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When Ted’s daughter Vivian FaceTimed him from college, she seemed a bit down. He suspected it was because of Anthony, her boyfriend. He didn’t like him very much, but whenever he tried to talk to her about this, she shut him down. But Ted really thought the guy was bad news.

It was a few months before Sarah felt she trusted me enough to reveal what she felt was her deepest internalized shame.

Aromatherapy: Make Your Own Flower Essences

Think of flower essences as the Reiki of the plant world, as they work on the emotional and energetic levels of the body and mind. Flower essences are useful for people with highly sensitive nervous systems. Flower essences can also be thought of the homeopathy of the plant world. They were developed by a homeopath, Dr. Edward Bach. He believed many illnesses and ailments have emotional origins. Dr. Bach believed the health of the body depends on the health of the soul.

Herbal preparations come in different forms: fresh and dried herbs, tinctures, soups, teas, essential oils, hydrosols and flower essences. Essential oils are the most concentrated of the plant modalities, using a large amount of plants to create a small amount of concentrated plant oil. Because of the concentrated nature of essential oils, they must be used in dilution. I use them only in dilutions appropriate for sensitive people. 

You are busy! The office is humming! Things are totally running amok today! The phone is ringing and you’re working to finish details on a project due this week! You have people asking you questions and your boss asking you if things will be done on time….it feels like a tsunami of people, paperwork and computer work, all at once!

Remember, you are a builder. A builder of your emotional resilience. Learning the DBT skills, you are a journeyman learning how to be a skilled builder, and creating your personal House of Happiness.

Think of yourself as a builder.

The DBT skills are your building blocks for your house of emotional resilience.

The Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) section of Emotion Regulation is to educate about emotions and to provide skills to manage emotions. Emotions serve a biological function that helped us survive. Emotions are the ultimate mindbody link. Emotions are reactions to inner and outer perceptions and sensations that instantly prepare our bodies to react via the nervous and endocrine system.

The Positive Energy Bubble Meditation is one of many self-care techniques you can use to during therapy to shore up your positive emotional responses against inward or outward feelings of fear and negativity.

Attachment theory is a complex, broad theory that encompasses human, primate and mammalian behavior. It’s a biologically based relationship defined and strengthened (either positively or negatively) by the quality and quantity of social interactions with the baby’s immediate family and social environment.

In my work as a perinatal psychotherapist, I have had the honor of hearing many women’s oral histories about their childbirth. I often see women who have nearly died in childbirth, usually due to hemorrhaging.