DBT – Jennifer Hyatt

Be a Mighty Zen Gator

Seek the Balance of the Fierce and Zen-Like Gator

Gators 🐊 have evolved for optimal efficiency. They do not waste time or energy on pursuits that will deplete versus fuel them unless the benefit of such pursuit is deemed worthy. In fact, gators lurk below the surface monitoring for opportunities (will this help me?) and threats (will this harm me?) and simply appear to ignore everything else.

As tasty morsels come into the gators path the only ones that prompt a response are the ones worthy of their chomp.

In life, humans have the appearance of their own tasty morsel experiences that come along their path. Before deciding to chomp, there is exists a space between the experience and our response where we have the opportunity to ask “will this harm me?” or “will this help me?”

When humans learn how to stay in the present and mindfully respond they are able to reap the rewards with an intentional life.

If worthy of the chomp then take action and enjoy! If not worthy of the chomp then deploy the tools of chosen response, see if there is anything worth pursuing, process it out, and remain in the fierceness of the zen-like state of being a gator 🐊

Coaching, Counseling, Life Coach, Psychotherapy, Therapy

Is This Mine to Carry?

July 11, 2021August 7, 2021 Jennifer Hyatt, Counseling & Wellness

When you find yourself upset by a situation or person, ask yourself if the thoughts, feelings, or actions from the situation or person is yours to carry.

With this, it could be helpful to visualize a bag (or an assortment of bags) during these times.

Observe the bag—it’s shape, it’s color, it’s size, it’s contents, it’s weight—and decide whether you wish to pick it up and hold it…or not.

This comes with the parallel awareness and realization that—like airport baggage/luggage—we can only carry/handle so much before being bogged down and overall the contents of the bags preventing us from getting to our gates and ultimately to our desired destination within the optimal experience (i.e., the destination that is aligned with our life values and goals).

A question to ask as you approach a new bag…is this mine to carry? Is this something I choose to carry?

Coaching, Counseling, Life Coach, Psychotherapy, Therapy

Urge Surfing

June 5, 2021August 7, 2021 Jennifer Hyatt, Counseling & Wellness

Urge surfing can be used with any urges (e.g., urges to avoid, escape, or push away unwanted emotions, urges within procrastination, urges to isolate, urges to self-harm) you experience, including action urges of emotions that don’t serve us well.

Emotions also serve a purpose. Similar to when our stomachs rumble to signal hunger, emotions signal us of a greater need. With this, we can have the urge to run from the action urge of anxiety or grief /loss because of the discomfort of the experience. If we can learn to sit with the emotion, be curious, and identify what it is trying to communicate to us…we can, in turn, take positive action within it and ultimately respond mindfully (versus react) to its signal. When we are able to do this, the strength of the wave is diminished.

To Urge Surf, visualize urges rising and falling like waves. Rather than trying to fight against the wave and be tossed and turned upside down, practice the skill of noticing and observing then surfing the wave until it’s lost it’s power.

Each urge has 3 stages:

RISE WITH INTENSITY

The rise of intensity is when the urge is triggered or begins building up. This is when, if we are able to notice and name what is happening (pay attention non-judgmentally to the sensations that are occurring for us). We can be curious and open to this experience and choose in that moment to not fight against it. We can also deploy our learned coping /mindfulness strategies (breath work, grounding, engage our 6 sensations of sight, smell, touch, taste, hearing plus movement) so that the wave does not grow as big.

THE PEAK

2) The peak is the point the urge is the strongest, like the white caps of the crest of the wave as it peaks. It is slightly before this that we must choose whether to surf and ride the wave or be taken down by it. If we choose to ride, we can continue to take deep mindful breaths as we ride our surfboard. This stage can last up to 20 minutes.

THE CRASH

3) The crash starts when the urge begins to lessen, like a wave after it has peaked and starts falling back into the ocean and towards the reclaimed calm.

Coaching, Counseling, Life Coach, Psychotherapy, Therapy

Numbness Iceberg

September 11, 2020August 7, 2021 Jennifer Hyatt, Counseling & Wellness

Part of being human is the experience of emotion. Emotions serve to communicate to us when things are going well and not so well so that we may formulate a response. With this, the feeling of numbness may be something everyone experiences from time to time—from feeling overwhelmed by a life stressor to some form of trauma. Typically the feeling is temporary and allows us mental and emotional processes of shutting out feelings in order to move through something difficult. However, for some, this feeling of emotional numbness can linger for a duration—often serving as a protective defense that guards us from further emotional or physical pain. While this shield of numbness can serve us well in the short-term, such as to get through a life stressor; when it stays for a duration, it can have long-lasting consequences such as the inability to problem solve, experience pleasure and other positive emotions, engage in life, and be the whole person we can choose to be.

Numbness can show up differently for each person. The cause could be wide such as symptoms associated with PTSD, Grief/ Loss, Depression, Anxiety, Abuse/ Neglect, and/ or a whole array of past life experiences that have now come to haunt your present. When feelings of numbness linger or stay for the duration and exceed our ability to cope, it may be time to consult a mental health professional to support in unpacking and processing within the causation of the emotional numbness.

Treatment may include a Therapist (such as myself) who specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Trauma Work, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), and other treatment approaches.