Mindful Resilience Therapy: Skills to Empower Change

Through the practices of Mindfulness observation and Sensory Awareness, you can learn to regulate your emotional states and develop more effective responses to life and interpersonal challenges. In addition to learning Mindfulness practices that help develop present-moment awareness, you will learn how to implement a variety of Mindfulness Awareness skills that proactively address the symptoms of mental and emotional distress, as well as befriend your emotions and awaken your intuitive abilities. Through the focused awareness of the present moment, you can enter into a field of opportunities and possibilities that previously felt out of reach, and develop the capacity for evolving change and growth that is your natural state of being. 

Resiliency refers to the ability to tolerate the moment, respond effectively and proactively to life's opportunities and challenges, and grow through adversity into a more integrated and powerful human being. Resiliency develops out of the ever-evolving interchange between the individual and the collective, the personal and the profound, and the intimate dance between awareness and action. By developing the core skills of self-awareness, self-reflection, and self-transformation, you can rise to the peak of your conscious awareness, thereby enabling choice and transformative action to catapult you into Self-Actualization. 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is an effective set of coping and self-regulatory skills that help one to pause before responding to heightened emotional and physiological reactions. 

Through the practices of Mindfulness observation and Sensory Awareness, you can learn to regulate your emotional states and develop more effective responses to life and interpersonal challenges. In addition to learning Mindfulness practices that help develop present-moment awareness, DBT teaches practical coping strategies in the following skill areas:

Emotional Regulation Skills:  Emotional Awareness; Decreasing Negative Emotions; Increasing Positive Emotions; Changing Your Current Emotion.  

Distress Tolerance Skills:  Identifying Triggers of Distress; Developing Skills to Decrease Emotional Reactivity; Learning to Tolerate and Accept the Current Moment (Radical Acceptance). 

Interpersonal Effectiveness Skills:  Identifying Needs and Wants; Balancing Individual Needs Versus 

Relationship Goals; Asking for What You Want; Saying No; Setting Healthy Boundaries.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) provides a structured approach to working with specific emotional triggers, which can lead to irrational thinking and extreme behaviors and reactions. Through a process of identifying emotional distress triggers and evaluating one's underlying distorted or irrational beliefs, one can learn to change one's reactions and develop a more realistic understanding of oneself, others, and the collective experience. Mood shifts and alterations can also be explored, both in therapy and in one's present-moment experiences, leading to opportunities to shift and grow as life is occurring.  

Mental Health Resiliency requires conscious, focused awareness and attention to one's mental, emotional, and psychological triggers, and an ability to observe and challenge irrational and unproductive lines of thinking, behaving, and responding to the demands of the current moment. CBT skills assist with developing awareness of one's emotional needs while providing rational tools to assess one's reactions and strengthen one's ability to respond effectively to negative events and experiences. 

Healing from painful memories and experiences takes courage and a compassionate, present-focused awareness. As you learn to develop the inner tools to manage your negative emotions and memories, you will develop insight into your needs, compassion towards yourself and others, and the tools to manage life's stressors. 

In therapy, we seek to repair the damage trauma has caused and help you to re-claim a healthy sense of trust in yourself and in others. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an effective, evidence-based trauma healing approach that helps to restore personal integrity and inner peace. By connecting with your internal resources and strengths while participating in a structured approach to reprocess through and heal from traumatic events, you can heal from trauma and recover your true, authentic self. 

As part of the 12-week group skills training program, you will learn a variety of practical coping strategies that can be directly utilized to address emotional and psychological triggers of trauma and distress. Additionally, you will learn practices specifically geared to working with painful emotions and memories, called Internal Resources. These Resources assist with balancing the nervous system and provide healing support from within yourself, which you can practice on your own in moments of pain or distress.