Prior to becoming a therapist myself, I spent a significant amount of time on the couch as a client. I am forever grateful for the encouragement and compassion I received on those couches as the therapists supported my journey of growth. However, for all of the compassion they may have offered me, none of them taught me about compassion. I learned about compassion through the Eastern philosophies I studied as part of my yoga training. As I began to practice compassion consciously, I came to personally discover its deep healing power. So, when I began to practice as a licensed psychotherapist, I integrated Eastern and Western approaches, and teaching compassion to my clients is a tool I rely upon to facilitate healing and transformation.
Compassion guides us into spaces of acceptance of our limitations as human beings, to embrace our imperfections, and to comfort ourselves when experiencing suffering. It soothes the inner critic and perfectionist, it reduces the amount of pressure on our overly developed responsible part, and creates space in our lives for more connection, peace and joy. Until perhaps more recently, compassion – and specifically self-compassion – was not something that was taught to us as children, or even as adults. So, by the time we are adults, we have been led to believe that the inner critic is our internal motivator to do more and better. Instead the inner critic partners with the perfectionist to wear us down, telling us we will be enough and worthy once we, and everything around us, is perfect. That is simply an impossible dream that we are chasing, inviting in exhaustion, anxiety, depression, shame, and isolation.
Through the years of not only offering compassion to my clients, but teaching them to offer compassion to themselves, I have noticed how it has enhanced the process of psychotherapy and made the effects more enduring. A mantra I offer my clients is that self-compassion is the antidote to what ails them. Easily said, but perhaps not so easily implemented. Yet, when clients begin to loosen the grip of the inner critic and perfectionist and begin to challenge the myth that self-care is selfish, they begin to experience relief from their symptoms. I don’t need any more evidence than that to know that compassion works!
However, for those that might want to read more about the effects of compassion, including how it creates structural changes in the brain, click on the link below for the most recent research in this area.
Summer Sacred Sound Baths
/0 Comments/in Events /by LindaBenefits of Integrating Yoga Into Postgraduate Mental Health Curriculums
/0 Comments/in Yoga /by LindaAs we find ourselves in a bit of a lull in the Covid-19 outbreak here in southern California, I have found my way back to teaching yoga in-person in a local yoga studio. My heart is full as I have greatly missed the opportunity to bring this healing modality back in-person to a larger audience. Yoga, including all of its contemplative practices, has been the largest tool in my self-care tool kit, even becoming my way of life over the years, and it is truly what kept me grounded in gratitude through the pain and chaos of the past two years. Although I may not have found myself on my yoga mat regularly, especially for those yummy 90-minute classes that include an extra long savasana shape at the end, I know how important these practices are for supporting our mind-body-spirit health. And, as a mental health provider, I know it is mission critical to prioritize our self-care practices in order to be fully present and prevent burnout. With increasing rates of burnout in mental health providers during the pandemic, the question becomes is it possible to integrate yoga into postgraduate curriculums for mental health providers to ensure the long-term wellbeing of such providers?
A recent research study took a look at including yoga into the curriculum for first-year mental health students to test the feasibility of such a proposal. Introducing such tools to all students in this setting ensures all mental health providers would have the first-hand knowledge and experience of the impact on their well-being before actually moving into the space of providing services to clients, where the stress level of the role only increases. Although the results of this research advocates for such a change to the curriculum, it only provided a brief, 15-day offering. It is my belief that offering longer curriculum based yogic interventions would not only provide more sustained self-care tools to the mental health provider but it would also equip the mental health provider with the skills to bring such self-care tools to their clients.
Hybrid (On-site/In-person and Online/Virtual) Reiki-infused Sound Healing and Meditation Class!
/0 Comments/in Events /by LindaOn-site/In-person Community Gathering Practice Tips
We understand that, during this transitional time, some of us are more ready than others to slowly re-enter into the experience of small social gatherings. For this reason, we have created a hybrid service model, where a small number of (no more than 4) participants will be able to join us in-person. If you are interested in this option, let us know and we will provide further guidance, including:
Virtual Community Gathering Practice Tips
For those that would prefer to stay in the comfort of home – whether due to physical distance, family participation and/or even the enhanced sense of privacy – we will continue to provide the option to connect with us through Zoom.
