elotz@westsidedbt.com

By Michelle McQuaid Do you ever hear a little voice chattering away in your head that fills you with self-doubt? You know the one. Perhaps you’ve heard it saying: “You’re not good enough”, “You’re so lazy,” or even “You’re such an idiot.” It’s that voice of self-criticism that says things, you would never dare say […]

By Manuel A. Manotas, PsyD, Mindfulness-Based Approaches/Contemplative Approaches Topic Expert Contributor Let’s stop making mindfulness something other than what it is. Let’s stop making mindfulness the great cure-all. Let’s stop making mindfulness another gimmick to improve ourselves. Because it’s not. If we look clearly at the definition of mindfulness, we see that it is an inherent capacity in all

By Mallory Grimste, LCSW, GoodTherapy.org Topic Expert Have you ever felt like your emotions are so overwhelming they will never stabilize? Maybe you have an intense urge to return to unhealthy or risky behaviors to make yourself feel better. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)has a whole module that focuses on crisis survival skills. These are skills that help you hang in there, or

By Mallory Grimste, LCSW, GoodTherapy.org Topic Expert Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based therapeutic model originally developed by Dr. Marsha Linehan. She found that traditional cognitive behavioral therapies did not always help people who experienced chronic suicidal ideation or symptoms of borderline personality. Since then, DBT has been found to be effective with several other groups of people, including teenagers. One component of

Contributed by Jeremy Schwartz, LCSW, Dialectical Behavior Therapy Topic Expert Contributor Have you ever found yourself in such an emotional storm that you didn’t feel in control of what you were doing? When we are at our most vulnerable, we are most likely to act in the way that emotions make us want to act. As important as emotions are—they

Contributed by Tammy Fletcher MA, IMF, CFT, Body-Mind Psychotherapy Topic Expert We see a number of people in our practice who struggle with feelings of anxiety. Working with mental and emotional responses to stress is helpful for these people. We also take time to learn about where the person feels his or her anxiety in the body. Some common physical manifestations

By Elisha Goldstein and Stefanie Goldstein 11 ways to snap out of autopilot and get back in touch with your body. Often we get so caught up in planning and daydreaming and constructing stories that we forget we even have a body. What’s happening in our bodies is as here-and-now as it gets, so take

By Margarita Tartakovsky, MS    associate editor Yesterday, Brian and I spent four hours in Barnes & Noble. I’m not exaggerating. We had the best time. While there I picked up a new-to-me magazine called Flow, which is all about “celebrating creativity, imperfection and life’s little pleasures.” How sweet is that? In it there’s a list of 210

By Linda Grahm     Illustrations by Brett King Between a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. —Viktor Frankl How you respond to the issue…is the issue. —Frankie Perez When I worked in the Sunset neighborhood

By Mark Bertin Setting guidelines around kids’ tech use starts with the habits and conscious choices of parents. Mark Bertin, MD, shares tips on how families can be mindful with their tech. Kids and screen time cause considerable parental angst these days—and for good reason. Research shows children spend on average seven hours a day glued to computer, tablet, smartphone,