-positivity-and-yes-to-our-negative-emotions/

It sounds paradoxical, but accepting our negative emotions will actually make us happier in the long run. Psychologist Susan David explains how.

04/19/2019

Stories make time travelers of us all.

"We are on expeditions as narrative practitioners, not for the purposes of digging up priceless relics from the past (e.g., "Tell me about your childhood"), or for spying on predestined futures with the priestly powers of an oracle, but rather for entering into contested spaces. In contested space, a wide range of plot points may be selected from. Numerous contrasting strands are there for the weaving. It is only when we reduce the array of possibilities to a single pattern, as if there is no variation or alternative design, that life is constricted and both past and future, once open and abounding with possibility, are foreclosed."

-David Marsten * David Epston * Laurie Markham
in Narrative Therapy in Wonderland

04/01/2019

Can the legacy of trauma be passed down the generations?

“There’s a malleability to the system,” says Dias. “The die is not cast. For the most part, we are not messed up as a human race, even though trauma abounds in our environment.”

At least in some cases, Dias says, healing the effects of trauma in our lifetimes can put a stop to it echoing further down the generations.

Our children and grandchildren are shaped by the genes they inherit from us, but new research is revealing that experiences of hardship or violence can leave their mark too.

03/21/2019

The two kinds of stories we tell about ourselves

"Even making smaller story edits to our personal narratives can have a big impact on our lives."

https://ideas.ted.com/the-two-kinds-of-stories-we-tell-about-ourselves/

We’ve all created our own personal histories, marked by highs and lows, that we share with the world — and we can shape them to live with more meaning and purpose.

02/12/2019

Thero | Thero (Powered by DonorBox)

Healers contributing to the health and wellbeing of our community at thero.org. Considering signing up to assist survivors of the Borderline Shooting and the recent wildfires. Link below

We're proud of what we've achieved so far and that has only been possible through the support of caring people like YOU! 

01/24/2019

What old story about yourself are you still believing? Here’s how to find it and change it

Reauthoring our story can create new possibilities for our identity, our life, and our relationships. What stories have you believed until today, and how have they limited you? What stories have been buried, forgotten, or half formed that might serve to help create your preferred story of yourself and your life?

Many of us hold deeply ingrained beliefs about ourselves that are simply not true. You can start to free yourself from them by editing your narrative, says psychiatrist John Sharp.

01/23/2019

“Many times when we help we do not really serve. . . . Serving is also different from fixing. One of the pioneers of the Human Potential Movement, Abraham Maslow, said, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' Seeing yourself as a fixer may cause you to see brokenness everywhere, to sit in judgment of life itself. When we fix others, we may not see their hidden wholeness or trust the integrity of the life in them. Fixers trust their own expertise. When we serve, we see the unborn wholeness in others; we collaborate with it and strengthen it. Others may then be able to see their wholeness for themselves for the first time.”

~Rachel Naomi Remen; one of the earliest pioneers in the mind/body holistic health movement and the first to recognize the role of the spirit in health and the recovery from illness

11/22/2018

Timeline photos

11/08/2018

10/30/2018

Listening to artist Allison Massari tell her story of growing and nurturing joy while in the midst of suffering life threatening burns and recovery. Such a beautiful, profound story of resilience and how she learned to experience happiness in the midst of emotional and physical pain. In narrative terms, reauthoring her story was how she created the life she envisioned for herself through profound, meaningful change.

Thank you, Allison, for sharing your story with us.

10/29/2018

Topic now at HQI: the power of narratives to reduce harm to patients that are caused by healthcare delivery. My narrative therapist's heart is happy.

09/23/2018

Hello and happy Sunday! I'm excited to announce my new location in Thousand Oaks, where I am accepting new clients on Saturdays.

09/23/2018

Lucyemft updated their website address.

Lucyemft updated their website address.