Once you let us know that you are interested in attending, we will send you an email that will include details around what is needed from you, including:
To facilitate the benefits of such a virtual community practice at home, below we have provided some helpful hints:
Restorative Yoga Tips and Props
On the day of the class, here are some additional recommendations to create a more sacred space in advance for your practice:
In home prop ideas:
Hybrid (On-site/In-person and Online/Virtual) Reiki-infused Sound Healing and Meditation Class!
/0 Comments/in Events /by LindaOn-site/In-person Community Gathering Practice Tips
We understand that, during this transitional time, some of us are more ready than others to slowly re-enter into the experience of small social gatherings. For this reason, we have created a hybrid service model, where a small number of (no more than 4) participants will be able to join us in-person. If you are interested in this option, let us know and we will provide further guidance, including:
Virtual Community Gathering Practice Tips
For those that would prefer to stay in the comfort of home – whether due to physical distance, family participation and/or even the enhanced sense of privacy – we will continue to provide the option to connect with us through Zoom.
Once you let us know that you are interested in attending, we will send you an email that will include details around what is needed from you, including:
To facilitate the benefits of such a virtual community practice at home, below we have provided some helpful hints:
Restorative Yoga Tips and Props
On the day of the class, here are some additional recommendations to create a more sacred space in advance for your practice:
In home prop ideas:
Recovery from alcohol use disorder is a crooked road – can direct neurofeedback help ease the journey?
/0 Comments/in Neurofeedback /by LindaThe high levels of stress, loss and isolation due to the pandemic have been challenging to everyone’s mental health, but perhaps much more so for those of us that suffer from symptoms that accompany alcohol use disorder, specifically craving and consumption. With no end in sight for the continued spread of the virus, what options might be available to calm the fear centers of the brain beyond virtual meetings? What if there was a painless, non-invasive treatment that could reduce these symptoms and create more ease on the road to recovery?
Recent research did a systematic review and meta-analysis of 25 direct neurofeedback studies and the findings suggest that bilateral direct neurofeedback and multiple treatments have positive effects on reducing the symptoms of cravings. It might not be a magic pill, yet direct neurofeedback just might reduce the bumps in the road and the detours on the path of recovery.
If you might be interested in learning more, click on the link below:
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Support Leaning In
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by Linda‘Tis the Season!
Although the great marketers of the world want us to believe this is the season of peace, December brings mixed emotions and feelings for most of us and this year continues in that same tradition. Due to the pandemic, we yearn for a deeper connection with our loved ones more than ever, yet reality often brings unexpected results. So my offering this month includes a focus on self, through small steps you might take to bring yourself some INNER peace (which, in a round about way, invites OUTER peace).
The steps listed below are ones I have actually taken myself over the years to invite more inner peace into my human beingness, so I hope you will l consider trying one yourself. I am wishing much inner peace to all this holiday season!
As always, if you try any of these intention-setting ideas for holistic health, I would love to hear about the impact they might have had for you. Please send me an email at linda@sanctuary4compassion.com to share!
Can cultivating compassion improve the process of psychotherapy?
/0 Comments/in Talk Therapy /by LindaPrior to becoming a therapist myself, I spent a significant amount of time on the couch as a client. I am forever grateful for the encouragement and compassion I received on those couches as the therapists supported my journey of growth. However, for all of the compassion they may have offered me, none of them taught me about compassion. I learned about compassion through the Eastern philosophies I studied as part of my yoga training. As I began to practice compassion consciously, I came to personally discover its deep healing power. So, when I began to practice as a licensed psychotherapist, I integrated Eastern and Western approaches, and teaching compassion to my clients is a tool I rely upon to facilitate healing and transformation.
Compassion guides us into spaces of acceptance of our limitations as human beings, to embrace our imperfections, and to comfort ourselves when experiencing suffering. It soothes the inner critic and perfectionist, it reduces the amount of pressure on our overly developed responsible part, and creates space in our lives for more connection, peace and joy. Until perhaps more recently, compassion – and specifically self-compassion – was not something that was taught to us as children, or even as adults. So, by the time we are adults, we have been led to believe that the inner critic is our internal motivator to do more and better. Instead the inner critic partners with the perfectionist to wear us down, telling us we will be enough and worthy once we, and everything around us, is perfect. That is simply an impossible dream that we are chasing, inviting in exhaustion, anxiety, depression, shame, and isolation.
