Posts by Laura K. Schenck, Ph.D., LPC
How Does Your “Attachment Style” Impact Your Adult Relationships?
“You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.” – William D. Tammeus Your adult attachment style has developed as a result of repetitive interpersonal interactions with important caregivers or parents as…
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Improve the Moment with Emotion Regulation Strategies
“‘Well,’ said Pooh, ‘what I like best,’ and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.” – A.A. Milne…
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Identify Problematic Relationship Patterns & Break the Cycle
“Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.” – Emily Kimbrough Valentine’s Day is an opportunity to take an honest, gentle, and loving look at your relationship and reflect on ways that you can strengthen your loving bond. When you take the time to mindfully…
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Willpower Depletion & Resisting Cravings
“I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master.” – Antonio Porchia You know the feeling… it’s the end of a long and stressful day and you’ve been trying your hardest to stick to your diet or resolution all day long. But now,…
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Behavioral Steps to Address Perfectionism
“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.” – Henry van Dyke Perfectionistic ways of thinking and behaving are often rooted in deep-seated core beliefs that can be quite resistant to change. The need for perfection can be related to closely attaching one’s…
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5 Steps to Move From Conflict to Harmony in Relationships
“Well timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.” – Martin Farquhar Tupper A great deal of unnecessary conflict in relationships occurs due to miscommunication, mismatched expectations, or insensitivity. When you notice the beginning signs of potential conflict in your relationships with others, you can take proactive steps toward restoring harmony before things escalate. Many steps…
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Tolerate Distress with Self-Soothing Thoughts
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) teaches distress tolerance skills as a way to mindfully tolerate and move through uncomfortable thoughts, emotions, and sensations. Internal distress can feel overwhelming and unbearable at times, but reacting to distress by fighting or…
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8 Ways to Lead an Authentic Life
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” – Carl Jung How do you know when you are truly leading an authentic life? Many people experience a subjective sense of authenticity in life when their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all in harmony. There is often a sense of internal distress…
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How to Use Emotion Regulation Coping Skills
“The appearance of things change according to the emotions and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.” – Kahlil Gibran Emotion regulation is all about identifying, managing, and responding to emotions in a way that allows them to be useful and productive aspects of your…
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10 Practical Examples of Opposite Action – Part Two
“Almost all of us long for peace and freedom; but very few of us have much enthusiasm for the thoughts, feelings, and actions that make for peace and freedom.” – Aldous Huxley In my last post, “10 Practical Examples of Opposite Action – Part One,” we explored a variety of distressing, intense, or difficult emotional…
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