These spring winds of late have been horrendous! They gust out of nowhere and can blow and toss you about like a ragdoll. They attack your car while driving with such fierceness that it is difficult to keep it on the road! Sometimes, life feels like a gusting wind that comes out of nowhere and […]
3 Ways to Become Forgetful of Emotional Pain
Now, if you’re like me, you really don’t need help learning how to be forgetful. I can easily forget where I left my keys and just as easily forget my own kids names (you know how it goes…Joe, Dan, Steve, I mean, Randy! You name the whole tribe before you get to the one you […]
Are You A Consumption Addict?
As a therapist, I’ve talked to many clients in my practice in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area who have struggled with mental health problems as they try to manage anxiety, depression, or stress. Or, they have developed a chronic illness or had a physical injury that takes time to adjust to. They might come in for counseling […]
4 Ways to Stop Being So Busy…for Good!
John Hopkins Health Review just released a really great article about our problem of busyness and the problems that can stem from it, including: insomnia, faulty moral decision making, and stress. The article goes on to offer one main tip on how to change our individual culture of being too busy: do less! Busyness is […]
10 Minutes To Calm: A Quick Strategy to Reduce Anxiety at Work
Most of us have those days at work when we suddenly have a feeling of nervousness or anxiety. At Legacy Counseling Service in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Dr. Leedy comes across this a lot in the people she works with. Maybe something didn’t go right, you have an unpleasant conversation with a colleague or boss, life […]
How One Question Can Set Your Priority and Change Your Life
At Legacy Counseling Service in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma helping clients clarify their values and make choices that are consistent with those values is a top priority for me. When we are living out of line with our values we open ourselves up to increased chance of anxiety symptoms, depression, insomnia, health and relationship problems. Back […]
The Problems with Disqualifying, Catastrophizing, Should, and Personalizing
In this series about how psychologists can help people with anxiety and depression, I’ve been talking about how a psychologist teaches people to do critical thinking about their own thoughts. At Legacy Counseling Service in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, teaching people to notice and challenge their thoughts is a big focus in counseling. So far we […]
Letting Your Emotions Rule? The problem with Emotional Reasoning, Labelling, & OverGeneralizing
In my earlier blog post about mental health and automatic thoughts, I talked about three ways in which we can get stuck in anxiety or depression from automatic thoughts that are “all-or-none thinking,” “mental filter,” and “jumping to conclusions.” As a psychologist at Legacy Counseling Service in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, I frequently help people look […]
How Does a Psychologist Help with Anxiety and Depression? Understanding Black/White Thinking, Mental Filter, and Jumping to Conclusions
Imagine that your mind is like a popcorn machine and your thoughts are like corn kernels. When situations heat up just enough thoughts about anxiety and depression automatically pop up and then settle into the mind (like a full movie theater popcorn machine). All the while more thoughts continue to pop up and fill up […]
STOP SPINNING YOUR WHEELS AND TAKE A LESSON FROM “DOUBTING THOMAS”
Hi everyone! I’ve been MIA over the last few weeks as I settle into my new living quarters! Now that I’m less distracted I’m ready to get back into full swing again! I will be sharing about insomnia with you this month like I mentioned early, but today I wanted to share a perspective on […]
Random Reflections from a Psychologist: How Your Thoughts May Trick Your Mind
Psychological science has a great term for understanding where we focus our thoughts: confirmation bias. Confirmation Bias is basically our tendency to search for, or interpret, information that confirms our perception. So, if you are having thoughts that you aren’t good enough, then you will pay attention to situations in which your thoughts are confirmed […]