Through the years of not only offering compassion to my clients, but teaching them to offer compassion to themselves, I have noticed how it has enhanced the process of psychotherapy and made the effects more enduring. A mantra I offer my clients is that self-compassion is the antidote to what ails them. Easily said, but perhaps not so easily implemented. Yet, when clients begin to loosen the grip of the inner critic and perfectionist and begin to challenge the myth that self-care is selfish, they begin to experience relief from their symptoms. I don’t need any more evidence than that to know that compassion works!
However, for those that might want to read more about the effects of compassion, including how it creates structural changes in the brain, click on the link below for the most recent research in this area.
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Open Your Heart
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by LindaThe Attitude of Gratitude: November is National Gratitude Month!
I love the fact that November has been designated as National Gratitude Month, giving the practice of gratitude the attention it deserves!
I have amped up my practice of gratitude this year as a way to keep my heart open. I could feel myself pulling back and away, closing off my heart, because of the fear and restrictions that come with the pandemic.
To keep the fires burning to warm your heart, below I have offered some simple practices you might explore to celebrate this month and kick start your own gratitude practices.
As always, if you try any of these intention-setting ideas for holistic health, I would love to hear about the impact they might have had for you. Please send me an email at linda@sanctuary4compassion.com to share!
Yoga for helping health professionals during a pandemic
/0 Comments/in Yoga /by LindaAs a helping health professional (HHP), I rely on my yoga practices to maintain mind-body health, work-life balance, and healthy boundaries with my clients. When colleagues share that they are challenged to maintain these things and ask me what I might do, my first response is all things YOGA. The responses I get range from a smile to a rolling of the eyes. Which got me thinking . . . since HHPs are among the highest risk occupational groups for mental and physical health challenges, is my self-care go-to (yoga) experience unique to me or might these tools really have a more across-the-board impact on such a group of professionals?
When I first started to practice yoga movement, I noticed how it relieved my low back pain that came from a herniated disc. It was due to practicing yoga movement on a regular basis that I did not require any physical therapy or back surgery then or now (although I did integrate regular chiropractor adjustments into my self-care practices since). As my back pain went away and I continued to add additional yoga practices to my activities of daily living, I discovered how much calmer and centered I felt mentally and emotionally. It was these cumulative positive experiences that motivated me to pursue becoming a yoga teacher and then a yoga teacher trainer!
One of the most powerful yoga practices that has served me well is Svadhyaya. It is one of the five Niyamas, or sacred habits for healthy living, of yoga. It is often translated simply as self-study within a larger connotation of introspection. Most of my yoga practices now occur off the mat, but finding the mat for the movement practice certainly reduced the symptoms of anxiety enough to open the door to the practices that actually become a way of life. That is why I am so passionate about recommending all things yoga to everyone!
So what does the research say about yoga as a tool to support those in the helping health profession overall, beyond me? Well, recent research took a look at that exact question. A systematic review that included 25 research articles around the effectiveness of yoga interventions among HHPs and students found that implementing yoga interventions in this population brings mental and physical benefits across a variety of settings and backgrounds, including a reduction in stress, anxiety, depression and musculoskeletal pain.
If you are interested in reading more, click the link below. If you are a helping health professional or student, consider sharing this link with those that might be in a position to support the implementation of such practices in the workplace or school.
5 Intention-setting Ideas to Support Mental Health
/0 Comments/in Newsletter /by LindaOctober is Depression and Mental Health Screening Month!
One of the many silver linings of this pandemic has been an increased awareness around mental health. It has been a long-held belief of mine that if we spent more time, energy and money on supporting mental health, we would radically improve our health care system by significantly reducing what ails us physically. It does not surprise me that the number one cause of morbidity and mortality is heart disease, which stems from a traumatizing world guiding us to disconnect from the pain and harden our hearts.
So to build upon this growing awareness and to continue to reduce the stigma around mental health challenges, below I provide intention-setting ideas to support compassion and connection, two of the most powerful tools for resiliency. It is my hope you will consider exploring and then sharing one as we honor Mental Illness Awareness Week the first full week of October!
As always, if you try any of these intention-setting ideas for holistic health, I would love to hear about the impact they might have had for you. Please send me an email at linda@sanctuary4compassion.com to share!