We often spend a great deal of time and energy avoiding negative emotions. Negative emotions feel uncomfortable and avoiding them provides us with short-term relief. However, if we avoid situations that make us uncomfortable we rob ourselves of important life experiences. For example, if social…
Often times, when faced with a negative emotion our initial impulse is to change our behavior in order to change the way we feel. In general, this strategy helps to keep us healthy and safe. For example, if we feel unwelcome or unsafe in a…
Even though negative emotions are unpleasant, it is important that we push ourselves to face them. Each time we face an uncomfortable situation it becomes less challenging. Likewise, each time we avoid a stressful situation, the situation becomes more and more overwhelming in our mind.…
Most of us have heard of obsessive compulsive disorder? However, what is obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)? Stuart Ralph, host of The OCD Stories podcast, interviewed clinical psychologist Dr. Steven Phillipson about the difference between OCD and OCPD. Phillipson explained that OCD is a disorder…
Photo credit: UW Health. In October 2010, a colleague and I went to hear Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn speak at UCLA. Kabat-Zinn developed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and is a leading figure, researcher, and theoretician in adapting mindfulness for practice in psychotherapy, mental and medical healthcare. He…
A great parenting book I highly recommend is Ross Greene’s The Explosive Child. Even if you wouldn’t describe your child as “explosive,” (i.e. tends to throw tantrums, show inflexibility and defiance, and generally cause frustration for adult figures) it can benefit anyone raising children. The…
Experiencing negative emotions is not fun. Most people do not typically enjoy them and make great efforts to avoid them. However, negative emotions give us invaluable information that helps us to guide our lives. In this 4-part series, we are reviewing the value of negative…
Negative emotions, such as anxiety and anger, are usually viewed as experiences to be minimized or avoided. At times, the experience of these emotions can even be viewed by society as character defects or as a lack of resiliency. However, negative emotions such as these…
Often times, positive emotions are viewed as good and negative emotions are viewed as bad. This leads people to resist or avoid experiencing negative emotions. This idea seems to make sense intuitively. However, negative emotions are not necessarily things to be avoided, as they provide…
On occasion, athletes find themselves in a “flow state” or in “the zone.” During these moments, they effortlessly perform at their best. They lose all sense of time and perform without thinking. If someone can string enough of these moments together it is often referred…
CBT SoCal’s Dr. Jason von Stietz was interviewed for a piece in Medium on Anxiety among college students. You can read the piece here. Request an Appointment
If you ask the average person if they have ever “put something off until the last minute” or if they have ever “postponed” completing a task, they will most like say, “yes.” Procrastination can be a common problem for many individuals. The Center for Clinical…