The Living Practice

A great start to the year - article published by FMHCA!

Link 👀 https://issuu.com/fmhca/docs/january_insession_2023_2_/s/17753020

A wonderful surprise to start the new professional year! My article has been published by the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association! Page 37 - “We’re Languishing with Anger on Autopilot”.
Florida Mental Health Counselors Association (FMHCA)

Or here:

https://issuu.com/fmhca/docs/january_insession_2023_2_/s/17753020

InSession January 2023 InSession is published quarterly by The Florida Mental Health Counselors Association (FMHCA). To learn more about FMHCA and its efforts to support Florida's mental health counselors, visit www.FMHCA.org

Let’s share more than just cheery, cliché season’s greetings this festive period.

Let’s share authentic connection & check-ins. Genuine care and concern. The end of year holidays are one of the most challenging, emotional periods for so many people.

It’s also where we see a dramatic increase in isolation, self-harm and suicidal behaviours.

👉🏼CHECK-IN WITH YOURSELF
👉🏼CHECK ON OTHERS
👉🏼ASK AND ACT

Talk, ask questions, reach out for help. You and those you care about have value and deserve to be seen, heard and supported.

You, and those you love, are important and matter!

With love
Tyne x

***de ***desupport ***deprevention ***dehelpline

A therapist/client dream: an EASY & effective technique! I promise it’s worth it - give this a try!

It’s way too easy to skip the down-time! We get so busy during the week and before we know it, the day is done and the time we set aside to calm and regulate has been shifted to tomorrow.

I don’t know about you, but that “tomorrow list” sometimes seems like a bottomless pit 🤦🏼‍♀️

Instead - this simple technique is easy to integrate into your existing daily habits. And it only takes a total of FIFTEEN minutes.
Which means ZERO excuses that you can’t afford yourself those few precious moments - it really is such a teeny tiny amount of your time.

No need to wait for the new year to start healthy habits when they’re this simple!

Tyne xo

One of the components that I love most about my job is this - creating educational materials that are practical and easy to implement within homes & classrooms. War is such a challenging, emotional topic to address with children - I hope this content provides some sort of guidance.

Ways to Talk Children About War www.centerforchildcounseling.org | Center for Child Counseling | Given the war in Ukraine, we are bombarded by news and media coverage of conflict and war. T...

20-MIN GRATITUDE MEDITATION✨

https://youtu.be/ArsyPaBPY0w

The science behind practicing gratitude is incredible – reduced anxiety/depression, well-balanced blood pressure, a boost in the immune system, improved metabolism, higher levels of motivation, improved self-image, stronger relationships, better self-understanding and self-reflection, and an overall increase in resilience. It also reduces pain, improves sleep quality and buffers stress.

When we consciously choose to practice gratitude, we actually impact our brains on a neurological level too. It helps the brain to wire new neural connections, it strengthens those neural connections so that a gratitude practice becomes the lens through which we see the world, it boosts cognitive restructuring and mental flexibility, it regulates the stress hormones and enhances dopamine (the pleasure hormone) and serotonin (the happiness hormone). It also helps to calm and regulate the entire nervous system – adding years to your life and improving your overall satisfaction with life.

All the sorts of positive, healthy shifts that will support us, boost our resilience, promote a positive mindset and allow us to focus on the incredible potential that is available to us as we move into this new year.

Love & light xo ⁣
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Ways to Play: Explore Feelings with Your Child Using Fun Activities www.centerforchildcounseling.org | Center for Child Counseling | Managing big emotions can be challenging, even for adults. If it is difficult for adults at ...

Grateful to create content such as this for the Center for Child Counseling, Inc. to share the incredible benefits of play and to support parents, caregivers and teachers in encouraging fun, interactive, innovative play to boost all areas of childhood development and wellbeing.

Ways to Play: Pretend Play

✨NEW MEDITATION LINK BELOW✨

Did you know that self-criticism actually weakens your immune response? Yup – a harsh inner voice can actually increase your risk of illness – as well as impair your mental and emotional wellbeing. We may sometimes find ourselves pressured by the groups we’re surrounded by and/or society we live in to find and fix our faults. Even if we gravitate toward nurturing a growth mindset, we may still find ourselves falling into the trap of self-criticism as we find things that we “must/should change”.

Practicing self-compassion has benefits that extend beyond just feeling good about oneself. When we criticise ourselves, we activate the body’s threat response system which means our brains and bodies are on the lookout for looming danger thinking that something is going to interfere with our wellbeing. This threat response system, activates a number of hormones, which can have significant physical, mental and emotional impacts. When we are self-criticise, and threaten our self-identity and esteem, we create a situation where we are both the attacker, and the victim of the attack. When we focus on self-compassion, we deactivate that threat response, and instead tap into a system of care. In this state, hormones like endorphins and oxytocin are stimulated and buffer stress levels and improve feelings of calm and safety.

So today’s meditation is focused on just that: self-compassion. A practice that seems so simple – and yet may not always be our autopilot inner-pilot response. It’s a meditation that involves a lot of intentional verbal prompting and guided imagery – a way to assist the mind by staying busy and connected to what’s being said. This may be especially useful during moments of low self-esteem or anxiety as it keeps the mind busy and reduces our tendency to ruminate on negativity in those states of being.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5FyRk47E5w&t=809s

As always, thoughts and feedback welcomed and appreciated.

Keep well, stay safe and may your mind be at ease.
Love & light.
Tyne x
The Living Practice

Self-Compassion Meditation Did you know that self-criticism actually weakens your immune response? Yup – a harsh inner voice can actually increase your risk of illness – as well as imp...

A 15-minute meditation is now available on YouTube: Grounding Affirmations for Anxiety
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elkOO31fQsE

This therapeutic technique is founded in neuroscience and makes use of the plasticity of the brain. We create associations during this meditation between anxiety-specific phrases and the state of calm created during this time of stillness.

Not only does it assist with grounding you to the present moment, and bringing your attention back into the body in a faster, more effective manner, but it helps to ease uncertainty and anxiety. This little trick to rewire your brain, means that later on, when repeating the phrases, your brain and body start to initiate the expected state of calm and control, even if the situation itself isn’t necessary that way.

As always, thoughts and feedback welcomed and appreciated.

Keep well, stay safe and may your mind be at ease.

Love & light xo ⁣
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So grateful to have been able to contribute to this project alongside some of the most amazing Center for Child Counseling, Inc. therapists.

I love what I do!

Healing the Healers Training www.centerforchildcounseling.org | Center for Child Counseling | There is a saying: “You can’t pour from an empty cup…” If you consider yourself a healer or ...